Constance (Constance #1)(106)

When I finally did return to my notes, it took a host of generous and talented people to help me flesh out and finish the book that you’re holding. It is fair to say I could not have done it without them, and so, my heartfelt thanks . . .

To my agent and friend, David Hale Smith, and his colleagues at InkWell Management Literary Agency.

To my editors, Megha Parekh and Grace Doyle, and to everyone at Thomas & Mercer who worked on this book.

To Steve Konkoly, Joe Hart, and Ed Stackler for reading an early draft and helping point me in the right direction.

To Nadine Nettmann for her boundless patience as I repeatedly spun out the cotton balls of possible plotlines crowding my head.

To Johnny Shaw who read a partial draft when I was struggling to see the ending and helped me get back on track.

To Elizabeth Little for somehow carving out time to read a draft of the manuscript and offer some essential late-game suggestions.

To Katie Lahnstein for helping to imagine how legal protections for clones might, or might not, function; to Lee Kovarsky for explaining how a clone-related lawsuit would make its way to the Supreme Court; and to Steve Feldhaus for his expertise on trusts and wills. Any mistakes or liberties taken are mine, not theirs.

To Lara Atella for her suggestions on the neural-psychological repercussions that cloning might have on the human brain. Again, any mistakes or liberties are mine.

To Tim Lyons and Melissa Wolverton for advice on all things music and band related.

To Aaron Bachmann for his cartological knowledge of Charlottesville, Virginia.

To Mike Tyner for projecting how security and privacy might function twenty years from now.

To Matt Misiorowski for his engineering insights, particularly in the potential directions of electric-vehicle design.

To Boneza Hanchock for her invaluable work as the book’s primary sensitivity reader and for helping me do justice to Con’s experience.

To Valerie Klemczewski for helping me locate Con’s edge and for never letting me soften her.

To Eric Schwerin, Nathan Hughes, Karen Hughes, Giovanna Baffico, Jess Lourey, Matt Iden, D.M. Pulley—you’re all the best.

And to Vanessa Brimner, first and foremost.