To Sara McClung and Sarah Wylie, thank you for telling me I wasn’t crazy when I finally got brave enough to send you a sample, and for cheering me on as I pushed way beyond my comfort zone to tell this story right. I truly could not ask for better CPs—though it might be nice if one of you changed your name. I don’t get nearly enough sleep to keep the whole Sara(h)s thing straight!
To Myra McEntire, thank you for giving me the last nudge I needed to send pages to my agent (and to Myra’s children: Sorry about that tardy slip!). I also have to thank C. J. Redwine for insisting that I keep writing through the hard times, Elana Johnson for a lightning-fast critique, Faith Hochhalter for being the perfect cheerleader and a never-ending source of wisdom, and Tashina Falene for helping me create the jewelry pieces described in the book. And to the brilliant Ellen Hopkins, thank you for pushing me to convert the draft to present tense. I may have cursed you as I did it (a lot), but you made the book so much stronger.
To Becca Fitzpatrick and Kiersten White, thank you for taking time out of your insanely hectic schedules to read my book. You truly know how to make a girl feel like a rock star. And Karsten Knight, thank you for suffering through our daily title chats and for finally coming up with the one. (Also, for everyone who participated in The Great Title Debate of 2011, thank you for not killing me!)
To the amazing ladies of Friday the Thirteeners: Erin Bowman, Elsie Chapman, Brandy Colbert, Renee Collins, Alexandra Duncan, J. R. Johansson, Mindy McGinnis, Ellen Oh, Megan Shepherd, April Tucholke, Kasie West, and Natalie Whipple, thank you for the laughs, the support, and the always entertaining e-mail chains. I also want to thank the Apocalypsies, the Bookanistas, and the WriteOnCon team, as well as my brunch buddies Lisa Cannon, Debra Driza, Kirsten Hubbard, Nikki Katz, Andrea Ortega, and Cindy Pon. Thank you, Dustin Hansen, for being my go-to tech guy; Courtney Stallings-Barr, Matthew MacNish, and Shannon O’Donnell for being such loyal blog followers and friends; and Lisa Mantchev for our endless e-mail chains, most of which make me snort-laugh (and crave baked goods like, whoa!).
I also have to thank 30 Seconds to Mars, Anberlin, Jack’s Mannequin, Lifehouse, Linkin Park, Mae, Muse, Paramore, Something Corporate, The Spill Canvas, Trust Company, and Vedera for creating the music that inspired so much of this story. This book truly wouldn’t exist without your hauntingly powerful songs.
To everyone at SCIBA, thank you for letting me crash your events for so many years and for being some of my earliest supporters. And thank you Katie Bartow, Alyson Beecher, MG Buehrlen, and Kari Olson for going above and beyond with everything you do to promote my books.
Really, I have such an amazing online support group, I wish I had space to personally thank you all. But alas, these acknowledgements are reaching epic length, so I’ll finish with a huge thank you to everyone who follows me on Facebook, Twitter, my blog, or any of the other places I ramble on the Internet. Thank you for laughing at my shenanigans and so generously giving your time to support my books. You all totally blow me away!
(What? I had to make at least one wind pun!)