Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank my incredible agent, Jessica Sinsheimer. If ever I’m trying to survive a sinking ship, I definitely want Jessica with me. And I owe so much gratitude to everyone at Flux: to my editor, Brian Farrey-Latz, for extensive help editing, to Sandy Sullivan for helping me tease through the final edits, and to my publicist, Courtney Colton.

I am greatly indebted to my writing mentors throughout the years. Specifically, I would like to thank my creative writing professor, Dr. Del Doughty, for telling me ten years ago that I should be a writer. I would also like to thank my sage dissertation director and friend, Dr. Paula Feldman, for urging me on as a writer. And I simply cannot repay Dr. Dianne Johnson for encouraging me as I began writing books for young adults.

I’d like to thank friend, fellow Anglophile, and writer Jamieson Ridenhour for reading part of an early draft and for giving advice. Jamie is awesome for knowing everything about London, vampires, werewolves, Aleister Crowley, and Ripper lore. A well of gratitude to my friend and fellow lover of Brontë novel hunks, Nicole Fisk; she sent me insightful and careful critiques for the rough draft of the novel and kept me sane and amused during this whole process.

And this book simply would not exist if it weren’t for Team Reeves. My husband, Shawn Reeves, read draft after draft after draft of Ripper and provided honest and detailed feedback. Finally, I can’t forget to thank my children, Atticus and Amelia, whose paper airplanes, sticky fingers, and fake vampire teeth kept me from taking myself too seriously.