On the train to the 2009 World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, I had a conversation with Jim Fiscus, who helped me come up with the way in which Vincent could be held, as well as useful information about period military torture. Disturbing, useful conversations, and yet a relief in that it allowed me to continue on and use a trellis in place of my chicken coop. Then I discovered that this containment was too good.

I couldn’t come up with a way for Jane to plausibly save Vincent.

While chatting with then Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America President Russell Davis about SFWA business, we were both venting about writing. I explained my problem and he said, ‘You need to look at the environment and see what she could use as a distraction instead of having her try to create her own.’ He suggested camp followers, who would certainly have been present. La! That got me out of the giant trap that chicken wire had laid for me.

Other thanks are due to Aliette de Bodard, who translated my English sentences into French for M. and Mme Chastain. After much consideration, I decided to use classic French rather than the dialect that would have been spoken in the region, so that more English readers would be likely to understand those passages. Also . . . well . . . I know Aliette, and I don’t know a Flemish French speaker. She also helped me find idioms for Jane to misunderstand. My lack of French was further aided by Lucie Le Blanc, who heard my plea on Twitter for a French idiom that meant ‘if it kills me’ and came up with ‘même si je dois faire flèche de tout bois,’ which means ‘if I have to throw sticks instead of arrows.’ I quite adore that.

Thanks to all the folks who beta read this on my website, but particular thanks are owed to: Emily De Cola, Kate Baker, Kelvin Kao, Patty Bigelow, Jamie Todd Rubin, Chris Billet, Laurel Amberdine, Ami Chopine, John Chu, Jim Stewart, Jessica Wick, and Michael Livingston.

Beth Wodzinski and Sean Markey are heroes of the revolution for letting us stay with them when our moving truck broke down in their town. I wrote the last two chapters of the novel in their guest room. While I was in the throes of revisions, Merrie Haskell let me sit on the porch of her cottage at the lake and patiently listened to me try to explain how glamour worked. She also kept me sane during the last day of my copyedit.

A special thanks to Alex McVey, Julia Rios, John Rhea-Hendrick, Daniel Rice, Tracy Erickson, and Katie Dunneback, who listened to me read the entire novel aloud on Google+ and were better than any SF artificial intelligence in spotting continuity errors or suggesting alternatives to anachronisms in language.