How to Be Brave(63)

So two weeks after graduation, a mere three weeks after my grand art debut and my reunion with Liss and Evelyn’s shaky return to our world and my first kiss with Daniel, I’m here, suspended upside down, with all of Chicago inverted around me.

And this is what it’s like:

I’m oscillating from one end of the ladder to the other.

The net is so very far below my head.

The blood rushes to my head and

my friends, they call out to me, and I’m screaming and

laughing and

howling

above the world.

The entire city moves under me.

It’s all there, waiting.

I’m marking air,

I’m moving time.

The molecules around me sway and

bump and

move right along

with me.


I’m doing everything.

I’m doing it all, Mom.

Even more than you could have ever imagined.


For me, and

for you.




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Rose Hilliard, for your guidance, encouragement, and excitement. Thanks to everyone at St. Martin’s Press, including Jen Enderlin, Anne Marie Tallberg, Michelle Cashman, Emily Walters, and Lizzie Poteet. Olga Grlic, thank you for the beautiful cover. A thank-you to Courtney Miller-Callihan, for your wisdom and grace; also, special thanks to everyone at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

So much gratitude to my soul sisters, Kate Eberle (also the very first reader), Aimee Kandelman, and Kara Noe. To my first readers, Pamela Zimny and J. A. Ward, who encouraged me to take the leap to send this story out into the world. Thank you to my California family: “Papa” Ray Elias, Chuck Bush, Karnit Galmidi (bubba), Michael Braun, Mandy Berkowitz, Jon Berkowitz, Hannah Maximova, Michael Hartigan, and Tessa Taylor. This also includes my Yoga Blend family: Christy Marsden, Bekah Turner, Nicole Honnig, and absolutely everyone at the studio. Thanks to my family in Chicago and Greece. Special long-distance hugs to Shirley Mann, for the weekly calls, candles, and “attagirls.” I am grateful to be surrounded by so much love.

I am eternally grateful to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Special thanks to Francesca Rusackas and Q. L. Pearce at the SCBWI SoCal chapter. Also, thanks to my writer friends, Lori Polydoros, Kathleen Green, Teri Keeler, Hilde Garcia, Amy Elaine Mills-Klipstine, Amaris Glass, Autumn Hilden, Farrah Penn, Frey Hoffman, and Antonio Borrego. Robyn Schneider, thank you for your good advice. Corrie Shatto, thank you for your friendship. Your spirit is a gift in my life. Over the past year, the YA Binders have added another amazing dimension to my community. To my writing teachers, Noel Alumit, Mandy Hubbard, and Margo Dill, thank you for your honest feedback and guidance. Thanks to the UCLA Extension and LitReactor for the fantastic classes. Thanks to my friends and colleagues at Pasadena City College and to my students for your constant curiosity and openness.