I love writing the acknowledgments section because it gives me a chance to thank and highlight all of the people who have helped this book be published. Although my name is on the cover, publishing a book of this complexity would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of many people.
First, I have to thank my wonderful agent, Ryan Harbage, who is responsible for you being able to read this book right now. Without an agent, it is impossible to find a publisher; without a publisher, you cannot publish an internationally distributed book. Ryan found a home for Forever Painless with two of the world’s leading publishers: HarperCollins for U.S. rights and Random House for Canada.
It would be impossible for me to fully express my gratitude to Harper Wave executive editor Julie Will and Random House vice president Anne Collins. Authors gush about their publishers, and I always thought they were exaggerating their praise. However, after working with Julie and Anne, I, too, am a gusher! These two amazing women published my first book, Aging Backwards, and now Forever Painless, doing everything possible to support, edit, promote, and advise us throughout the entire writing-to-publishing process. They are an author’s dream team.
I chose the subject matter of this book because, over a seventeen-year period, I and my team at Essentrics—Sahra Esmonde-White, my daughter and our company’s CEO; Melissa Tran, our chief financial officer; and Lynda Whyte, our director of production—have received tens of thousands of emails about the relief from pain that people experience after doing Essentrics exercises. We have read every single email. We had no choice but to conclude that healing from pain was one of the primary, if not the most meaningful, benefits of Essentrics. We decided that we needed to talk about this subject with our students, teachers, and viewers, even as we waited for the scientific studies to validate what our clients already knew. The material that appears in this book is therefore the work of many years, and I will forever be grateful to these three ladies for the web of encouragement and support and guts that has allowed us to bravely go where few have gone before.
Sometimes timing is essential, which was the case with being able to recruit the talents of Lynn Moore, an award-winning journalist. I was fortunate enough to catch Lynn between assignments, and Lynn was responsible for much of the research during the initial stages of the book. She also used her journalistic skills to conduct the mesmerizing interviews so necessary for the first-person stories in the book. Over the span of her career, Lynn has worked as a journalist and editor for some of Canada’s leading newspapers, including the Vancouver Sun, the Toronto Star, and the Montreal Gazette. I will never be able to thank Lynn sufficiently for the contribution she has made to this book.
The gift of having HarperCollins as my publisher is also having Julie Will as my executive editor. Julie brings to the editing table not only her brilliant mind and skill as an editor but also the multitalented Mariska van Aalst. Mariska’s magic is expressed as she performs the roles of ghostwriter, editor, and medical researcher. She has an intuitive grasp of what I am trying to say, but she says it so much better than I ever could. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be so fortunate to have both Julie and Mariska editing my books.
Writing a book on the subject of healing would be impossible without the consultation and endorsement from people who are highly respected within the medical and scientific community. I have been very fortunate to have several such people as dear friends and mentors: Dr. Helene Langevin and her husband, Ty; Dr. Bradley Bosick and his wife, Lulu; and Dr. Claudio Cuello and his wife, Martha. Over the past years, during many lunches, dinners, and pots of tea, they have encouraged, educated, and guided me into the healing world of scar tissue, connective tissue, and alignment. I owe them all a great deal of thanks for the generosity they have shown me. It is in great part thanks to them that I have been able to develop Essentrics into such an effective, safe, healing workout.
Photography is an essential component of this book. It took a huge team to shoot, organize, and manage the thousands of photos. As usual, Lynda Whyte, our director of production, seamlessly coordinated the entire effort; the results speak for themselves. Annabel Tory tackled the complex task of photo coordination. Her thankless responsibility was to guarantee that the correct model took the correct number of photos. Considering that we needed over five hundred different exercise movements, with multiple angles, it was a daunting job that she accomplished without a hitch. Not one photo was missing!
Wardrobe is also essential for any photo shoot. Our talented marketing manager, Allison Fraser, accomplished this. She made sure we were all dressed in a style that suited the book, in a timeless and simple look. Beatrice Popper did her usual magic on hair and makeup. Thank you, Bea, for your many early rises to happily get the job done.
We were fortunate to have a talented team of photographers willing and able to tackle the grueling schedule: Ian Graham, our in-house photographer; Allison Flam; and Alexandre Paskanoi. I think you will agree that their work is perfection; you will notice that all the movements are well lit and easy to see, which is not as easy to accomplish as most people would imagine. Good job, everyone!
After the photos are taken, the photographers go through a cleansing process, a sometimes thankless yet absolutely necessary technical job done by our in-house graphic designer, Tamara Pettman. Her work guarantees that every photo is crisp and clear and easy for the publisher to reproduce.
Last but by no means least, I have to thank the models: Sahra, my daughter; Pier-Luc Dallaire, an Essentrics instructor and co-owner of a gourmet store; and Pierre-Luc Gagnon, a paramedic by day. I am grateful to them for the hours of rehearsing they put in prior to the shoot; I’m sure you will agree their hard work definitely paid off, as they all look great—and easy on the eyes, if I may say so! No shoot is complete without the energizing of the canteen supplied by Miss Rosie Inc., who kept us happy throughout the days of photography.
When we relate to another person’s challenges and see how he or she overcame them, we are generally inspired to overcome our own challenges. I would like to thank Jonathon Powers, Annick Daigle, Anik Bissonnette, Sara Landau, Carol Smith, Sharon Cadiz, Greg McKenney, Betty Ng, and Paula Hargraves for taking the time and having the courage to share their pain-to-painless stories. I have no doubt that these interviews will motivate and inspire hundreds of people who are searching to find pain relief. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.
With much love and gratitude for all your help,
Miranda