The Lying Game

Acknowledgments

Wow, starting a new series is hard! I’ve forgotten how difficult it is, and I absolutely could not have done it without the help of Lanie Davis, Sara Shandler, Josh Bank, Les Morgenstein at Alloy Entertainment, and Farrin Jacobs and Kari Sutherland at HarperTeen. All of you were so amazingly instrumental in making the first book in The Lying Game work, from fiddling with the voice and the structure to drilling down to the teensiest minutia that gives it polish and panache. I cannot overstate how very grateful I am for all your encouragement and support these past few months—especially Lanie, who probably had to edit this, what, six times? We are definitely a team, and I hope we will stick together for a long, long while.

Also a big thanks to Andy McNicol and Anais Borja at William Morris for their supervision and enthusiasm. To Kristin Marang at Alloy Entertainment for your creativity and spirit, and to Liz Dresner for designing the book’s beautiful cover. To Joel, my husband, who read a late-late draft and told me, even though I didn’t want him to because I didn’t want to write another sentence, what wasn’t working and what would make it better. To my good friend Andrew Zaeh, the quickest learner on a surfboard I have ever met—watch out for the scary Mini Marts! To my parents, Mindy and Shep—scary county fair carnival!—and my sister, Ali—owl!—and to Caron and Melissa Crooke, girls one should never walk into a Mexican restaurant with unless you’re prepared to do shots. And a huge shout-out to all the readers I’ve met both this year and in past years for reaching out and telling me what you think. You guys rock, each and every one of you!

And because I love all of you too much to lose any of you, please don’t try any of these Lying Game pranks at home. I hope you agree that what happens in The Lying Game stays in The Lying Game . . . and nowhere else.