Alexandra Monir - Timeless

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project has been a true labor of love, and I have many people I wish to thank.

First, to the Delacorte Press editor who believed in my story and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime: Stephanie Lane Elliott, I am so grateful to you! You and Krista Vitola are the dream team. Many thanks to you both for making this such a wonderful experience.

To my incredible agent, Andy McNicol at William Morris Endeavor, who encouraged me to write Timeless back when I first came up with the idea: This wouldnt have happened without you, and I thank you so much!

Thank you to my publisher, Beverly Horowitz. Its an honor to be one of your authors! And to the brilliant copyeditor Jennifer Black, thank you so much.

Many thanks to Brooke and Howard Kaufman, my management team at HK. Howard, Im so grateful for your guidance and support over the years. Brooke, thank you for being my honorary big sister, manager, and great friend all wrapped into one!

Seth Jaret, I feel so lucky to be represented by you. Thank you for believing in me from the start, and for helping me navigate the biz.

Michael Bearden, thank you for bringing your incredible musicianship to the Timeless songs. Working with you is a thrill and an honor!

Charlie Walk, youve been an amazing mentor to me. Thank you for pushing my writing, and for sending me to William Morris.

Heather Holley and Rob Hoffman, Im grateful to you both for collaborating with me on songs that have led to many opportunities. Heather, thank you for your amazing musicianship that always brings out the best in me, and for your wonderful friendship.

Many thanks to the New York Public Library for letting me use the Frederick Lewis Allen Room for my writing and research.

Thank you to Chad Michael Ward and Angela Carlino for the beautiful cover art. Neal Preston, thank you for lending your art to my author photo.

Special thanks to Eric Reid and Laurie Pozmantier at WME, Chad Christopher at SMGSB, and everyone at Random House who is involved with Timeless.

Id also like to acknowledge my incredible circle of family and friends, who have all cheered on this project. First and foremost to my father, Shon: Youve had the biggest impact on my life, and I am both humbled and inspired by you. Your support and belief in me is what gave my dream wings, and I thank you, with all my heart, for everything.

To my mother, ZaZa: Youre my best friend in the world and its our relationship that inspired the closeness between Michele and the women in her family. I cant thank you enough for all youve given me.

Arian, thank you for your valuable feedback on this project, and for your love and support. Im so lucky to be your sister!

Papa, thank you for all the imaginative stories you told us as kids. They made me want to become a storyteller myself.

Many thanks to Stacie Surabian and Marise Freitas for helping with my projects over the years and for being like family to me. Thank you to my incredible mentors and friends Maury Yeston, Karen McCullah-Lutz & Kirsten Smith, and Greg Brill.

Mia Antonelli, thank you for being the most wonderful friend a girl could ask for, and for always being there for me. Chris Robertiello, thank you for all the laughter and inspiring moments.

Gratitude and love to my grandparents, aunts and uncles in Southern and Northern California and my close friends Roxane Cohanim, Ami McCartt, Adriana Ameri, Kirsten Guenther, Sai Mokhtari and Rita J. King. And I cant forget little Honey, my special companion during the long hours of writing!

To the memory of an incredible woman: my grandmother and namesake, Monir Vakili. I always wished I could have met her, and it was this desire that led me to write about Michele meeting her relatives from the past.

And of course, thank you to the readers! I hope you enjoyed Timeless.

A singer/songwriter and first-time novelist, A LEXANDRA M ONIR divides her time between Los Angeles and New York. For the original music, news, and more on Timeless, visit her website at alexandramonir.com.

AUTHORS NOTE

While the story of Timeless is fictional, the world in which the characters live is based in reality. One of the greatest joys for me in writing this book was researching the eras that Michele visits. As I threw myself into studying the Gilded Age, the Roaring Twenties, and the World War II years, I felt almost as if Id been there, thanks to the amazing resources I had.

NEW YORK

I consider New York City the principal player of Timeless, as it is both the backbone of the story and an ever-changing, complex character. My greatest tool in researching the history of this incredible city was simply spending time there, walking the streets where so many walked before me, and visiting the landmarks that are like living tributes to bygone eras. If you too are fascinated by New York history, I highly recommend visiting the New-York Historical Society and the Museum of the City of New York. Additionally, Big Onion Walking Tours offers historical tours of many areas of the city. I took Big Onions historical tour of Central Park, which proved valuable to me when it came time to describe the park circa 1910.

Below are some of the materials I used in my research:

At the Plaza: An Illustrated History of the Worlds Most Famous Hotel, by Curtis Gathje; Central Park, by Edward J. Levine; Inside the Plaza: An Intimate Portrayal of the Ultimate Hotel, by Ward Morehouse III; Gotham Comes of Age: New York Through the Lens of the Byron Company, 18921942, by Peter Simmons; On Fifth Avenue: Highlights of Architecture and Cultural History, by Charles J. Ziga and Robin Langley Sommer; The New Amsterdam: The Biography of a Broadway Theater, by Mary C. Henderson; the website for the Drive to Protect the Ladies Mile District, www.preserve2.org/ladiesmile/; the official Central Park website, www.centralpark.com; and the great PBS series New York: A Documentary Film, directed by Ric Burns.

THE WINDSOR MANSION

Thanks to the incredible Preservation Society of Newport County, we can see just how the New York Four Hundred lived during the Gilded Age. While the Fifth Avenue mansions of Old New York have all sadly been demolished or converted into office buildings, hotels, condos, etc., the spectacular homes owned by these same New York families (the Astors and the Vanderbilts, for example) are fully preserved in Newport, Rhode Island. In fact, the trip that Micheles class takes to visit the Newport Mansions is based on the trip I took while researching Timeless. I even stayed in the same hotel as Michele and her class, the Hotel Viking.

I absolutely recommend visiting beautiful Newport and touring these homes, which are unlike anything youll find elsewhere in America. The Windsor Mansion is based on two different Vanderbilt mansions in Newport: Alva Vanderbilts Marble House and Alice Vanderbilts The Breakers. (The homes were usually attributed to the wives of the family, since they generally ruled society and the home in those days.) Both Marble House and The Breakers were designed by the foremost architect of the late nineteenth century, Richard Morris Hunt. If you decide to visit Newport, stop in at The Breakers to view the inspiration for the Windsors Grand Hall, and visit Marble House to see what the impressive exterior of the Windsor Mansion looked like. If you cant get to Newport anytime soon, the Preservation Society of Newport County (www.newportmansions.org) offers books with wonderful photographs and descriptions of the houses, along with a DVD that takes you into the homes for a glimpse. A&Es