ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There were several times while writing this book where I found myself crossing the line, taking a leap of faith into an imagined world, but I always made sure I ultimately crossed back over. And when I did, the real world appeared even more clearly than it did the first time. Thank you, reader, for going there with me. Thank you to the editors of Joyland, The Puritan, and Brick magazine where earlier drafts of some of these chapters first appeared. Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity for support. Thank you to many friends and strangers for speaking with me over the years about the people and topics covered in this book, and to all those who helped when help was needed. Thank you to my parents for answering all the questions I managed to ask and for trusting my partitions. Thank you to my husband and children for respecting my work as a writer, and for tolerating the periods of time I was absent, either physically or emotionally. Thank you to my editor Haley Cullingham for envisioning this book with me and for being there through and through, and to Jared Bland for introducing me to her. Thank you copy-editors and proof-readers. Thank you to everyone affiliated with Strange Light at Penguin Random House Canada for all the bold work you are doing. Thank you Terri Nimmo for a gorgeous cover. Thank you to my agent Hilary McMahon for taking this book and me under the wing of Westwood Creative Artists. Thank you to the late, dear, Ellen Seligman, former publisher of McClelland & Stewart, whose last words to me I will never forget, and which I pass on now, in thanks, to fellow writers: “This story is not finished.”