Writing a book about—among other things—the process of writing a book is an illuminating experience. (That’s it, the one illumination joke, I promise.) What I had that Em did not was an extraordinary editor journeying with me at every stage. My endless gratitude to Andrew Karre, who is the very best at what he does.
Also in my corner, my incomparable agent, Jim McCarthy—sort of my Jess, with less swordplay and more contracts. But the same amount of reality checks, talking me down from panic, and making me laugh.
Maia Kobabe’s extraordinary illuminations exceeded all possible hopes and perfectly brought Jess’s collaboration to life. I am so grateful for eir willingness to join me on this journey.
This book would not exist without the dedicated work of Julie Strauss-Gabel, Natalie Vielkind, Melissa Faulner, Anne Heausler, Anna Booth, Rob Farren, Jennifer Dee, Theresa Evangelista, Dana Li, and everyone at Penguin Young Readers who pours their heart into getting books into the hands of readers, especially the unparalleled School & Library team—thank you thank you thank you to Rachel, Venessa, Trevor, Carmela, and Summer. And special shout-out to my local regional sales rep, Colleen Conway!
The spark of this book was struck when Mackenzi Lee retweeted a post from Jason Porath about Marguerite de Bressieux. Thank you both for bringing her into my life.
Katie Henry, Katharine Manning, Elle Jauffret, Faith Waggoner, and Ray Stoeve gave me valuable input on all things Catholicism, legal system, and nonbinary identity. Any mistakes are my own.
I could not navigate this business without the people who started as my “writing friends” and whom now I call simply friends, including Jessica Lawson, Sharon Roat, Rajani LaRocca, Rachel Lynn Solomon, and Brent Taylor. Thank you for always being there.
All the booksellers, teachers, librarians, bloggers, bookstagrammers, and readers who supported my first novel, Blood Water Paint: This book would not exist without your love for Artemisia. Thank you for coming along with me again. Keep painting the blood.
And finally, my family, who referred to this book as Lady Knight throughout the years of its process and will probably keep calling it that because the actual title is so long, thank you for always letting me complain about publishing stuff for at least fifteen seconds before you start singing “Hard to Be the Bard” from Something Rotten. I love you.