Chapters (22)
To Kim, Jessica, Jen, Bridey, Tiffany, and Roommate. Thank you for being there from the beginning of this story, when Johnson was still a thing. Thank you for helping me learn, mature, and grow in empathy, and for forgiving me and putting up with me when that learning and growth was slow. I couldn’t have written this without you.
Thank you to Ellie Terry, Cindy Baldwin, and Amanda Rawson Hill for taking a chance on this story in Pitch Wars ’16. Dear reader, if these women and their books are new to you, get thee to a bookstore, because their books are treasures indeed. Thank you to all my Pitch Wars friends for supporting and believing in me when I was well and truly new.
Thank you to Ellie and Madeleine for your invaluable sensitivity reads and wisdom about mental health representation. You are both incredible, and any errors are mine.
To John Bennion, Dawan Coombs, Chris Crowe, Martine Leavitt, and the other amazing English department faculty at BYU. Thank you for letting me write a children’s novel for my graduate thesis, and for the encouragement and supportive environment you fostered. I hope you know how precious that was to me.
To my new #roaring20sdebut friends. You’ve already helped me more than you know.
SOMETHING OLD
My oldest treasure, my parents. Thank you, Mom, for bringing me to the library whenever I wanted, for reading to me, and for having the most passionate and empathetic view of people and the world of anyone I know. Thank you, Dad, for your endless wisdom and passing on your book addiction. When I was little, you said you thought we were friends before we were born. I think you were right.
Oh, my siblings. I love you so much, and I could not have written this without you. Thank you for always supporting me in my crazy schemes and dreams. If I die first, I’ll save our spot for the heavenly Fantasmic!, right in the back center by that trash can. I’ve got the blankets. Bring funnel cake.
Thank you to my grandparents. You four are like the corners of a tent protecting me against a storm. Thank you for providing such a solid foundation. Thank you to all my aunts and uncles and cousins, and I know there are a lot of you (a lot), but I hope you know how much I’ve learned from watching you over the years and how much each of you means to me.