I couldn’t move; my body was rooted into place.

“Amy?” I heard Jess call from the kitchen. “Get back in here before the champagne gets warm.”

I could only stare at Heather’s figure as she left my yard.

I watched her walk down the driveway and prepare to deliver the next invitation, and wondered what her plans for our neighborhood were.

Whatever they were, the four of us would be ready. It was the She Shed that started it all, but we would finish it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The inspiration for this book came to me the morning after a ladies’ night with my friends. We had lamented that we didn’t have a space of our own, away from the chaos of our daily lives. And so I began to brainstorm writing a book about friendships and finding a soft place to land in the ridiculousness that is often suburbia. As a longtime horror fan, an idea began to generate that would meld the two concepts. Thus, the haunted She Shed was born. From there, I began to see everything around me as worthy of a few scares, even my beloved Roomba.

But I didn’t do this alone, and there are many people who helped me bring this book into the world.

Thank you to my agent, Holly Root, who responded with more than a few exclamation points when I emailed the pitch (appropriately titled “Weird idea”) for this book. Your enthusiasm and excitement for this book carried me through all the tough writing moments.

To my editor, Kate Dresser—I knew from our first conversation that you understood what I was trying to do with this book, and I’m beyond thrilled that we are working together. I’ll never forget when you told me during that first chat to just go wild with the story. So I did, and then you pushed me even harder, and the book became better than I had ever imagined. And to the whole team at Putnam, thank you for such a fun and rewarding experience with getting this book out into the world.

Thank you to all of my writer friends, especially Jillian Cantor, who understand the extreme highs and lows of this strange author life.

To the whole K-L crew—thank you for always supporting my endeavors, and for the daily memes and Nic Cage gifs. I’m especially grateful that I was allowed to watch horror movies growing up. Thanks, Mom and Dad! And to the Leurck crew, thank you for all of the love throughout the years.