The Girl King (The Girl King #1)(129)

Special thanks to my very smart friend Naomi Cui for providing invaluable linguistic advice and feedback for many of the names and places in this story.

I listened to a lot of music while brainstorming (and sometimes, procrastinating) about this book. I like to think it all had some purpose. Each character has their own playlist so the entire soundtrack would be too long to list. Instead, here are some of the most important albums: Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy, Ramesh’s The King, Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, White Sea’s In Cold Blood, and The Killers’ Day & Age. Thank you to those artists.

Thank you to my umma and appa for raising me with every opportunity they never had, and for supporting me on the slow, plodding path toward making this book a reality, no matter how bemusing and financially insoluble it must have seemed. Appa, I can’t express how much it meant when you read an early version of the manuscript. Thank you for making note of those little typos and continuity errors, which of course you did. Thank you, Umma, for making visits to the Seneca Falls Library—our version of church—checking out weekly stacks twenty books deep, heedless of the librarian’s disapproving stare.

Thank you to my brother Joseph for the hand-me-down Star Wars action figures, giving me A Game of Thrones when I was far too young, and all the long late-night holiday conversations about books and movies. You fostered and encouraged my love of sci-fi and fantasy first, when no one else got it.

Special thanks to Tracy for listening to me spout the very earliest version of this plot on the drive to Jamaica Bay and telling me Min was her favorite character. I regret we didn’t know about mosquito season in Queens before we made the trip, but I’m grateful for the car ride, and your brilliance and feedback. Thank you also to Carly for live-texting me your reading of an early version of the manuscript, and your enthusiasm for my loving descriptions of gore.

Thank you to Dr. Shinhee Han, without whom I would undoubtedly still be the saddest, least-qualified bookkeeper in all of Manhattan.

Much gratitude goes to my in-laws, especially Kate and Bruce for their unquestioning acceptance of and enthusiasm for my dreams from day one. Their generosity of spirit remains breathtaking. And thank you to Lola, because I’m not above shameless ploys like putting your name in a book to make a play for favorite aunt status.

My mother will be very angry to find me thanking my pets, which honestly is at least 40 percent of the reason I’m doing it. Thank you, Dr. Watson, Pamina, ásdís, Heathcliff, Squirrel, and little Steven. I would get so much more done without you in my life, but I’m very glad you’re here. I’m fairly confident at least half of you can’t read, but perhaps one of the others will tell you about this if they’re feeling charitable.

Most of all: Kevin. My first editor, first fan, and fiercest advocate, who believed in this book long before I ever did. I look forward to reading your multivolume Snowdrop fan fiction. Thank you for your unrelenting, vigorous validation, and several hundred expertly crafted peanut butter sandwiches. Every day you restore my belief in the human capacity for kindness, honesty, wit, compassion, devotion, self-betterment, and curiosity. You are my inspiration in all things, my one true love.