forget your encouragement and our discussions about charac—
terization and plot. To my sister from another mister/critique partner, Becky Wallace: I wouldn’t have made it this far without you, cyber best friend. One day we will get to hang out together.
Thank you also to Caroline Richmond and Lynne Matson for
being awesome betas.
Thank you to the many book bloggers who’ve already shown
incredible support and excitement for Blackhearts.
I have several nonwriterly friends who’ve helped me along
the way. Dionne Matthews, Brandee Hammett, Andrea Stroud,
Sam Loveland, and Becca Castleton, thank you for taking the
time out of your busy schedules to read for me. Of course I
couldn’t have written as much as I did without the help of Janine Sydney, and Jake Simpson, as well as Holly and James Loveland.
3 7 2
Thanks for being there for me throughout this entire process and entertaining my kiddos while I pursued my dream.
To my mother, Doris S. Platt, you always encouraged me
to write. You knew I would love it, because you taught me to
love books. You were right! To my father, James S. Platt, you
taught me the importance of getting up every day and going to
work, no matter what. To my siblings Andrea Christiansen and
Cameron Platt and their families, thank you for listening to me when I talked about my story ideas. For my twin sister, Kirsten Major, I’m so glad I had you by my side. Not everyone is as
lucky as we were to come with our very own best friend. Your
family is lucky to have you! To my in-laws, the Castroman/
Perez clans, thanks so much for all your support.
And finally to my beautiful family: Sophia and Anthony,
you are my everything and I’m proud to be your mother. You
always believed in me. Thank you for understanding when
I said, “Mommy has to write.” And to my Miguelo, I knew
when we first met that you were the one for me. Without your
encouragement I wouldn’t have made it this far, and I’m thankful for every day we spend together. Te amo mucho.