Acknowledgements

I have been writing stories ever since I can remember. They weren’t always very good. Thank you to my first readers who persevered and encouraged me: Elaine, Duncan and Patrick Boxwell, Diane Diggle and Michelle Riches. Thank you also to David Keppel-Jones and Nina Johnson for their expert opinions, and to Steve and Hilda Hummel for their support, especially during the final stages of this process.

David Bergen’s mentorship as part of the Humber School for Writers’ Creative Writing Correspondence Program was invaluable in developing a first draft. Thank you to my editor, Lindsay Brown, and the team at Guernica Editions for taking my manuscript and turning it into a novel.

Finally, thank you to my partner, Erica Hummel, for bringing me to the little corner of British Columbia that inspired this book.