I owe a tremendous thank you to Suzette Mayr, without whom this novel would never have been written. She mentored me, encouraged me, and even shut me in a room and forced me to write when the words wouldn’t come.
I’m also extremely grateful to Kit Dobson, my tireless editor, Aritha van Herk, who taught me how to describe my maze, and Graham Livesey, who made sure my maze wasn’t boring. And to my parents, Mitch and Christina Peters, thank you so much for your constant enthusiasm and encouragement on this project.
Thank you to the University of Calgary, for your tremendous creative writing program, and to the writing groups, both old and new, I found through those classes. The criticism provided by Holden Baker, Andrew Barbero, Dawn Bryan, Nicole Edge, Kye Kocher, Marc Lynch, Tom Miller, and Heather Osborne helped shape this novel along the way.
Finally, my biggest thank you goes to Emily Chin—my partner, my raison d'être, and the author I aspire to me. Thank you for your unflagging encouragement, for your willingness to read and edit every draft, and for pushing me to write this novel in the first place.