Thank you to Alaysia for her insightful comments, and to my multitude of most-excellent writing friends: Lindsey, Karina, Ash, Amy, Kim, Meg, Clara, and Kiara. Thank you for all the writerly and moral support. You kept me sane. Extra special thanks to Jenna N., who let me borrow her name, even if she’s still salty about her namesake’s fate. (Sorry, Jenna.)

Many thanks and laughs to Cristin, Beth, Lynn, and all my Wordsmith Workshop friends for their endless love and willingness to answer hundreds of questions: Y’all are the absolute best, even if our time together is 99 percent chicken cutlets and weirdo documentaries and 1 percent writing. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Shout-out to the professors who made my time at UNT a touchstone for my craft and my life. Particular thanks to Dr. Armintor for being the world’s best McNair mentor and letting me research young adult literature, Dr. Elrod for believing in me from the beginning, Amos Magliocco for teaching me to tell it slant, Dr. Rodman for encouraging me to write to my passions, Dr. Skinnell for making the study of rhetoric more fun than it ought to be, and Dr. Upchurch for his medieval maps and encouragement to pursue my writing.

Cassie, you get a paragraph all your own. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the long phone calls where one or both of us are eating in the other’s ear, dubious fortune-teller card readings (whale and horse forever), chocolate shop visits when things are good, and flowers waiting on the doorstep when things are less good. You are the critique partner and friend of dreams and someday we’ll live geographically close to each other and our productivity will be doomed. Your fingerprints are all over this story, and it’s the better for it.

To my family, thank you for believing in me when I could not believe in myself. Extra special thanks to Mom, who took me to the library every week of every summer and always believed she would hold my book in her hands, to Dad, who wouldn’t tattle on me to Mom when I read under the covers past my bedtime, and to Amber, who endured years of my storytelling on the swing set and when we played pet shop. Also, all the love and thanks to the Ramos family, Cathy, and Scott. There’s a reason y’all are in the family paragraph. I wouldn’t have you anywhere else.

And finally, to Eddie. Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good to end up on such a jolly holiday with you down this yellow brick road. (Also, maybe we should watch less TV. But maybe not.)

About the Author