Date Me, Bryson Keller(74)

    To Christopher Schelling: Thank you for taking a chance on a twenty-one-year-old writer with a dream. You taught me so much about writing and the industry. I’ll forever be grateful.

To Beth Phelan: Thank you for creating #DVpit. Without this spectacular program, I would not be living my dream right now.

To my writer friends—and I truly have met so many of you, and I am thankful to each of you, too. Lucky 13s—Julie C. Dao, Jessica Rubinkowski, Heather Kaczynski, Mara Fitzgerald, Rebecca Caprara, Austin Gilkeson, Jordan Villegas—I would be very lost without our email threads. You were there for me for the ups and downs, and the in-betweens, too. Your faith and support made me keep going, and I can’t thank you enough. Special thanks to Jessica for the pep talks and for pushing me to pitch this book in the first place.

To June Tan, Deeba Zargarpur, Emily A. Duncan, Rory Power, Christine Lynn Herman, Rosiee Thor, Emma Theriault, and Alexa Donne: Thank you for the support and chats. You make being a writer a lot less lonely. Special shout-out to Alexa Donne for being amazing and always willing to talk. Your advice and insights have been priceless. I’m blessed that I get to call you my friend.

To Gwen Cole: Thanks for being the best critique partner. Your support, insight, and enthusiasm are truly invaluable to me. I’m a big fan of you and your stories!

    To my Author Mentor Match mentees, Alexandria Strutz, Daniel Voralia, Debra Spiegel, and Joanne Weaver: Thank you for the support and trust. Alex, thank you for the chats and for fully understanding my love of not only BTS but also SHINee. The CDs you sent are among my most prized possessions, as are the photo cards. Next time, though, I will get the flaming charisma that is Minho. Thanks, friend!

And to Daniel, user of terrible fake accents and holder of an amazing British one: Thank you for the chats and, more often than not, for getting me. I can’t thank you enough for being the first reader of this book, and for offering brutally honest notes on those early chapters. They were just the kick I needed to get my confidence back, and I am forever grateful.

To the rest of the Author Mentor Match family: Thanks for the support. It means the world to me.

To my editor—and magical human being—Chelsea Eberly: Your insight into this world and these characters has truly been invaluable. Thanks to you, this story is much stronger. You pushed me further and further with each draft, and I am grateful that you did. From the moment I got your first edit letter, I knew that you understood Kai and Bryson and the rest of the cast. That you believed in this story with all your heart. Thank you for making this debut experience one I can look back on fondly. Thank you for making an offer and turning my dreams into reality. Thank you for loving this book as much as I do.

To Polo Orozco, thank you for your wonderful insight, and for getting me and this book across the finish line.

    To everyone at Random House Children’s Books: Thank you for the support and the work you’ve put into this book. Regina Flath, my book designer, you designed the most amazing book cover and jacket ever. I seriously get chills when I look at it. Howard Huang and the cover models, thanks for the photographs and for playing a part in creating something truly spectacular.

To Robert Guinsler—agent extraordinaire, and quite possibly superhero: I don’t think a paragraph is space enough for me to tell you how grateful I am to you. Thank you for telling me to send this book to you. Waking up to your email the next day felt like a dream, and it was the start of this magical journey. You understood this book, and more important, you understood me. When you said I’d have a book deal by Christmas, I thought you were lying. Thanks for giving me the best Christmas present a writer could ever dream of. I’m still in shock at how far we’ve come, and I know that none of this would have been possible without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Onward and upward we go!

And to everyone else at Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate everything that you do for me and this book behind the scenes. Danielle Bukowski and the rest of the foreign rights team, thank you for making the most impossible of dreams come true.

Finally, to you, dear reader: Thank you for picking up this book and giving it a chance. I hope that you liked it and that you love Kai and Bryson as much as I do.

A thousand thank-yous and more!