Venom (52 page)

To the staff at Kayak’s, the best coffee shop in St. Louis, for putting up with all my special orders and for letting me take up the primo table by the bookshelf for insane amounts of hours. (I’m going to bring back the books I “borrowed” eventually, I promise.)

To Kholood Eid, for the amazing author photographs. You rock!

To Raul, Howard, Jeff, and everyone over at the-trades.com, for letting me write reviews and showering me with free books (because, let’s face it, part of every writer’s job is being a voracious reader).

To Susan Pickering and Dennis Black—you were the best English teachers a girl could hope for, but I’m a little cranky at you both for saying my writing was phenomenal and then telling me I should become a doctor.

Last, but not least, to Adam, for yanking me out of make-believe land and reminding me that the real world can be magical too.

FIONA PAUL
is a writer, wanderer, and free spirit, with degrees in psychology and secondary education. She’s traveled all over the world, and many of the scenes in
Venom
were inspired by real-life experiences (though she won’t tell you which ones). She now makes her home in St. Louis, Missouri. Her future goals include diving with great white sharks and writing more books, but not necessarily in that order.
Venom
is her first novel.

You can visit Fiona Paul at
www.fionapaulbooks.com
and read her blog at
fionapaulbooks.blogspot.com