I especially want to say thank you to my publisher Patricia Veldstra; I wished for a partner like you, and you exceeded my dreams. Your integrity and expertise continue to impress and inspire me. Thank you to my editors, Chris Barcellona and Zanne Klingenberg, for seeing all this story could be and catching my messes, and my many authenticity readers for your diligence and wisdom, as well as We Need Diverse Books, A Novel Mind, Printrun Podcast, and Writing the Other for your excellent guidance and impact on my craft. And thank you Andy Ra for your incredible work turning my vision into a masterpiece.
Most of all I want to thank my beloved partner Derek for holding me together when I fall to pieces and loving every layer of me we discover—without you, I would have no words, and the universe would be much too small. Thank you to our wildly brilliant children for tolerating my brain fogs and story rants, for teaching me how to be a better parent and person, and for believing this story and I needed to be shared. To my dear grandmother Sylvia, thank you for all the books and for sticking around to see me succeed.
Thank you to my amazing readers, critique partners, and support community. There are so many of you I’ve come to rely on, especially Karen Jialu Bao, Kayla Whaley, Katie Spina, Margie Fuston, Liselle Sambury, AJ Super, Nia Davenport, Diana Pinguicha, Sally Pla, Tina Chan, Madeline Dyer, Jessica Corra, Kaye Watts, Ty Schalter, Jessie Devine, Xiran Jay Zhao, Latasha Holliman, Sarah Porter, Blu McCormick, Stephanie Crane, Jeni Chappelle, and Patrick Hopkins—without your timely cheerleading, sage advice, and steady friendship, I wouldn’t be half the writer I am today. And thank you to the authors whose words rooted in my heart: Tom Robbins, Octavia Butler, NK Jemisin, Neal Shusterman, Rivers Solomon, and CS Friedman.