ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THANK YOU, FIRST and foremost, to Britny Brooks-Perilli, for this enormous labor of love. No one else possessed the vision for what this novel could be, nor the technical know-how and creative spirit to get it made. From concept to proposal to final draft, you’ve been my champion every step of the way (in a world where champions of interactive and queer fiction are hard to find). For better or worse, you are now forever immortalized as the enigmatic Carson Perilli.

To the other half of this magic equation, my fiction agent, Lucy Carson: you deserve an equal share of gratitude. This thank-you extends all the way back to that first meeting in your office, where you were brave enough to take a chance on representing a relatively unproven author in a totally new genre, all the way through the heartbreaking multiyear creation and submission of a still-unpublished novel, until you ushered us to Britny’s doorstep. For every link in the chain, past and future, I thank you for your unconditional support and generosity.

To Amanda Burnett, my friend and TV agent of nearly a decade, I thank you for keeping the faith in me through the years of near-successes, when you had no tangible reason to believe.

To the intrepid team that worked on this newfangled novel, I thank you for your creativity and ingenuity. To Marissa Raybuck, for working overtime to design every aspect of this new format, from cover to backmatter. To Karl James Mountford, for bringing the characters and symbolism of this novel to life on our breathtaking jacket art and interior illustrations. To copy editor Michael McConnell, who felt like an extension of my own brain. To Amber Morris, for deftly handling the production of this novel-puzzle. To Valerie Howlett, Isabella Nugent, and Nicole Banholzer, for marketing and publicizing all this work. And to all the other hands who helped push this novel forward, the ones I don’t even (and may never) know about.

To the best friends who Amelia, Chase, Cleo, and Logan were originally inspired by, I thank you for just being you and being in my life. These characters took on a life of their own as they grew and evolved, but you can find their roots in Daniel Denicola, Chase Baxter, Ariel Colangelo, Julia Rubin, Maija Gustin, and Shane St. Hill.

To the few who took the time to read early drafts of this novel, I thank you for convincing me this invented format could actually work on some fundamental level: Chase Baxter, Jessica Goodman, Chelsea Sanders, Jeana Kolson, Stephan Lee, and Kelly Diamond.

To Rosa Van Wie and Brendan Grayson-Wallace, members of the Silver Bay family, I thank you for introducing me to two integral pillars of this novel. Rosa, for reading my tarot cards for the first time on that bay blanket and changing my life forever. Brendan, for sending me that D&D starter kit and hosting my first campaign experience. I’d also like to thank the development executives Lauren Pfieffer and Jamie Fleishman for being the first to believe in my cult-creating and tarot-treasure storytelling prowess on the pilots Killing Thyme and Major Arcana. You’re all now immortalized as the key Perillians named after you!