I wrote most of Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous in the early part of quarantine when the country was sheltering in place. When you hear the phrase “It takes a village,” well, for me, it took several villages from all over the country to get me back on track. Spontaneous Zoom meetups, group chats, and commiserating DM sessions helped me make it through those tough deadline months. To my high school, college, business school, and Saturday evening Zoomers, and to my writer friends who reached out and answered my calls, messages, and texts, thank you for making those early quarantined months far less lonely. Thank you for telling me it was okay to not be okay. Thank you for inspiring me to write again.
I wrote Sunny Song holed up in my apartment, looking all haggard while eating Doritos and wearing mismatched pajama sets—and I have a bunch of people to give shout-outs to because this book DID get written and delivered reasonably on time, all 73,000 words of it. A god-dang miracle if you ask me.
Thank you to Eliza Swift, my brilliant and wonderful editor, who helped shape this story into something much more relevant, coherent, and fun. It’s scary how much you know about influencer houses, but there’s no judgment here.
Brent Taylor, my agent and cheerleader, thank you for all of the emotional support pre-debut and post-debut; it’s been a roller-coaster few years!
Thanks so much to my BFF Helen Hoang, my Pringles-loving twin, who is always there for me. Roselle Lim, as always, thank you for your friendship, sound advice, and fried chicken photos. Whitney Schneider, you’re the best CP and writing buddy, thank you for sticking with me through the years.
Huge thank-you to my writer friends listed in a secret order only known to me: Liz Lawson, Dante Medema, Alison Hammer, Annette Christie, Judy Lin, Jenny Howe, Chelsea Resnick, Kristin Rockaway, Kathleen Barber, Chelsea Ichaso, Jeff Bishop, Danielle Paige, Sarah Henning, Kellye Garrett, Sarah Partipilo, Falon Ballard, Julie Abe, and Ann Kim. Early ARC readers Janet Rundquist, Amanda Sellet, Adrianna Cuevas, Alex Richards, Mike Lasagna and Cathy Janovitz, a humongous thanks!
Thank you so much to Sandhya Menon and Sabina Khan for the kindness you showed me during my debut week and going out of your way to host The Perfect Escape Instagram launch events. In the bleakest time for me as a sheltered-in-place debut author, you brought me light and hope.
My MAPID writers group has been my local support system for several years, and I appreciate them so much. Ken, Michael, and Katrina, your early feedback on my projects has been invaluable.
The editorial, production, marketing, and sales folks at Sourcebooks Fire: thank you so much for your hard work and support. I love everything about this book, and it turned out wonderfully because of you! Thanks so much Ashlyn Keil, Katie Stutz, Lizzie Lewandowski, Cassie Gutman, Carolina Melis, Stephanie Rocha, Ashley Holstrom, and Manu Velasco!
Thank you to Kathleen Carter, who has been so steadfast and incredibly helpful during this release year. I appreciate everything you do!
Thank you to the generous librarians, booksellers, and established authors who talked up new authors till they were hoarse. And to the bookstagrammer community, I have so much appreciation for everything you do. Your enthusiasm for debut books gave me strength and purpose. In the months everyone needed comfort and escapism the most, you did your thing. And the energy you brought to Sunny Song’s release, wow—thank you from the bottom of my heart. Humongous hugs to nurse_bookie, inkstains.and.dust, booksaremagictoo, utopia.state.of.mind, and booksnraedunn for your friendships and support this year.
My family has been cheerleading hard since my debut release—thank you to my parents, siblings, in-laws, Ebrahimis, and Balmages (my extended family) for all of your encouragement. Trevor, thank you for being my foundation and calming better half, especially when it came to ordering takeout and delivery when I was on double deadline. CJ, your Minecraft crash course was super helpful. I also appreciated all of your impromptu keyboard and trombone concerts. You’re the best kiddo in the world, and I love you to death.
And finally, thank YOU for picking up this book and helping make my writerly dreams come true. I hope it provided some laughter, escapism, and enjoyment. If it did, I would love if you left a review online (it helps new readers find riveting books about teens who go to digital detox farm camp). If you’re on Twitter or Instagram, I’d love to hear from you—please reach out and say hello! I’m @suzannepark on both platforms, though I’m not on as much these days, because after researching and writing about digital detoxing, I’ve learned a lot!