I’m grateful to the following books, among others, for their inspiration and guidance: Edward Said’s Orientalism, Saidiya V. Hartman’s Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America, Linda Colley’s Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600–1850, Herodotus’s The Histories, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others, Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander, Jacob de Gheyn’s The Renaissance Drill Book, and Bert S. Hall’s Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe.
Thank you to friends who have read drafts or portions of drafts: Renée Ahdieh, Marianna Baer, Olivia Benowitz, Kristin Cashore, Donna Freitas, Daphne Benedis-Grab, Anne Heltzel, Mordicai Knode, Sarah Mesle, Mary E. Pearson, Jill Santopolo, and Eliot Schrefer. Many other friends, too, talked with me about various issues concerning this book, like Sarah MacLean (about amnesia); my husband Thomas Philippon (about military strategy); Robin Wasserman (about secret things); and the aforementioned Olivia, Miriam Jacobson, Nadine Knight, Sarah Wall-Randell, and Kate Moncrief (about horses). Olivia and I had several exchanges about when Arin treats a horse’s hoof; her suggestions and expertise were critical. Drew Gorman-Lewis, Associate Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, talked with me at length about the geology and terrain of my fictional tundra and the real-life properties of sulfur. Tony Swatton, a modern day swordsmith, gave me key advice for how Arin might transform his father’s sword into a dagger. Tony can be found at his shop (and forge) The Sword and the Stone, and hosts a Web series called Man at Arms. Thanks to Dan Wolfe for putting me in touch with Tony, and to Becky Rosenthal, for passing the phone to Drew (and for being my very dear friend).
My publishing house, Macmillan, is the best. I trust Janine O’Malley, my editor, with my figurative life, and I applaud her and everyone else in-house, especially my publicist, Gina Gagliano, and Mary Van Akin, Simon Boughton, Molly Brouillette, Jean Feiwel, Liz Fithian, Katie Halata, Angus Killick, Kathryn Little, Karen Ninnis, Joy Peskin, Cynthia Ritter, Caitlin Sweeny, Allison Verost, Ashley Woodfolk, and Jon Yaged.
As always, I’m deeply appreciative of my agent, Charlotte Sheedy, as well as everyone at the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, Joan Rosen in particular.
The close of a series is a strange place to inhabit: a kind of nimbus of sadness and excitement. It reminds me of Angela Carter’s portrayal of in-between times, like the solstice, or liminal states when one is neither truly one thing or the other. As she knew well, uncertainty (and its eventual fulfillment) is the essence of fairy tales. It is a perfect fairy tale to me that I have written a book and you have read it. I’m grateful to all my readers, including librarians, booksellers, and bloggers, and want to acknowledge Stephanie Sinclair and Kat Kennedy of the blog Cuddlebuggery in particular, because they were the first people to review The Winner’s Curse. I saw their reviews on an incredibly snowy day, and it was magic to discover that two total strangers understood my book in the way I had hoped it would be understood. I thank them, and you, too.