But this time it’s not midnight. This time I’m not drunk on despair and cheap beer, hoping desperately for a way out of my own story. This time, when I press my finger to the end of a splintered spindle, I’m smiling.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IF WRITERS RECEIVED fairy blessings on their christening days, they couldn’t hope for any better gifts than these: An agent like Kate McKean, who has never met a tree she can’t talk me out of.
An editor like Jonathan Strahan, who didn’t laugh when I said I wanted to Spider-Verse a fairy tale, and an editor like Carl Engle-Laird, who is weak for the memes of the mid-2010s.
A publishing team like this one, including the patience, time, and talents of Irene Gallo, Ruoxi Chen, Oliver Dougherty, Troix Jackson, Jim Kapp, Lauren Hougen, Michelle Li, Christine Foltzer, Jess Kiley, Greg Collins, Nathan Weaver, Katherine Minerva, Rebecca Naimon, Mordicai Knode, Lauren Anesta, Sarah Reidy, Amanda Melfi, and everyone from Tor Ad/Promo. Expert consultants like Ace Tilton Ratcliff, who made this story smarter, kinder, and more true, and early readers like Ziv Wities, H. G. Parry, Sam Hawke, Rowenna Miller, Leife Shellcross, Anna Stephens, Tasha Suri, and the other denizens of the bunker, who all had better things to do with their time but spent it correcting my Tolkien references instead.
Friends like Corrie and Taye and Camille, who would break the laws of physics for me any day of the week.
Parents and brothers like the ones I have, who gave me my wonderful once upon a time.
And a partner and kids like the ones I found, who gave me my perfect happily ever after.