To Ellen Datlow, Irene Gallo and Ruoxi Chen: you’re an inspiration from afar and up close. It’s a thrill to be under your care as an author, as much as it has been to work with you previously as an illustrator. To Christine Foltzer and Jaya Miceli: I love what you did to the cover! You made it look like a real book! To the rest of the Tor.com Publishing team—Lauren Anesta, Mordicai Knode, Amanda Melfi, Lauren Hougen, Greg Collins, Richard Shealy, Kyle Avery, and the rest—it’s been a dream.

To Alex Adsett: thank you for getting it. To Meg Davis: thank you for wise counsel. To Brooke Bolander, Holly Black, C. S. E. Cooney and Kelly Link, who all knew me first as an illustrator: your professionalism, friendship, support and enthusiasm contributed to this book in many ways.

To Pulp Fiction Books, Avid Reader, Black Milk Coffee, Relove Oxley, The Green Man, The Birdcage and others: you know what you did.

To the cactoblastis moth and the prickly pear: your history remains endlessly thrilling.

To others not listed here: thank you.

Final note:

The Iman, Jagera and Turrbal peoples are the owners of and first storytellers on the country where I have lived and live now.

I have tried to acknowledge the bloody history of Australia, even in this version of Queensland that doesn’t quite exist, but there are stories I am still learning, and many that aren’t mine to tell. Just a few of the wonderful indigenous authors writing now include Alexis Wright, Ellen van Neerven, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman and Kim Scott. I hope you will read their books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen Jennings lives in Brisbane, Australia. She was raised on a cattle property in Western Queensland. Her short fiction has appeared in journals such as Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and Eleven Eleven Literary Journal, and in anthologies from Candlewick Press, FableCroft Publishing, and Ticonderoga Publications, among others. She has won two Ditmar Awards for Best Short Story, and her stories have been included in Prime’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 and 2019 and Ticonderoga’s The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2013 and 2015. Flyaway is her debut novella. She has completed an MPhil in creative writing at the University of Queensland, specializing in Australian Gothic Literature, and is now a Ph.D. candidate there, researching jurisprudence in fantastic story worlds. She is also a World Fantasy Award finalist and Ditmar Award–winning illustrator. You can sign up for email updates here.

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