Between Two Fires

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to extend my deepest thanks to those who helped midwife this novel: First, to Michelle Brower at Folio, whose positivity, energy, and arcane agenting alchemy never fail to astound me. Next, and posthumously, to Barbara Tuchman, without whose masterpiece A Distant Mirror, fourteenth-century France would be much more distant indeed. Somewhat less posthumous thanks are due to Michael J. E. Reilly, whose knowledge of things ecclesiastical proved indispensable to this effort. Paul Dubro of Legacy Forge answered questions about armor, and, if you visit YouTube, you can watch longbow experts Nick Birmingham and Martin Harvey of the Company of Holyrood show how English archers used hundred-pound war bows to punch holes in that armor; these two also read and commented usefully on the chapter concerning the battle of Crécy. Allen Hutton, who knows more about the late-medieval sword than a living man has the right to, helped choreograph the fight by the creek; and if the hunting scene seems credible, that’s because I know Bob Haeuser, who makes Eastern Louisiana unsafe for deer. Teresa DeWitt, high-school French-class neighbor, prom date, and now CSI investigator, turned me green with descriptions of what prolonged submersion does to the human body, and Professor Sylvie Lefevre of Columbia University graciously answered a stranger’s query about medieval French names. Michael Gartner of Volgemut and Owain Phyfe (whose voice sounds as hot blown glass looks) were two of the many musicians whose work accompanied my writing, and since I am lucky enough to call them friends, it is my pleasure to acknowledge their excellence here. The Cistercian garden would have been bare dirt without another good friend, “Plant Man” Terry Hollembaek, with whom I have stained my teeth purple more than once. Medievalist Christine Axen did a difficult thing and made Avignon even more charming during my research there. On the subject of travel, although it was composed on the road, in many places, I set down a good eighth of Between Two Fires at Rochambo coffeehouse on East Brady Street in Milwaukee, which is a hell of a good place to write a book. Thanks again, and always, to readers Allison Williams, Jamie Haeuser, Ciara Carinci, and to listeners Ron Scot Fry, Susan Fry, Damaris Wilcox, Roxanna Wilcox-Keller, Noelle Burk, and especially Kelly Cochran Davis. Lastly, thanks and adoration to Danielle Dupont, whose self-appointed position on this project was “Advocate for Good.” Her counsel on the nature of angels seems more like firsthand knowledge than supposition, and she is, in many ways, Delphine’s mentor and close cousin.