Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my parents for their immeasurable love and support.

Thank you to my partner Pedro for encouraging me to follow my dreams when I was ready to give up.

Unyielding thanks to the team over at Nine Star Press for picking me out of hundreds of twitter pitches and helping improve both the manuscript and myself.

A grand bow to Sara Gay, Brett Hill, Alec Schaeffer, and Andrea Stimpson for reading the book in its earliest draft –I speak for all of us when I say yikes.

And a special shout out to Susan Halle Hays and the rangers over at the Smokey Mountain National Park visitor’s center for always ensuring my love of history was strong and fiercely fact checked.