I cannot imagine how my writing career might have fared if not for my wonderful agents, Molly Friedrich of the Friedrich Agency and Mic Cheetham of the Mic Cheetham Agency. They, too, have been guiding my books into safe harbors for three decades. In the United Kingdom, I am delighted to be back with my original British publisher, Macmillan and Company, and I would like to thank my new British editors, Catherine Richards and Jeremy Trevathan. I want to thank Lucy Carson and Molly Schulman of the Friedrich Agency and Sara Minnich of G. P. Putnam’s for helping to make my life so much easier. And a special “thank you” to Janet Robbins for her superb copyediting.
Since I write of historical figures who rarely died peacefully in bed, I spend a lot of my time doing medical research, but I have never been fortunate enough to have my own “medical consultant” for past books. For A King’s Ransom, I did—John Phillips, a retired physician and friend whose expertise proved to be a Godsend when I was writing about Richard’s death from gangrene and Joanna’s ill-fated pregnancy. John even contacted Dr. Philippe Charlier, the French forensic sleuth who recently analyzed the remains of Richard I’s heart. Thanks to Dr. Charlier’s study, we now know that Richard died of gangrene, not septicemia, and the myth that he was struck by a poisoned arrow was just that—a myth.
I am extremely grateful to my friend and fellow writer Sharan Newman, who translated relevant passages of Ralph de Coggeshall’s Latin chronicle Chronicon Anglicanum for me. I am also very grateful to Kathryn Warner for her translation of the German biography by Ulrike Kessler, Richard I, Lowenherz, Konig, Kreuzritter, Abenteurer. And as backup, I was fortunate enough to find Quintus, who provides an excellent online translation service at http://thelatintranslator.com/
I have often said that no novel could have a better midwife than Valerie Ptak LaMont, and I feel very fortunate, both for her friendship and her feedback. Lowell LaMont continues to fight my computer demons for me. I’d like to thank my fellow writer Elizabeth Chadwick for calling to my attention the marvelous name that medievals sometimes used for the English Channel—the Narrow Sea. Malcolm Craig has once again generously allowed me to draw upon his extensive knowledge of medieval Brittany. I want to thank Stephanie Churchill Ling for her encouragement and friendship, and my fellow writer Priscilla Royal, who knows a lot about fending off Deadline Dragons herself. I want to mention Anna Ferrell, too, for her Latin translation assistance. Thanks are also due to my friend Paula Mildenhall, and to Jo Nelson, Linda Hein, May Liang, Sarah Adams Brown, Stephen Gilligan, Fiona Scott-Doran, Lesley West, and Celia Jelbart, the brave souls who volunteered to administer my Facebook fan club pages. Thanks, too, to Koby Itzhak, Rania Melhem, and Kasia Ogrodnik Fujcik for taking up the slack when I could not do my daily “Today in Medieval History” posts on Facebook. Stephanie and Rania also do double duty as my Facebook administrators. I wish I could acknowledge all of my Facebook, Goodreads, and blog friends, for you never doubted that I was going to prevail over the Deadline Dragon, even when I despaired myself, and your faith did much to keep my dragon sword sharp.