I owe tremendous thanks to the many people who have offered advice, support, and feedback for this book.
First and foremost, to my friends Michael Bell, Rosie Bartel, Melissa Huggins, Elizabeth Moore, Aaron Passman, and Maya Zeller who voluntarily took the time to read and comment on these stories in various stages of development, and to my peers from Eastern Washington University’s MFA program who were forced to do so, but generally seemed to still have a good attitude about it.
To Greg Spatz, my thesis advisor at EWU, who helped me shape many of the stories in this collection, and who taught me what makes a story good in the first place.
To everyone at Featherproof Books for their diligent work on this project, but in particular to my friend and editor Jason Sommer whose enthusiasm and vision made this book far better and far weirder than anything I ever could have come up with on my own.
To Shannon Garvey for telling me about the lions and tigers of Terre Haute, Indiana.
To Cathie Johnson for pestering me to write her into a story, until I finally did.
And to my husband Scott, who I am grateful to most of all, for reasons too numerous to list here.