As is always the case with my books, I spent many months researching the subject matter, and I was so fortunate to have a lot of help in doing so. However, it should be noted that any mistakes in the content of the story are mine alone.
When I realized how key postpartum depression was going to be to this book, I asked friends if they knew anyone who might be able to share their experiences of the disorder with me. To my surprise, I had so many offers of help, I couldn’t possibly interview everyone who was willing to chat with me. In the end, I spoke with more than a dozen women about their experiences with postpartum depression. To Monique, Lucy, Amanda, Victoria, Stacee, Ellie, Kym, Anne and others who did not wish to be named, thank you so much for your courage, your candor and your eagerness to share your stories with me.
My initial interest in frontotemporal dementia was piqued by a particularly brilliant episode of the podcast Radiolab (www.wnycstudios.org/story/unraveling-bolero). Radiolab is an amazing podcast! I’ve learned so much from it over the years. Thanks also to Dr. Melissa Madera of The Abortion Diary (www.theabortiondiary.com). Dr. Madera has captured hundreds of women’s firsthand accounts of abortion across the decades in her podcast. There is nothing more useful in understanding a topic than hearing someone explain their own experiences of it, and this unique oral-history repository was key to my research as I sought to understand not only the social and political climate Grace would have faced, but also the thoughts and emotions she might have experienced. I also found Leslie J. Reagan’s When Abortion Was a Crime and Jo Wainer’s Lost invaluable as I was planning this book.
Thanks to all of my author friends for their support and encouragement as I was writing this story, particularly Lisa Ireland and Sally Hepworth for talking me down from the creative ledge several times when doubt struck.
Thanks to my agent, Amy Tannenbaum of the Jane Rotrosen Agency, and to Susan Swinwood and the team at Graydon House and Harlequin Books. I’m eternally grateful for everything you’ve done to polish my stories and to get them into the hands of readers. Likewise, I’m grateful to Sherise Hobbs and the team at Headline UK, and Alex Craig and the team at Hachette Australia.
A huge thanks must go to my parents for all of their help and support as I wrote this book, and always, to my husband, Daniel, and my children for putting up with the madness that is my writing process.
To readers—thank you, thank you, thank you for investing your money and your time in reading my stories. This book covers a few really challenging topics, but they are subjects I am so glad to have explored, and I so hope you’ve enjoyed reading it. If you did, I’d be grateful if you could take the time to write a review online. Your review really does make a difference; it helps other readers find my books.
I love hearing from readers. If you’d like to get in touch with me, you can find all of my contact details on my website at kellyrimmer.com. You can also sign up for my mailing list at kellyrimmer.com/email—I hate spammy newsletters as much as you do, so I’ll only contact you when I have a new book coming out.