It takes, as they say, a village, and I dedicate this book to mine.
To Kathleen Ortiz: Superagent, cheerleader, voice of reason, fearless and fearsome warrior. Thank you for saying yes. Without you, none of this would be possible. You know I’ll always answer your calls, even while driving.
To everyone at New Leaf Literary: Joanna Volpe, Suzie Townsend, Danielle Barthel, Jaida Temperley, Pouya Shahbazian, Dave Caccavo, Jess Dallow, Jackie Lindert. You guys are the coolest. Thanks for inviting me to join the club.
To my editor, Pam Gruber: Thank you for loving this story, for loving the characters in it, and for knowing exactly how to make it the best it could be. You are fiercely talented and a genius collaborator, and if there’s a better way to be guided through the publishing process, I don’t know it. Thank you for making my debut unforgettable.
To the team at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: Megan Tingley, Andrew Smith, and Alvina Ling, thank you for your support and for giving The Witch Hunter the best home possible. To Kristen Dulaney, subrights director, for taking it back where it started. My copy editors, Christine Ma and Tracy Koontz, for your clever, witty edits and for suggesting what I now refer to as “the infamous bed scene.” Leslie Shumate for being a fellow Anglophile. Mark Swan for your beautiful, bold cover. Kristina Aven in publicity, Renée Gelman and Rebecca Westall in production, and Emilie Polster in marketing, thank you for being on my team.
To all my foreign publishers: Thank you for giving my book a home in all corners of the world.
To my 2015 YA author debut groups: the Freshman Fifteens, the Class of 2K15, and the Fearless Fifteeners, for your friendship and support. Special thanks to Lee Kelly and Chandler Baker for the vault, Lori Goldstein for knowing, Stacey Lee for your wisdom, Alexis Bass for the hashtags. Also thanks to Renée Ahdieh, Jen Brooks, Kelly Loy Gilbert, Kim Liggett, Jessica Taylor, Jenn Marie Thorne, and Jasmine Warga for reading, for your encouragement, and for your heartfelt words when I needed them most.
To Stephanie Funk and Jaime Loren for the laughs.
To April Tucholke for your generosity and your love of Thomas Tallis.
To my husband, Scott. If it weren’t for you, I’d never be able to write the good guys, only the bad. Thank you for finding me, thank you for keeping me, and most of all, thank you for giving me a life I thought only belonged to other people.
To my beautiful children, Holland and August: HI, BOOGIES! Look, you’re in my book! I love you the most, my sweet darling babies.
To my family and friends, both here and afar. Special thanks to Drake Coker, Megan Hollingshead, Sarah Sirna-Gammill, and Jennifer Savage Allison for being my first-ever readers and for saying, “Hey, I think you’ve got something here.”
To you, my reader, thank you for picking up my book, for reading my words, and for sticking with them to the very end.