Just like it takes a cast of characters behind the scenes to bring a fairy tale to life every time a reader opens a book, there are a vast number of people who helped us create our story as well. We’d like to thank all the people at Emily Bestler Books and Simon Pulse who got just as excited about Between the Lines as we were: Kate Cetrulo, Caroline Porter, Judith Curr, Carolyn Reidy, David Brown, Ariele Fredman, Mellony Torres, Jon Anderson, Bethany Buck, Mara Anastas, Michael Strother, Lucille Rettino, Sooji Kim, Carolyn Swerdloff, Dawn Ryan, Lauren Forte, Jessica Handelman, Mike Rosamilia, Russell Gordon, Julie Doebler, Paul Crichton, Nicole Russo, Michelle Fadlalla, Laura Antonacci, and Venessa Williams. Thanks also to Camille McDuffie and Kathleen Carter Zrelak for their assistance in spreading the word!
Special thanks go to Emily Bestler and Jen Klonsky, for helping us define our imaginary world better, and for agreeing when we wanted to create a final product that was a little “out of the box” for a normal YA novel. In this ever-changing world of electronic books, we wanted to create a story that was a keepsake-one you’d pass down to your children because of its beauty and design-much like the fairy tale in the story is to Delilah. Just like those gorgeous picture books from the turn of the century with colored plates by Arthur Rackham, we wanted a novel that took one’s breath away. Thanks to the spirited support of Emily and Jen, we got exactly that.
Which is why we also must thank Yvonne Gilbert, who brought our handsome prince to life, and Scott M. Fischer, whose silhouettes still astound us. Quite simply, you blew us away with your vision and your passion for this project.
Thanks, too, to Laura Gross, who encouraged us to take Sammy’s idea and run with it; and to Tim van Leer and Jane Picoult, who read the early drafts and laughed in all the right places.
Finally, thanks to all the readers of Jodi’s books, who have asked her for years for a story they could use to introduce her writing to their children-some of whom were too young to address the issues in her adult novels. We hope they enjoy sharing this with their kids as much as we enjoyed working together to create it.