If someone had told me back in early 2015 that today I’d be writing the acknowledgements for my SIXTH book, I would never have believed them. Because writing books for a living honestly is a dream come true, and my brilliant readers are the ones that mean I can keep doing this. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Although the idea and the words are mine, when it comes to writing a book, it really does take a team – and this is the perfect time to thank those people who have helped me shape this novel into what it finally became.
This book, for some reason, was the most difficult one I’ve written yet. I don’t know why. It involved three complete rewrites (from scratch!) and many, many edits. It was almost as though Erin, Greg and Adam didn’t want me to tell their story. But I persevered. Through its successive versions, the book changed almost beyond recognition – but the one constant that remained was the importance of music and memory. And that bit was great fun to research and write.
Early in my research I spoke to psychologist Dr Victoria Williamson who helped me to work out the details of Erin’s job, as well as the importance and power of music in helping people retrieve missing memories. We discussed many things, including the fact that most music psychologists wouldn’t actually be music therapists as well, but I decided I wanted Erin to do that for the purposes of the story, so that is down to me! But Dr Williamson’s help was invaluable in shaping that element of the story, so I’m enormously grateful to her for letting me pick her brain. I also must mention a book, This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin, which was brilliant as well and helped me in my research.
Friends are always great sounding boards, and this time my enormous thanks must go to my lovely and very talented friend Rachel Bath who let me talk through the story with her when I hit a stumbling block, and helped me realise what I was really trying to do with it. At a later stage, fellow author Christie Barlow helped me work out what wasn’t working about the story and then helped me to unpick the problem. It was like a eureka moment when she pointed out the obvious issue and from that moment I never looked back!
Thanks to the very funny Flic Everett who came up with the name of Adam’s band, and also to my brilliant friend Serena who always reads everything I write very early on, and helps me to see the book through someone else’s eyes. Your comments and ideas are always helpful, and your support is invaluable.
Of course, I have to thank the wonderful team at Boldwood Books. My amazing editor Sarah knows how to push me to make sure we get the very best from the story, and even though she always apologises for sending through what she sees as lots of comments and suggested changes, I’m never upset or worried – in fact I welcome it, as she always helps get the best out of me. So thank you Sarah, for your brilliant brain. And thank you to Nia and Claire for helping my books find their readers. Without you all I wouldn’t be able to do this wonderful job.
And finally, as always, thank you to my lovely family. Tom, Jack and Harry, you’re my world. And thank you to Mark, whose shared love of music has meant so much to me over the years and has, no doubt, been a factor in this book being written in the first place. Here’s to many more years of amazing gigs together, little brother.