Betsy Stirland,
My secondary school tutor. As you can guess, my thanks goes to you for allowing me to borrow your name! When coming up with a name for the island, I decided to use the last name of someone I knew, for a reason I'm still not entirely sure of. I made the decision of Stirland as it had many parodies of it to be utilised (Stir, Stirly, Stirnish, Stirn, Stirlene, Stirring, etc). It's a name I'm very happy with, and am proud to reveal the backstory of. I hope that with dedication and hard work, I will enable you to one day be able to say with pride that this book was named after you. Thank you for your contribution to not only my book, but my life.

Michelle Bramhall & Rebecca Taylor,
A great teacher and person that supported me greatly toward the end of my secondary school days and my year 11 English teacher who gave massive inside support on how to improve whether you realise it not, both of you helped massively in confidence in my writing and boosted me to continue at times I thought it would be pointless. Thank you for your irreplaceable contribution.

Dalton Cawood,
A great friend since primary school. Dalton drew up a list of mythical creatures, many of which I used either extensively or momentarily. He's that friend that is an expert in weird and useful useless knowledge, so I knew he was perfect for the job! Thank you, not only for the awesome list, but for being a good friend.

Monty Oum, Miles Luna & Kerry Shawcross,
I don't know these personally, but I owe them such a great thank you for creating and writing the webseries RWBY which began my inspiration to write Stirland as it is today. Honestly, you have no idea how different this book almost was. Anyway, if you have seen RWBY you may be able to easily pick up similarities, namely the upgraded weapons and the link of colours to characters. Thank you to all three of these men, and rest in peace, Monty.

Jeff William's, Casey Lee William's & Lamar Hill,
What a contribution these people has unknowingly made to this book. Once again, I do not know them personally. Music is possibly the single greatest thing to me, I'm constantly listening to it. As I write this, I'm listening to This Life Is Mine by Jeff and Casey (a song that greatly inspired the three criminal heir characters). Jeff wrote, and Casey sung, many of the songs that inspired and pushed this book forward. Listening to their songs, you may be able to spot lyrics fitting to characters in Stirland: Strength. The songs inspired a lot of the choreography for fights in chapters, and motives and ideas for events and characters. Almost every major event has a song by these three and it fits some way or another whether lyrics, beat or both. Thank you so very much.