o much love and thanks to my husband and sons for their continuing understanding and sacrifice in support of my writing. At least I’m not the only one to benefit—I’m sure many local restaurants are grateful that I don’t cook anymore.

Thank you, Mom, for being my best friend and letting me talk your ear off through all the rough spots. Thanks, also, for being so insanely creative and intelligent, and bequeathing a small portion of both into my genetic makeup.

Thanks to all my siblings, Emily, Heidi, Paul, Seth, and Jacob, for letting me borrow your names. I hope I didn’t do anything with them that makes you wish you hadn’t.

A special thanks to my brother Paul for the motorcycle riding lesson—you have a true gift for teaching.

I can’t thank my brother Seth enough for all the hard work and genius he put into the creation of www.stepheniemeyer.com. I’m so grateful for the effort he continues to expend as my Webmaster. Check’s in the mail, kid. This time, I mean it.

Thanks again to my brother Jacob for his ongoing expert advice on all my automotive choices.

A big thank you to my agent, Jodi Reamer, for her continued guidance and assistance in my career. And also for enduring my craziness with a smile when I know she’d like to use some of her ninja moves on me instead.

Love, kisses, and gratitude to my publicist, the beautiful Elizabeth Eulberg, for making my touring experience less a chore and more a pajama party, for aiding and abetting my cyber-stalkery, for convincing those exclusive snobs in the EEC (Elizabeth Eulberg Club) to let me in, and, oh yeah, also for getting me on the New York Times bestseller’s list.

A huge vat of thanks to everyone at Little, Brown and Company for their support and their belief in the potential of my stories.

And, finally, thank you to the talented musicians who inspire me, particularly the band Muse—there are emotions, scenes, and plot threads in this novel that were born from Muse songs and would not exist without their genius. Also Linkin Park, Travis, Elbow, Coldplay, Marjorie Fair, My Chemical Romance, Brand New, The Strokes, Armor for Sleep, The Arcade Fire, and The Fray have all been instrumental in staving off the writer’s block.