This book took a long time to write. I made a whole lot of decisions that set me back, and got a whole lot of help from many kind and patient people. Any errors of fact or tone are entirely my own doing.
Thanks therefore go to Rich Bynum for stagehand neep and, well, everything; for writerly hand-holding: Nalo Hopkinson, Mindy Fine, Kathi Kimbriel, Sherwood Smith, Pat Rice, Kelly McClymer, and Kimberly Elsham; Maureen Reddington-Wilde for the ancient history of Aphrodite; Sue Pace, Gaelen Foley and Allison Lane for advice on French title succession; Kate Early, Nisi Shawl, Phillips Stevens and Craig Centrie on matters of vodou; Phil Cooper on sound mixes; beta readers Rebecca Jaxon, Pat Rice, Kathi Kimbriel, Kelly McClymer, Mindy Klasky, Pam Mordecai, Kate Early, Lauren “Heisenpurr” Boltz, Angella Hammel “Stormin’ Stella” Link, Sherwood Smith, and Shirley Márquez Dúlcey; Mr. Marzell Williams of Security Management Group for information about audience behavior at the Arie Crown Theater; Emil Presman at Spystore.com, Sunny at ShoppingCCTV.com, and Reed Aldrich at Leupold & Stevens for information about pan-tilt-zoom camera technology; Isham Collier, co-dean of Stagehands Institute of Technology for the precise Chicago location of Lollapalooza in July of 1993; Martin & Pamela Mordecai on Haiti and Haitian Creole; Denise Thorsen and Rebecca Jaxon for help with contemporary and old-fashioned French; the late great Hedy West for a line from “500 Miles”; Chaz Brenchley for copyedits, Vonda N. McIntyre for formatting, and Bethany Johnson for a great cover.