I’ve been so incredibly lucky to have Gail Hochman as my agent, friend, brilliant editor, lunch companion, and style consultant. Huge thanks to the first editor for this book, the kind, patient, and very legendary Chuck Adams, and I owe just about everything to my genius new editor, Evan Hansen-Bundy, whose care, talent and extraordinary suggestions made me sure I had ascended to literary partnership heaven. I also want to thank Algonquin Books and Hachette for taking such good care of me: Betsy Gleick, Michael McKenzie, Lizzi Middleman, Brunson Hoole, Ashley Mason, Sue Wilkins, Debra Linn, Stephanie Mendoza, Katrina Tiktinsky, and everyone. Thanks, too, to my beloved personal publicist Laura Rossi.
I actually love the research stage, and so many wonderful people helped in the writing of this novel. I am the granddaughter of an orthodox Jewish rabbi, and I grew up on my mother’s stories of what that kind of life was like, and why and how she left it behind even as she still yearned for her lost community. Orthodox is not Hasidic, like one of my main characters, and to ensure I got those differences right, I interviewed many people. Huge thanks and love to two remarkable women who left the Hasidic community to forge new lives: Leah Lax, the author of both the book and the extraordinary opera Uncovered, and author/activist Beatrice Weber, who sued her son’s yeshiva for not providing adequate secular education.
I lived in Ann Arbor while going to college there and loved it so much, I refused to leave for a few years. To help me get modern-day details right, I relied on Vicki Honeyman, who was my friend so many years ago and who still is. And thanks to Hilary and Michael Gustafson and bookseller Shannon at Ann Arbor’s fabulous Literati Bookstore, whose T-shirt inspired me while I wrote.
For legal issues I have to thank attorney Gregg Rosen, first husband and always friend, who calmly untangled the law to fit my plot. Kudos also to the hilariously funny and smart Peter Barton, Staff Attorney at Queens Defenders, who spent hours talking to me and also gave me excellent suggestions for legal movies. And as always, thanks to my friend Hersh Katz for his spot-on and wise counsel.
Child custody issues change from state to state, so I am totally in debt to the patient, brilliant explainers-of-all-things—Ryann Kaplan, Lysne Beckwith Tate and Kimberly Green.
I had the help of the famous Poison Lady, Luci Zahray, for figuring out that foxglove was the answer to my plot, but I also made friends with emergency room veteran Charlie Goldberg, who helped me figure out symptoms and timing, and who was so funny, I wanted to talk to him for hours. Thanks also to author Ellen Meister.
Prison activist, author and friend Jean Trounstine changed my life by inviting me to the Changing Lives through Literature classes she held for women on probation. Thanks to Maria Medeiros and Priscilla, who opened up to me about their former lives in prison.
Thank you, too, to the writers who read and reread my drafts. Hillary Strong, brilliant writer and beloved family, was writing her novel at the same time I was writing mine, and our long and delightful daily talks sustained me. So did Gina Sorell’s pep talks and careful readings. I also cannot thank the incredible Stephanie Gangi and Leora Skolkin-Smith enough, as well as Clea Simon, Jeff Lyons, Jean Kwok, B. A. Shapiro, and Andrea Robinson, who tamed my timeline and made it work.
And to my tribe, Thrity Umrigar, Mary Morris, Clea Simon, Sharyn November, Jane Praeger, Linda Corcoran, Robin Wolfson and Cliff Tisdell, Larry and Amy Rossman, Sally Beth Edelstein, Sara Divello, Jonathan Evison, Susan Henderson, Ilvi Dulak, Rochelle Jewell Shapiro, Nicole Bokat, Zibby Owens, Annie O’Brien, Victoria Zackheim, Pamela Klinger-Horn, Ron Block, Robin Kall, Barbara Gale, Laura Rossi, Jennifer Banash, Gina Barreca, Mary Webber O’Malley, Jessica Keener, Rachel Cantor, Bethanne Patrick, Christina Baker Kline, Dawn Tripp, Thelma Adams, Jen Pastiloff, Meg Waite Clayton, Jo Fisher, Amy Ferris, Pulpwood Queens, Carolyn Zeytoonian, Tom Frueh, Lindy Judge, Nancy Lattanzi, Jenny Halpern and Marike Jainchill.
These last few years have been crushingly hard for everyone. There were shocking way-too-early deaths and I still deeply mourn my best of friends: Jimmy Lambros, Peter J. Salzano and Jana Conn. When the pandemic hit, my whole book tour was canceled. I sent the video I had made of the speech I was to give librarians, complete with hand motions, to my team at Algonquin, who liked it so much they sent it out as a publicity tool. I invited writers to make small videos, shouting out an indie bookstore and an author, and I would feature them on my Facebook page as part of the “Nothing is Cancelled Virtual Book Tour” series. I was soon inundated! And then Jenna Blum called me asking if I needed help and A Mighty Blaze was born. We started with just the two of us flying blind, and now we have a staff of over thirty passionate volunteers, and I adore every single one, including Mark Cecil, Laura Rossi, Mary Webber O’Malley, Julie Gerstanblatt, Rachel Barenbaum, our Authors Love Bookstores team Kimberly Hensle Lowrance and Joseph Moldover. And thanks to the many writers and independent bookstores who let us interview them for A Mighty Blaze.
Thank you to the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program for their everlasting support of the writing classes I teach, and, of course, to the indie bookstores that champion writers and readers every single nanosecond.
As always, I couldn’t have written a syllable of this book without my partner-in-crime and best beloved friend and husband, Jeff Tamarkin, who made me laugh when I despaired, even as he made sure that my characters were traveling the right routes and listening to the right music. And to my favorite horror movie aficionado, my smart, creative, funny, talented son, Max Tamarkin. Love you both forever and forever.