Overbite (26 page)

Authors: Meg Cabot

BOOK: Overbite

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O
verbite
is a work of fiction, but many of the details in it are based on facts or historical events.

The Minetta Stream is an actual water feature of lower New York City, but few people know of its existence, other than that it still occasionally floods some basements in Greenwich Village. The name given to it by the island of Manhattan’s original residents, the Lenape Indians, was
Mannette,
which translates to
Devil’s Water
. The stream has been built over, and was diverted into several fountains, one of which stands in the lobby of the New York University dormitory in which I used to work at 33 Washington Square West. That fountain features a figure of Pan. It has been inoperable for decades.

You can read more about the Minetta Stream at http://www.nycgovparks.org/.

The Palatine Guard was an actual military unit of the Vatican, formed in 1850 to defend Rome against attack from foreign invaders. Today the Palatine Guard is listed in most encyclopedias and search engines as defunct.

Vlad the Impaler’s first wife is said to have died by throwing herself from a window of Poenari Castle into what is now referred to as Raul Doamnei, or Princess’s River, saying she preferred suicide to death at the hands of the invading Ottoman army.

This is the only known reference to Vlad Tepes’s first marriage, besides the fact that his wife was rumored to have been extremely kind and beautiful, almost “angelic.” It was after her death that Vlad the Impaler began his many atrocities, eventually becoming the titular inspiration for Bram Stoker’s
Dracula
.

So many people helped me with this book in so many ways, I couldn’t begin to name them all, but I am exceedingly grateful for their support. Particular thanks go to Beth Ader, Nancy Bender, Jennifer Brown, Barbara Cabot, Carrie Feron, Michele Jaffe, Laura Langlie, Ann Larson, Janey Lee, Rachel Vail, Tessa Woodward, and Benjamin Egnatz.

And, of course, a very special thanks to all my wonderful readers! I could not have done it without you.

Meg Cabot

About the Author

MEG CABOT
was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her adult contemporary fiction, she is the author of the bestselling young adult fiction series The Princess Diaries. She lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Also by the Author

Insatiable

Ransom My Heart
(with Mia Thermopolis)

Queen of Babble series

Heather Wells series

The Boy series

She Went All the Way

The Princess Diaries series

The Mediator series

The 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU series

All-American Girl series

Nicola and the Viscount

Victoria and the Rogue

Jinx

How to Be Popular

Pants on Fire

Avalon High series

The Airhead series

Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls series

Credits

Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

Cover illustration by Ricky Mujica

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

OVERBITE
. Copyright © 2011 by Meg Cabot. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

EPub Edition July 2011 ISBN: 9780062092410

Print Edition ISBN: 9780061735103

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

11 12 13 14 15
OV/QGF
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (P.O. Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au/ebooks

Canada