The Brooklyn Tuesday Night Writing Workshop: Emma Bailey, Michelle Hodkin, Ben Jones, Kim Liggett, Julia Morris, Susanna Schrobsdorff, Nova Ren Suma, and Aaron Zimmerman.
The “Away” Team: Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Jo Knowles, and Kelly Link. And the Fourth of July BBQ Brainstorm Trust: Theo Black, Elka Cloke, Chris Cotter, Eric Churchill, Holly Rowland, Jeffrey Rowland, Emily Seville Lauer, and Josh Lewis. And Kat Howard, for her critiquing service above and beyond.
The Superhero Librarians Club (“Can we find it? Yes, we can!”): Karyn Silverman, Jennifer Hubert Swan, and Sara Ryan.
This book was written in many NYC & Brooklyn cafés: Thanks to the delightful staff at Think Coffee, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Southside Coffee, and the late, great Red Horse Café, RIP. Thanks, too, to the Brooklyn Writers Space.
Finally, this book could not have been written without the many wonderful, knowledgeable people who kindly gave of their time and expertise. Their guidance was invaluable, and any mistakes, inaccuracies, or willful jazz riffs on factual information are strictly the fault of the author. Thank you a thousandfold to the Museum of Chinese in America, New York City, and to Yue Ma, associate director of collections; Samantha Chin-Wolner, collections assistant; and Kevin Chu, collections and digital archives assistant, at the MOCA archives. Thank you, Professor Shirley J. Yee, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies (specializing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), the University of Washington. Thank you, Zhen Wang Luo and Gabe Law, for the information on Chinese funeral customs. Thank you, Bryan Berlanger, director, National Capital Radio and Television Museum, Bowie, Maryland. Thank you, Carey Stumm and Brett Dion at the New York Transit Authority Archives. Thank you to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library. Thank you, Steve Duncan, badass urban explorer and historian, for gleefully detailing the various ways one could be maimed, killed, or arrested running around in NYC’s miles of rat-infested subway tunnels. Yeah, I’m good topside, thanks.