ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As much as Hell’s Library is a series about stories, it’s also a series about finding your family in unlikely places. Family, I think, is one of the most powerful stories we tell ourselves. Necessary in Hell, and more necessary on earth. I think of acknowledgments as a story about the family I’ve found and made while writing these books. The story of us.
As ever, I need to start with gratitude for my agent, Caitlin McDonald, for being the best advocate a series could hope for. Also thank you to my editor, Miranda Hill, whose endless enthusiasm for Claire and the gang has made the publishing process go smoothly. I also want to thank editor Rebecca Brewer for her unflagging support and smart feedback on very early versions of this book. I’m grateful to the entire Ace team that I’ve had the honor to work with, including Alexis Nixon, Jessica Plummer, and Lauren Horvath.
Thank you to Jennifer Mace, who graciously allowed me to borrow her characters for a cameo appearance in the damsel suite. Mace books are particularly unruly, according to Claire. Please come and retrieve your murder children.
One of the fun things about this series is the ability to slide in sly or not-so-sly references to books and writers I personally adore. Sharp eyes might have caught jars in Walter’s office referencing the works of Seanan McGuire, Neil Gaiman, Valerie Valdes, C. L. Polk, Rachel Caine, Tyler Hayes, and more. Thank you, all, for the wonderful things you create. This book might not exist as it is in its current form if I hadn’t encountered your work.
Every step of the way was helped by the center of my chosen family. My partner, Levi, who is my favorite story. My sister, Kate, who I’d choose even without random chance. This book benefited greatly from early feedback from a really stellar crew; thank you to Tyler Hayes, Chris Wolfgang, and Rebecca Littlefield for your insights and support. I am also incredibly grateful to the various groups of word friends who lent moral support during this book’s creation: my Viable Paradise class, the Isle, and the friends at the Pub.
I had the privilege of starting a small Patreon during the editing stage of this book. I can’t express enough my gratitude to those who have chosen to support me there, month after month. Words and worlds don’t happen without you. Thank you, all of you, for making stories with me.
A. J. Hackwith is almost certainly not an ink witch in a hoodie. She’s a queer writer of fantasy and science fiction living in Seattle with her partner, her dog, and her ghosts. The Archive of the Forgotten is a sequel to A. J.’s first fantasy, The Library of the Unwritten. She is a graduate of the Viable Paradise writers’ workshop and her work appears in Uncanny magazine and assorted anthologies. She has also written sci-fi romance as Ada Harper. You can find her on Twitter and in other dark corners of the internet.
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