ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank poet Rainer Marie Rilke and Project Gutenberg (Gutenberg.org).

Many people critiqued this story and helped to improve it.

In chronological order, I thank Women Who Write in New Jersey. I attended every two weeks for a decade, probably more. This was an incubator of improvement.

After living in New Jersey for years, I got exiled to Paris! I want to thank my writers group there (you can join them via Meetup at Paris Scriptorium). Hazel Manuel, Ruth Druart and Lucas M. Peters were my beta readers of the entire novel. Other helpful critiquers in that group include Margaret Rogers, Kseniya “Kass” Novozhilova, Jim Rushing, Cris Hammond, Stephen Wendell, and Graham Elliott. All great writers.

My writers group in Barcelona read the chapters towards the end of the novel: That’s a Meetup: Writers in Barcelona.

My writers group in NYC critiqued a few chapters. That’s a Meetup, too: New York City Writers Critique Group.

The final two chapters were critiqued by May Lum and Ann Leander in Paris, and Patricia Cook and Tong Blackburn in New York City.

Many Indian expats in Paris helped me with my character Anjali: First was T.S. Anil, whom I met at Shakespeare & Co., across the Seine from Notre Dame. He gave very clear and concise answers to questions and suggested some refinements and plot twists that I immediately adopted!

Thanks to Priya Thapa and Marute Chavan, who met with me in Place Monge and helped me greatly.

Thanks to Viviane Tourtet in Paris who put me in touch with Gitanjali Brandon. Thank you for your insights, Gitanjali!

And thanks to Amruta Prabhu, who answered follow-up questions brilliantly two years after we first met!

Thank you to Martine Bourreau, whose house I lived in for a year in Malakoff, just south of the 14th arrondissment. She provided books on Indian culture and files full of newspaper clippings she’d made when she lived and worked in India. Thanks also to her darling nieces, Christelle Lamblin and Daphné Chaigne. They taught me so much about French culture.

Thanks to La Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, where much of this was written. Its beautiful space figures prominently in the story.

Thanks to La Bibliothèque Fontenoy, where a little of this story was written.

Thanks to the Biblioteca Nacionale de Catalunya in Barcelona, built as a hospital in the 14th century. I did a ton of revision there.

Thanks to the New York Public Library’s historic Jefferson Market Courthouse branch. The top floor has an excellent work table 25 feet long where I got a lot of editing done.

Thanks to https://www.vecteezy.com for the fleur-de-lis that marks the chapter endings, and to my friend, the most-artistic Donna Oehmig (donnaoehmig.com) for her consultation on the cover art. Thanks to Mark McCabe (markmcabe303.com) who helped me with the fleur-de-lis chapter endings.

Thanks to all who boosted the Kickstarter campaign I ran to pay for publishing expenses, and especially thanks to these folks, who supported me in a maximum way in publishing The Paris Writers Circle, Travel Stories from All Over, and Why Spy?: Marian Maguire, Peg Bennett, Stephanie Falktoft, Loretta Wu, Jane Rapaport, Carol Labozzetta, Lois Zorawick, Christelle Lamblin, Thierry et Marie-Odile Lamlin, Sharon Hopcraft Alongi, Jim Ahlstrom, Peling Lee, my sister Christine Jaeger, Inara Kalnins, and my darling son-in-law Tony Alongi, who was the very first to pledge to my Kickstarter campaign! Thank you all for believing in me!

I also happily name my brother Charles H. Jaeger III, Ph.D. and Adele Vessey as loyal cheerleaders! So is Lois Zorawick. I’m much indebted to her for encouragement and wise counsel.

Thank you to Higher Power, who restores me.