Lord Sunday (19 page)

“Time for a cup of tea, I reckon, Art,” said Suzy.

The New Architect, known to his friends as Art, smiled and nodded.

“And a biscuit, I think,” he said. “Or three.”

A
ccording to my notebook, I started writing down some ideas for
Mister Monday
early in the year 2000. It is now May 2009, and over the last nine years I have had incredible support, encouragement and assistance from many people, all of which has helped me write the seven books of
The Keys to the Kingdom
.

As a regular life is inextricably mixed up with a writing life, I couldn’t have written these books without the unstinting support and encouragement of my wife, Anna McFarlane; our sons, Thomas and Edward (who weren’t even born when I started); my parents, Henry and Katharine; my brothers, Simon and Jonathan, and their families; my parents-in-law, Beverlie McFarlane, Peter McFarlane and Jill McLaughlin; many other members of my extended
family; and, of course, my friends, who couldn’t stop themselves from asking, “Are you finished yet?”

At the actual coalface of writing and publishing, my heartfelt thanks go to Editorial Supremo David Levithan and everyone at Scholastic Inc. in the USA; to Erica Wagner and Rosalind Price and their crew at Allen & Unwin in Australia; to Stella Paskins, Gillie Russell and the team at HarperCollins in the UK; and to all the publishers around the world who have put
The Keys to the Kingdom
into many different languages and many different hands.

My agents have also been instrumental in these books seeing the light of day, and for much else besides. I am extremely grateful to Jill Grinberg of Grinberg Literary Management LLC in New York; Fiona Inglis of Curtis Brown Australia in Sydney; Ant Harwood of Antony Harwood Literary Management in the UK; and the translation specialists of Gillon Aitken.

Finally, I am perhaps most grateful of all to the readers who allow me to keep doing what I love most: making up stories.

Thank you, everyone.

Garth Nix

15th May 2009, Sydney

The Keys to the Kingdom

Mister Monday

Grim Tuesday

Drowned Wednesday

Sir Thursday

Lady Friday

Superior Saturday

Lord Sunday

The Seventh Tower

The Fall

Castle

Aenir

Above the Veil

Into Battle

The Old Kingdom

Sabriel

Lirael

Abhorsen

Across the Wall

For a full list of titles and more information, go to: www.garthnix.co.uk