Brazen (36 page)

Acknowledgments

This book would not be in your hands today without the care, dedication, and support of the following people.

My editor, Kendra Levin, read my first draft that was almost, but not quite, entirely
un
like a book and handed it back to me to try again with these words of encouragement: “You can do it.” Thank you, Kendra, for not letting me throw it away and start over.

My agent, Catherine Drayton, believed I had three books about Henry VIII’s court in me, and continued to do so, even when I wasn’t so sure.

The combined forces of Penguin Young Readers Group and InkWell Management make me feel I have the best team an author could wish for behind my book. All my thanks to Ken Wright, Joanna Cardenas, Marisa Russell, Lindsay Boggs, Kate Renner, Theresa Evangelista, Janet Pascal, Kathryn Hinds, Lisa Vanterpool, Charlie Olsen, Nathaniel Jacks, Lyndsey Blessing, and many, many more.

The YA Muses alternately fortified and consoled me throughout the writing of this book. Thank you Bret Ballou, Donna Cooner, Veronica Rossi, and Talia Vance for your insight, your inspiration, and your love of good story. But especially, thank you for your friendship. Many thanks as well to A. C. Gaughen for reading early and to J. Anderson Coats for advising well.

My family has championed my creative endeavors from the very beginning. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without Judy Longshore, my mother, who is (thankfully) nothing like Mary’s. My dad’s love of great literature reinforced my love of words, and my sister Martha’s dedication to the craft prompted me to try fiction. I am a writer because of them.

Gary, Freddie, and Charlie—thank you for accepting late dinners, dusty windowsills, and my absences from ski trips. Thank you even
more
for celebrating the journey from first page to launch party with me, every step of the way.

And, as always, thank
you
, for reading.