Writing That’s Not What Happened was one of the most challenging experiences of my career, and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it without a lot of incredible people. Without their expertise and support, this book would not be what it is today.

First, thanks to my agent, Brianne Johnson, and my editor, Jody Corbett. You two are the best team I could have asked for. You’ve been amazing champions of my work, and I will forever be grateful to the both of you.

Thanks to Stephanie Kuehn, S.E. Sinkhorn, Phoebe North, and Michelle Krys for taking the time to read and brainstorm with me. Your fresh eyes brought a valuable, new perspective to this story.

A huge thanks also goes out to the many fantastic people at Scholastic who have worked on and supported this book: Mary-Claire Cruz, Maeve Norton, Melissa Schirmer, Priscilla Eakeley, Rachel Feld, Isa Caban, Julia Eisler, Vaishali Nayak, Lizette Serrano, Emily Heddleson, Tracy van Straaten, David Levithan, Alan Smaggler, Elizabeth Whiting, Alexis Lunsford, Nikki Mutch, Sue Flynn, Jackie Rubin, Jody Stigliano, Charlie Young, Chris Satterlund, Roz Hilden, Meaghan Hilton, Tracy Bozentka, Jacqueline Bernacki, Barb Holloway, Barbara Synder, Dan Moser, Betsy Politi, and Alexis Lassiter.

Thank you as well to the team at Writers House, especially Alexandra Levick, you have all been so wonderful and helpful. And thank you to my colleagues and students at Gotham Writers, for keeping me inspired and passionate about my work.

Thank you to the friends who have listened patiently to me talk about this book for the past three years and helped me brainstorm or aided me with research. Laurie, Lindsey, Amy, Alexis, Courtney, Debra, Kaitlin, Kara, Kate, Leila, Maurene, Samantha, Somaiya, Kristin, and Veronica, I love you guys.

Special thanks to Shana Hancock, Kate Lawson, and Wendy Xu for being exactly the sort of friends I needed during this venture. Hanging out with, texting, and skyping you all kept my spirits up even when I was diving into some dark territory with my research. I’m a lucky person to have met you all.

And, of course, to my family. There are far too many of you to name, but each and every one of you has supported and encouraged me for the past decade of my career, and I can’t emphasize enough how much it means to me. You’ve been the best sort of cheerleaders a writer can have. Thank you all so, so very much.

And, finally, thank you. You, my readers, are why I am able to keep doing this, to keep doing the work I love. Whether this is the first book of mine you’ve picked up or you’ve read every one of them since I began publishing in 2010, I appreciate you more than you know. Thank you for your tweets, your emails, your kind words, and your time. I hope I can keep writing books for you for many, many years to come.