To my first and best creative writing teacher, Laurence Carr, for telling me to just write it. To my mother, Irene Bailey, for telling me how creepy the first chapter was, and thus making my day. To Alice Knudsen, a stellar writer in her own right, whose awesomeness I tried my best to translate to the page. Ruby’s only a tenth as cool as the real thing, Veebs. To Thom Oldford, fellow writer and unsung hero, who’s rescued me from my own stupidity, writing-wise, more times than I can count. To Jennifer “Kron-Bomb” Kronowitz for inspiring so many of Des’s good traits. To Tabaqui and my LiveJournal Friends-list, whom I will never forget even if I become the next Edgar Allen Poe. To Dina Peone and her writing group (Margaret Norway, Angelina Peone, Andrew Gebert, and Donald Kenly III) for their epic amounts of great advice and unending support…chapter by chapter, guys. To all my friends who supported me and gave me feedback—especially Alice Knudsen, Jared Zwiefel, Donnis Kempley, Desiree Hossack, and Sara Troeller: fantastic cheerleaders and epic wordsmiths. To Adam Duff, Erik Hrycun, Selena Jones, and Sara Eckel for moral, professional, and financial support when it was most desperately needed. To Betsy Reville, for being unbelievably sweet, and driving me to my monthly writers’ group. To Uncle Roy for being “Uncle Roy,” and all that comes with that esteemed title. To everyone in my DBT group for dinners bought, earrings and scarves given, seminars paid for, and friendships maintained. To Brett Perry, up-and-coming director and generous friend, who helped me get peace of mind. To Mrs. Edward and Ms. Peers, for drilling into my head that I have the power and for giving me her own copy of The Fellowship of the Ring to read (sorry I never gave it back!), respectively. To everyone who read and supported my year-long short story project/website. To People Who Get It for helping to keep me (relatively) sane. To Denise Sherman, Catherine Lala, Rafael Perez, and Fred Harris for the same. To my editor extraordinaire, Jerry Wheeler. And to you, Reader, for trusting that I’ll lead you into the woods and back out again, and make the journey a memorable one.
Rachel E. Bailey
Hudson Valley, N.Y.
2015