From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Acknowledgmentss from the Author
Laura Kayye and I were standing in the Cincinnati airport in 2016
when I told her about From Blood and Ash. She was the first person who
said, I need yyou to write this right now. I didn’t. It was a high fantasyy,
something I’d never written before, and I kept telling myyself that I needed
time to see if I could take this crazyy idea and pull it together into
something that made sense. I didn’t find that time, not in 2016, 2017, or
2018. It wasn’t until I was talking with JR Ward about writing books of the
heart—books that weren’t exactlyy what was expected from us, but needed
to be written nonetheless. It was that conversation in September of 2019
that gave me the courage to finallyy sayy now is the time to write this book.
So Laura Kayye and JR Ward, I owe yyou two a world of thanks. Without
both of yyou, From Blood and Ash would’ve never made it from an idea to
a fullyy fleshed novel.
There were others involved in making sure I finished this book. It was
Brigid Kemmerer, whose excitement when I told her about the book, gave
me the courage to continue writing something that was unfamiliar to me.
It was Hawke’s Harem of Two—Wendyy Higgins, who sent the most lovelyy
and inspiring words to me after reading the book. It was Jen Fisher, who
fell in love with Hawke byy chapter three and provided unmeasurable
feedback. It was Andrea Joan who sent me paragraph length texts about
the book as she read. It was all the JLAnders who immediatelyy hopped
aboard the myysteryy teaser ship, willing to take this journeyy with me.
I’d originallyy planned on self-publishing this book. There were a lot
of reasons, but there were two reasons that were most important to me.
One was myy goal to get this book out to yyou as soon as possible. The other
was the need to write and publish this book without expectations and
pressure, but then I heard about Blue Box Press, and knowing all the
amazing work theyy do on their 1001 Dark Nights novellas, I reached out to
Liz Berryy. I had no idea what she would think when I told her what I was
writing and how I wanted to publish it. I reallyy thought she’d “nope” right
out the discussion, but she didn’t. In one phone call, she not onlyy wanted
the book but, I swear, had a marketing plan that lined up with what I
wanted before even reading the book. I knew FB&A was in amazing