Creating the universe in which stories unfold is an essential part of making a narrative believable because there has to be internal consistency even if the tale itself defies the imagination. Where an author asks readers to suspend belief, it must be to substitute a vision that holds together. In good fiction, one reads of things the characters in that universe take for granted, yet these aren't immediately evident to the reader, sometimes by design and sometimes so as not to burden the reader with information dumps. Some authors simply gloss over them, and that's fine for readers who aren't the type to get sucked into something like a wiki-vortex. Some authors write appendices and glossaries at the end of their novels, and they're often fascinating bits of universe building, but I've found that I rarely read them until I've finished the book and then, they're more of a curiosity than a help in fleshing out the background. When I do flip back to consult them while reading the novel, it's almost invariably because things have become too obscure to follow, and that's not necessarily a good thing. In an ebook, flipping back can also become a minor exercise in frustration, unless the book is end-noted with hyperlinks. With that in mind, I'm going to flesh out the universe in which both Siobhan Dunmoore and Zack Decker live so that readers who want to know more can read up at their leisure, and readers who don't aren't burdened with pages of additional material at the end of my books. It also helps me keep internal consistency (or in movie terms, continuity) as I write further books in both series. My long-suffering editor is my continuity enforcer and I expect her to make sure that whatever I post here is in keeping with the worlds that I've created. Keep an eye on this page.