Enchantée(134)

Thank you to Venetia Gosling and the truly wonderful team at Macmillan Children’s Books, for bringing Camille’s adventures to the UK and beyond, and to Albatros Media, for sharing this story in the Czech Republic.

In Enchantée, the Marquis de Chandon tells Camille the history of French magic. As he describes it, Louis XIV employed a team of magicians to make Versailles the glittering palace of his dreams. I was lucky enough to have a posse of my own to help me create this story. Karin Lefranc and Rebecca Smith-Allen befriended me at my first writing conference and agreed to read for me (verdict: pretty words but no real plot). They have been with me through the highs and lows, brainstormed like geniuses, and read too many drafts of the story to count. Rebecca introduced me to an online writer’s group, The Winged Pen, all of whose members have encouraged me and been cheerleaders for this book. I want especially to thank Julie Artz and Michelle Leonard, who offered important feedback, and to Gabrielle Byrne, who read the manuscript twice, each time with love and insight. Julie and Gabrielle also whispered words of wisdom in my ear while I was querying and many other times. Thank you all for your help and your friendship.

I was lucky enough to get involved with the mentoring program Author Mentor Match in its inaugural round. My mentor, Emily Bain Murphy, was the first person outside my critique group to read the manuscript; she believed in this story all along. Thank you, too, to Alexa Donne, who shared her wealth of behind-the-scenes knowledge with me.

Merci mille fois to Alwyn Hamilton, who so generously suggested ways to improve my French. Any errors are, of course, my own.

Thank you too to the authors who so generously blurbed this book and helped it take its first steps in the world.

I would also like to express my appreciation for my friends in academia, Dr. Tita Chico and Dr. Carolyn Dever, who helped me make contact with Dr. Gillian Dow, Dr. Scott M. Sanders, and Dr. Scott Manning Stevens. Their recommendations for reading in turn helped shape my construction of French views on race, as well as Lazare’s imagined experience.

There is no ledge so precipitous that Jeff Giles cannot talk me down from it. Thank you for being just a phone call away. Thanks, too, to Bridget Hodder, who recommended I take the plunge on a change I’d long been considering.

A huge cheer to the dear and lovely friends who stuck with me—and celebrated with me—as I wrote this book. In particular, so much love to Karen Cullinane and Sonja O’Donnell, as well as Heather Liske, whose insights helped me fix a story problem at the eleventh hour.

Thank you, too, to my father, Manohar Panjabi, who supported me without needing to understand what I was doing, and to Kim Reid Panjabi and Mary Trelease. Brian Trelease was thrilled when I sold this book. Bri, I hope you are reading over my shoulder.

At the end of these acknowledgments, I come to the people who were there at the beginning: my two boys, without whom this book would not exist. Plot magician Lukas Trelease encouraged me to write this story, gave feedback, and when I was ready to throw it in the trash, helped me out of the hole. Tim Trelease believed from the beginning. He supported me day and night, through all the twists and turns that make up the writer’s life, and I could not be more grateful. I love you both.

Finally, to all of you who dream, who want more from life, who are willing to use your magic to remake yourselves and rise: this book is for you.