The Summer Children (The Collector #3)(92)

There was another scared little girl who chose a different path, but Mercedes chose this one, and she’d choose it again and again.



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Every book has its own challenges, and breaks your brain in a different way, and this book was no exception.

So, massive thank-yous to Jessica, Caitlin, and the incredible Thomas & Mercer team, you guys are amazing and supportive and an absolute hoot, and I still can’t believe you met the please-don’t-hate-me email with laughter. Agent Sandy, who laughed twice as hard, and I’m starting to think this may say more about me than I intend it to.

Thank you, Kelie, for letting me steal your tattoo for Mercedes, and for you being generally you, and to Isabel, Pam and family, Maire, Allyson, Laura, Roni, Tessa, Natalie, and Kate for continuing to be the amazing people you are.

To the family, for being supportive and cheerful and so, so proud of me. It means a lot and keeps me going even when I want to set the draft on fire, and I am very grateful. And thank you for not minding when I carved out a few hours away from the mass arrivals and prewedding festivities so I could work on edits. Specifically, thank you to Robert and Stacy for giving me a place to land when I was so caught up in trying to finish the book on time that I couldn’t look for a place to live.

Thank you to Kesha, whose new album fueled half the draft and edits, and Mary Balogh, whose books keep me sane when I’m stressed, and the Yankee Candle Company Mountain Lodge candle, because the smell of lumberjack Chris Evans is surprisingly helpful in keeping calm to work. Thank you to the tenth anniversary live-in-concert Les Misérables, the 2015 live-action Cinderella, and Shrek: The Musical, for being the things I can have on in the background while I’m editing.

Finally, thank you to all of you, all my readers, all my chatterboxes who talk the book up to others, to the bloggers and crafters and artists who share the word in their own way. Thank you for your support, for your time, thank you for your responses, thank you for making it possible for me to continue doing this wacky thing I love.