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Wow. I never thought I’d get to this point.
Beneath Which Sky started as one of the countless stories I’ve “written” in my head as I try to fall asleep each night. As I created more details, I decided to try writing it down–something I’d never done before. That same night, I put everything I’d come up with on sticky notes. Now, over a year later, that story has finally been published.
There are so many people to thank. First, my cousin Raechel. She was the first person I remember showing this to. That first draft wasn’t even finished yet, but her enjoyment of the story encouraged me to consider publication. Next, my family. My sisters Eli and Chloe also read that early draft of the story. My parents and my brother, Carl, have not, as of this writing, and may not have even known I was writing something, but they all helped indirectly. Somehow, the noise and controlled chaos of six people plus animals was a good place to work!
Next, all the beta readers who gave me feedback on the multiple drafts of the story. On the first draft: Lisa McLean, who had the genius idea to start with the portal; Jia Yue He, who gave me an amazing 1600 words of feedback with questions about language, discrepancies, missing information, and so much else; and Tammy Goodwin, who pointed out several inconsistencies. On the second draft: Nondumiso Zondi, the first to read the newly restructured story and the first to confirm that my many changes were good. On the third draft: PL Jones, who suggested reworking the beginning; and Lily MacFaydian, who pointed out favorite parts I would never have considered potential favorites. On the fourth and final draft: JT McCarthy, who pointed out the last few things I missed.
Thank you to all of my professors these past two years whose classes gave me enough knowledge to design my own book cover: Patrick Mohr, Design I; Rebecca Graham, Drawing I and II; Letha Wood, Color Theory; Louis Baker, Intro to Graphic Design; Adriana Burgos, Drawing for Design; David Pierce, Typography I; Swapnil Mathkar, Graphic Design Media Management; and Jorge Montero, Graphic Design Studio I. I also want to thank Professor Saty Sharma, Model and Prototype Development, for a tough class that taught me a lot about time management!
As I worked on this story, I joined several Facebook groups: Authors and Writers Helping Each Other Grow, Beta Readers & Critiques, Beta Readers and Critique Partners, and BookBoro Neighborhood. I turned to these groups for beta readers, feedback on my cover, and several questions along the way. Thank you so much to everyone who gave me feedback on the cover. I wasn’t sure about it before your responses. When I started having concerns about the structure of the Otherworld series, I turned to the members of these groups. Thanks to John Martin and Martin Bannon, who responded to that post! I also turned to the group to make sure the bits of German were being used correctly. Thank you, Laura Madley, for your help. Any mistakes left are my own!
Thanks to the authors of all the articles and blogs and websites I read as I looked for information about front matter, point size, and so many other things. I also attended several webinars that helped so much. At those webinars, Keith Ogorek answered my copyright questions, Cathy Fyock helped me with writer’s block, and Allie Pleiter gave me ideas for the future of the series.
Thank you, BookBoro, for providing a platform for early read tests. Also, thank you for making Beneath Which Sky a featured read test back in January, something I didn’t notice until five months later! Thanks to the people who did the anonymous read test on BookBoro in January. I don’t know who you are, but I loved your support!
Thank you to everyone at Kindle Direct Publishing and Draft2Digital who made this possible.
Finally, thank you, reader. On to book two!
—Madeline Walz
