A FEW YEARS AGO I sat down and wrote the acknowledgments for Sanctuary. I thanked literally everyone I could think of, mainly because I had no idea if I would ever get to write one of these again. Now I’m writing my third set of acknowledgments, but the list of people to thank hasn’t gotten any smaller. If anything, it’s grown.
Thanks goes first and always to my family: my mother, Audrey; my father, Lanny; my brother, Chris; my sister, Kim; and my nephew, Emmett, who is not old enough to read this book but is old enough to enjoy seeing his name in print. My wonderful family by marriage—Erin, Liz, and Brian—have supported me every step of the way. My husband, Dan, moved across the world with me and then spent half of his time in another country supporting me while I wrote this book, which would not exist without him.
Books don’t exist without readers, and I am truly, profoundly grateful to the readers who have loved Sanctuary, including readers and groups like the To Be Read and Beyond Facebook group, and especially my amazing students (and former students) at the Canadian International School in Tokyo and at St. Patrick’s Fine Arts in Lethbridge. Every time I see you at one of my events, every time you send me a message or tell me you loved my book, it just melts my heart a bit more. Soon it will be a puddle of goo, and it will be your fault. Keep at it.
I’m blessed with the most supportive friends and family. Timanda Wertz, Nathan Gilchrist, Sarah Taylor, John Harland … all of you who supported me—thank you. The staff at CIS and SPFA—thank you. Honestly, I couldn’t do this without you.
Books aren’t created in a vacuum, and this book wouldn’t exist (or at least wouldn’t be very good) without the help of my tremendous agent, Caitie Flum; Liza Dawson; Mackenzie Croft; my incomparable editor, Sarah McCabe; and the amazing designer, Sarah Creech, and cover artist, Jacey.
This is the end of Kenzie’s journey. Thank you all for coming on it with me. Thank you for reading. Thank you for imagining. I will miss these characters, these stories, but I know there are always more to come, and I hope you’ll be there with me for that journey as well.