Acknowledgments

The pressure to appreciate every person who’s had any impact on my life as I publish my first book is immense. I won’t be doing that; there are too many people to list and you don’t want to read about them all. I’ll just have to write more books and hope I get through all the important people before I die.

Here are some highlights:

The book you’re reading would not have been possible without Mark Teppo’s thoughtful, detailed feedback. Mark, thanks for taking a chance on my first book. I’m proud of it, and I hope you are too. Thanks for seeing Rhia so clearly and caring about her enough to coax more of her out onto the page. Thanks also for sending me a physical check for the advance, which gave me something nice to frame.

My parents, who have mastered the skill necessary to successful parenting: Inexhaustible enthusiasm for my pursuits, even when my personal brand of weirdness goes far beyond what either of them probably imagined for their child.

Monica, Rachel, and Chelsea: thank you for decades of much healthier friendship than the one that takes center stage in this book. (Monica, don’t read it. It’s too scary.)

Tim: Cheerleader, collaborator, co-conspirator, one of the great loves of my life. You believed in my writing before I did. I wouldn’t be here, embarking on this big authorial adventure, without you. (Look, I did it!)

Brad: Some of me will always be on the dreamy green forest patio at that AirBnB in Guerneville, listening to Zorca’s playlists and finishing the first draft of a story that became this novella, and some of you will always be there with me. I love you. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.