Thanks to the people at the Stonecoast MFA program who helped workshop this book: Joseph Carro, Cecilia Dockins, Katrina Ellyson, Rachel Halpern, Sean Robinson, Emily Swartz, and especially David Anthony Durham, Elizabeth Hand, and James Patrick Kelly. Others at Stonecoast without whom I’d be a poorer writer include Nancy Holder and Tony Pisculli. I would like to thank the members of the Magic Spreadsheet community, and the spreadsheet itself. Also the chefs and servers at Café Soulé, who gave Ursula Vernon and me a hysterical, memorable evening in New Orleans.
The ever-vigilant group of Orbit folks, editors Devi Pillai, Susan Barnes, and Jenni Hill, work tirelessly to make me sound awful smart, and my agent Heather Schroder is there to have my back at all times. My husband Jim and daughter Fiona Van Verth keep me loved and sane, and family members Bill Smith and Niki Lamotte form a support system I couldn’t do without.