Beyond the Ruby Veil

by Mara Fitzgerald

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I have no one to acknowledge. I did this all myself, and frankly, you all should acknowledge me for letting you read it.

  That’s what Emanuela would say if given the chance to write this section. I, her author, am extremely humble, and in my humbleness, I need to thank all of the following:

  Thank you to my agent, Carrie Pestritto. You saw something in this gremlin of a book that no one else did, and for that, I am forever grateful. Thanks also to Samantha Fabien, Elana Roth Parker, Laura Dail, and Tamar Rydzinski for your support and behind-the-scenes work through the wild ride that has been taking this story from “Word document hiding on my computer” to “actual book on the shelves.”

  Thank you to my editor, Alexandra Hightower, for taking me on with such poise and enthusiasm. I can sleep at night knowing I’ve landed in such great hands. Thank you also to the whole team at Little, Brown, including but not limited to: Alvina Ling, Katie Boni, Bill Grace, Savannah Kennelly, Victoria Stapleton, and Sasha Illingworth. I’m so grateful for your hard work and so happy to be a part of the LBYR family. And thank you to Billelis for the coolest cover I’ve ever laid eyes on.

  To Patrice Caldwell: thank you for being the “yes” that every author dreams of. To Hannah Allaman: thank you for understanding this book better than I do. I’ve been so fortunate to have so many champions, and it was an honor to work with you both. Thank you also to the other members of the Disney team who saw this book early in life, especially Jody Corbett, for making sure I described eyeballs correctly, and Tyler Nevins, for the beautiful designs.

  A thousand thanks go out to my unruly coven of writer friends. When I first met you over the Internet, I was skeptical. So far, none of you have turned out to be catfishes. But there’s still time. Thanks to Maddy Colis, Ashley Burdin, Alexis Castellanos, Kat Cho, Amanda Foody, Tara Sim, Claribel Ortega, Melody Simpson, Ella Dyson, Meg Kohlmann, Axie Oh, Amanda Haas, Erin Bay, Akshaya Raman, Katy Rose Pool, Janella Angeles, and Christine Lynn Herman. To Ella, Meg, and Amanda: your early enthusiasm kept me going. I drank it up like a vampire. To Christine and Tara: thanks for the memes—I mean, emotional support. To Erin: thanks for the emojis. To Katy: thanks for arguing with me about pedantic things and feeding my Ravenclaw soul. To Janella: thanks for the solidarity and Shrek memes (the two food groups). To Akshaya: thanks for enduring the text meltdowns and for the formal Skype interview that led me to this group in the first place. I’m so glad I picked up that call.

  And thanks to all of you for teaching me how to use a gas stove.

  To Jessica Rubinkowski, Julie C. Dao, Rebecca Caprara, Kati Gardner, Kevin van Whye, Austin Gilkeson, Heather Kaczynski, Jordan Villegas—thank you for the emails and so much more. No author should go through publishing alone. Thank you for making sure I didn’t.

  So many thanks also to Christine Calella, Malika Maya, Emily A. Duncan, Isabel Sterling, Sadie Blach, Kalyn Josephson, and Rosiee Thor. Thank you for your support. You are all shining stars. That sounded fake. It’s not.

  Thanks to my family, and especially my parents, for gamely going along with… all of this. Also, thanks for giving me the Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack at a formative age. Virtmo.

  And finally, thanks to you, the reader. The author is only part of it. We all bring a little bit of ourselves to the books we read. Thank you for being here.

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