Unthinkable (30 page)

Insane.
I take full responsibility for the badness or goodness of all the
other ideas in this novel, which arose out of wrestling with those
first two.
My thanks—along with a shake of my fist—go to those devilangels, Scottie Bowditch and Mark Shulman.
Thanks are also due to the friends who read and/or discussed
the novel with me in its various drafts and parts along the way.
Some of them won’t even realize how much they helped. Sarah
Aronson, Franny Billingsley, Toni Buzzeo, Pat Lowery Collins,
Carolyn Coman, Jacqueline Davies, Amy Butler Greenfield
(who also vetted the historical sections), Alison James, A. M.
Jenkins, Liza Ketchum, Jane Kurtz, Ellen Kushner, Jacqueline
Briggs Martin, Jennifer Richard O’Grady, Lisa Papademetriou,
Mary E. Pearson, Dian Curtis Regan, Leda Schubert, Delia
Sherman, Joanne Stanbridge, Tanya Lee Stone, Deborah Wiles,
Ellen Wittlinger, and Melissa Wyatt. My mom, Elaine Werlin.
My steadfast agent, Ginger Knowlton. My workshop group at
Vermont College for the Fine Arts, led by Betsy Partridge and
Sharon Darrow, which discussed and dissected the first chapter.
The novel workshop attendees at the New England SCBWI
spring 2012 conference, who told me that I could indeed make
it work. My audience at the Florida SCBWI summer 2012
conference, who said that they thought I could not.
Thanks also go to the folks at Penguin and Puffin Books
for Young Readers, who are such great partners and whose
professional expertise means I can focus on writing.
My wonderful editor, Lauri Hornik, gave me honest critiques
and encouragement, as well as time to work—the deadline came;
the deadline went—until we were both satisfied with Fenella’s
story. Our editorial partnership goes back over nine books now,
and I look forward to our getting into the double digits together.
Final thanks go to my own true love and husband. Jim McCoy
is not only loving and supportive, he is wise. He never reads a
book until it’s done.