ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A special thanks to those who helped this book see the light of day. I owe you big time:

To my earliest readers, Dean Hicks and Karen Palmer, thank you for not mentioning how crappy the first draft was, and for just telling me to keep going. Jennifer Belle, Michael Sears, Desiree Rhine, Jon Reiss and Juliann Garey, your brutal honesty and kind encouragement helped me stay the course through a long re-write (and a half). Thanks especially to Juris Jurjevics for his inability to sugarcoat and for helping me find the heart of this book (a moment of silence please, for the bloody scraps left on the cutting room floor).

I might never have started this book if it hadn’t been for Nicole Bokat’s class and an assignment to write the entire outline for the second session. That seemed insane, but it got me started. Phil Neal, Kara Unterberg, Jim Delisle, Jon Spurney, Mick Herron, Abby Wasserman, Nancy Jaffe, and Steve Kettmann, thank you for your intelligent insights that simply made the book better. Thanks also to Jeff Gordinier for being my personal cheering section as well as a sobering source of inspiration.

To my brothers, Andrew and Matthew, and their exceptional wives, Rebecca and Flossie, and to Graham, for believing in me and in this book and for helping with the kids on so many days, to give me time to get a few more words down.

Thanks to The Vermont Studio Center for the residencies that allowed me to spend time in your beautiful space and write and write and write, and to “Colt” Barrows for his support through all of this, even though he hasn’t read a novel in years.

But most of all, thanks to my wonderful agent, Stéphanie Abou and to my amazing editor Jessica Case and publisher Claiborne Hancock, who saw the potential and gave this book a life. I am forever indebted to you (and also to Juliet Grames, who pointed me in Stéphanie’s direction in the first place.)

Of course, none of this would have happened without the love and support and creative spirit of my parents. I will be forever grateful to my immensely talented father, Alan Hruska, who encouraged me every step of the way, and to my mother, Laura Hruska, my first, last, and perennial editor. I miss her every day.

And finally, thanks to Will and Nick, to whom this book is dedicated. You’ve been there through the ups and downs and the never-ending revisions. You are not only the inspiration for this book, you gave me the time I needed to finish. You are, without question, the best kids, ever. I love you with everything I’ve got.