Little by little, Thieves" World came together. All the first-generation authors signed off on the changes necessary to bring Sanctuary into the twenty-first century world of electronic publishing and multi-media exploitation rights; many of them signed up to write new stories. I read and re-read the old stories, stared at maps, dove into obscure histories until the boundaries blurred and I began to think I knew what had happened in Sanctuary, what was happening, and what needed to happen in the future.
The novel was late... very late. By the time the authors in Turning Points got a chance to read it, their stories were also-technically-very late. I owe them, and everyone else connected with Turning Points, my thanks for their patience. At least this time around we had e-mail. (I think back to the lateseventies, when overnight mail was just getting a foothold, and I marvel that Bob ever managed to get the anthologies put together.) Mostly, I give thanks to the fans of Sanctuary, to everyone who read a Thieves" World story and wanted the pigs to fly.
Welcome back-I hope you"ll agree it was worth the wait.