Again, But Better(121)
To my agent, JL, and my editor, Eileen, thank you for believing in this long, rambly contemporary book and continuously challenging me through the revision process. Thank you to the entire team at New Leaf and Wednesday Books.
Thank you to my best friend, Dr. Katie McCormick-Huhn, for sitting on the phone with me, brainstorming titles and names, and helping me work through any scene at all hours of the night. Thank you for being the first person to read this story, back when it was in its most primal state. Thank you for always cheering me on. Your enthusiasm and kind words were so integral to this book.
Thank you, Julia Friley. You’ve been reading my crap, and helping me make it better, since 2011. Thank you for constantly pushing me to cut shit out of this book, helping me with emails, and tolerating my insecure calls and texts. Thank you for picking up the phone and brainstorming major plot drama whenever I found myself in a bind. Thank you for reading Part One three separate times. This book wouldn’t be the same without you.
Thank you, Kat O’Keeffe, for agreeing to be critique partners with me, even though I was such a noob. Your feedback and support are always spot-on.
Thank you, Natasha Polis, for reading Draft Three and being there to discuss these characters with me whenever I needed to. Also, thanks for that time we sat around during a thunderstorm reading the chapters aloud in the dark.
Thank you to my other best friend, Dr. Jenna Presto, for reading a huge chunk of the first draft and being my official go-to source of knowledge for all things med school.
Thanks to Tiernan Bertrand-Essington and Christina Marie for providing me with thoughtful, valuable feedback when I needed it most.
Thank you to my cousin Holly Springhorn for being the first person under twenty to read a chunk of the draft. Thank you for sending me so much love.
Jesse George, Kat O’Keeffe, Larry Lane, Sasha Alsberg, Kristina Marjieh, and Allison Gottlieb, thank you for your endless support throughout this process.
To my siblings, Olivia and Paul: If you made it to the end of this book, thank you for reading it—it means a lot. Olivia, I’m honored to have written the second book you’ve ever voluntarily read. I hope you’re not reading this before you actually finish the book.
Thank you, Juan, for the endless encouragement in the final stages of the publishing process.
To my whole Booktube, Bookternet family, ALL OF YOU: Thank you for being the best, kindest, most welcoming, most understanding, most supportive, gorgeous friends a girl could ask for.
To my subscribers/viewers: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are a perpetual source of happiness for me. You have enriched my life in every way. I hope you enjoyed my first book. I hope it made you happy in some way or another. I hope you laughed. I hope it made you want to face your fears. AGGRESSIVELY HUGS YOU APOLOGIZES
Nana, thank you for blessing me with your passion for reading. Mrs. Gearing, thank you for reading aloud to us in class and enforcing DEAR time in fourth grade. J. K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer, thank you for the stories that made me fall in love with books.
Dearest reader, thank you for picking this up and supporting my writing endeavors. I hope Again, but Better brought you joy! If you’re not a big reader, I hope this made you want to read more! If it didn’t, please hit me up on YouTube at http://youtube.com/polandbananasBOOKS so I can try to turn you via video.
xoxo
2018
About the Author
Christine Riccio’s polandbananasBOOKS YouTube channel has more than 400,000 book-loving subscribers. She makes comedic book reviews, vlogs, sketches, and writing videos chronicling the creation of her own novel. She’s also one of the three YouTubers behind BOOKSPLOSION, YouTube’s longest-running book club. For the past four years Christine has been collaborating with publishing companies and authors and traveling across the United States to speak on book-related panels to further spread the reading love. You can sign up for email updates here.