The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1)(89)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Thank you first to Faye Bender, magnificent agent and tirelessly patient partner in explaining how all this stuff works, and then making it happen like a wizard. My friends and family have grown weary of my saying, “Man, I love Faye,” so I’ll just leave it here for posterity: Man, I love Faye.

To Sarah Dotts Barley, my book’s perfect love match: Thank you for making the editorial process an exciting, energizing, ridiculously fun one, free of dread. I couldn’t have asked for a better advocate and second brain for the book, or a happier home for it than Flatiron/Macmillan. Big thanks also to Amy Einhorn, Liz Keenan, Emily Walters, Patricia Cave, Nancy Trypuc, Robert Allen and the audiobook team, Anna Gorovoy, Keith Hayes, Lena Shekhter, and Molly Fonseca. For the gorgeous cover, illustrations, and endpapers (endpapers!), thank you to Jim Tierney.

Thank you to Mary Pender-Coplan, amazing film agent, and to the agents who helped this book find homes around the world: Lora Fountain (and Léo Tortchinski); Ia Atterholm; Sebastian Ritscher, Nicole Meillaud, and Annelie Geissler at Morhbooks; Milena Kaplarevi?, Ana Milenkovic, and Nada Cipranic at Prava i Prevodi; Gray Tan and Clare Chi at Grayhawk Agency; and Kohei Hattori at The English Agency. Thank you also to Ryan Doherty at Sony Pictures Entertainment, and to Lucy Fisher, Lucas Wiesendanger, and Charlie Morrison at Red Wagon Entertainment.

To my parents, Steve and Diane Albert. Thank you for everything, including a childhood so loved and secure I was free to lose myself in fictional worlds, to the ultimately happy detriment of my social life, eyesight, and standing at the Cook Memorial Library. I love you very much.

To Bryan, my childhood partner in crime. To Amy, my playmate then, my BFF now.

To my badass beta readers, brilliant writers all: Jeanmarie Anaya, Natalie Zutter, and Jennifer Kawecki. To Emma Chastain, whose insightful, hilarious, true writing inspires me, for offering early encouragement. To Molly Schoemann-McCann, one of the funniest writers I know, for reading the first ten pages of the book and telling me it was the one to finish. To Joel Cunningham, a great SFF advocate, for general genre brilliance, support, and loving portal fiction.

To the Quidditch Bitches, Tara Sonin, Annie Stone, Sarah Jane Abbott, Kamilla Benko, and Ellie Campisano, for your feedback, your support, your writing I can’t wait to read every time we meet—and for being people I just want to hang out with, ultimately leading to me writing more words. To Kim Graff and Phil Stamper, for writing dates that socially pressured me to write more words instead of sitting at home eating watermelon.

Thanks to Dahlia Adler and the B&N Teen team, for your passion and advocacy for YA literature, and for consistently blowing up my to-read list.

To my sensitivity readers, Dylan Stasa and Mariah Barker (Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, respectively), for your smart and generous feedback, and for liking the Harry Potter references.

And, finally, to Michael, extraordinarily handsome husband who also happens to be the funny, wonderful love of my life. Thank you.