As I mentioned before, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet served as the template for the main plot structure of the novel, as well as the inspiration for the characters and the source of the chapter titles. I also wanted to incorporate an African American story to reflect Hanalee’s father’s influence upon her. I turned to the 1996 Coretta Scott King Award–winning story collection Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales, by Virginia Hamilton (Blue Sky Press, 1995)—a book I highly recommend. The Creole-based tale “Marie and Redfish” particularly caught my eye. I did a little digging and also found an 1889 retelling of the same story, titled “Posson [sic] Doré,” or “The Golden Fish,” in The Journal of American Folklore (Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 36–40, American Folklore Society, Jan.–Mar., 1889). I strove to make Hanalee aware of stories and songs from her father’s Southern heritage, as well as from his years of working at the Portland Hotel, in which he would have met other employees transplanted from various regions of the South. To me, “The Golden Fish” also wonderfully represented Hanalee’s growing connection to Joe and his fears of getting caught and butchered. The folktale is one of violence, yet also one of survival and love. I hope readers will find the same to be true of The Steep and Thorny Way.
I’m extremely grateful that Amulet Books has allowed me to share this novel with the world. If the pages of this book bring hope and inspiration to even one person who’s found himself or herself on a steep and thorny path in life, then I’ll feel I have done my job as its writer.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE GOES TO THE FOLLOWING:
To Barbara Poelle, my tireless agent, for her continued ability to boost my confidence in my work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for urging me to press forward with this book.
To Maggie Lehrman, my talented editor, for sitting across a restaurant table from me in Philadelphia and saying, “I’m sold,” after I’d merely uttered the words “I’m working on a retelling of Hamlet set in the 1920s.” Thank you for editing this novel while also launching your own writing career. I’m incredibly grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to work with you on three of my novels.
To the entire team at Amulet Books, for their thorough and beautiful work on all my young-adult novels. Special thanks to Erica Finkel, Jason Wells, Susan Van Metre, Tamar Brazis, Maria T. Middleton, Emily Dowdell, Tina Mories in the U.K., my diligent copy editor, proofreaders, and everyone else who played a role in the creation and promotion of this book.
To my sister, Carrie Raleigh, the very first reader of all of my books and one of the most special people in my life. She called me up in tears after finishing the last chapters of this novel and made me feel I was on the right track. Thank you!
To Francesca Miller, for her passionate belief in this book and for sharing her insights as a woman who grew up in an interracial home. And to Kim Murphy, for always digging deep into my manuscripts and letting me know exactly what they need.
To Katrina Sarson, producer of the OPB TV series Oregon Art Beat, for featuring me in a 2014 episode. To the Oregon Historical Society, especially library director Geoff Wexler, for being so patient while the OPB crew filmed me in the archives, and for providing me with a treasure trove of 1920s documents and photographs to peruse. Thanks to Scott Rook for assistance with the use of OHS images in this book.
To the Oregon Black Pioneers for keeping the history of African Americans in the region so wonderfully alive. And to the Library of Congress and Karen Lange and Pam Madaus of the Washington County Museum in Hillsboro, Oregon, for the generous use of archival images.
To my team of supportive writer friends, both in person and online: Miriam Forster (who came up with the David-and-Bathsheba connection, as well as the idea of using Hanalee’s boot as a hiding place), Teri Brown, Kelly Garrett, Amber Keyser, Laura Byrd, Heidi Schulz, Lauren DeStefano, Susan Adrian, Ara Burklund, April Genevieve Tucholke, Megan Shepherd, A. G. Howard, Sarah Skilton, Elisabeth Dahl, April Henry, Jenn Reese, Sarah Bromley, and all the amazing kid-lit authors in Portland, Oregon, and around the world. Thanks, also, to the close friends in my life who’ve been cheering me on for decades, with special nods to Regena Orr, Cindy Bullock, Susanne Brookens, Jarret Lovell, Marianne Pitterle, Sarah Eishen, Laura Ponto, and Heather Hoffman.
To my parents, Richard and Jennifer Proeschel; my cousin Marie Rourke; my aunts, Carol Hacker and Mary Ward; Jack and Lois Karp; and Tim and Kim Karp, for all the years of love and encouragement.
To my daughter, Meggie, for listening to the entire plot of this book before I’d even written it and telling me she was looking forward to this novel more than anything else I’d written. To my husband, Adam, who has loved and stood by me ever since we were nineteen-year-old college kids. And to my son, Ethan, for his infectious excitement for my books, even though he hasn’t yet been old enough to read them. That will change soon.
This book is for my cousin Jimmy Hacker, who passed away while I was revising the novel in February 2015. When we were kids, he helped inspire my imagination. As an adult, he showed me what courage looks like when he made a new life for himself in a place that accepted him for who he was. I hope the dedication of this novel will help keep his memory alive and bring some comfort to his mother, sister, and longtime partner.