Fifty Words for Rain(120)
To the incredibly kind, generous, and patient (not at all like the character!) Yuko-san: thank you so much for all of your insight, and for being one of my first pathways to a wider, more beautiful world.
Daddy, thank you so very much for supporting me through it all. I know it wasn’t easy for you, raising a dreamer. This book is just one small part of my maze of dreams, but I hope I’ve done you proud. I never stop trying.
Mom and Auntie, thank you both for being the earliest believers in me. Mom, thank you for the summers you drove me hours to take writing classes at CTY with my fellow nerds, the first people who ever made me feel like I wasn’t an island. Thank you for spending your Saturdays letting me read everything in the bookstore, and pretending that you didn’t see me with the flashlight under the covers at night.
To all of my grandparents: thank you for teaching me the value of dignity, and the strength to be kind in an often unkind world.
Hannah, my dear, I love you and always will. Liz, thank you for standing by me in the darkness. I’ll never forget. Thank you both for reading the rambling first drafts of this novel, and recognizing what could be.
Oliver, Austin, Aslan, Momo, Cleo: thank you for all of the free therapy. My sweet little Lux, I miss you.
Professor O’Har, thank you so much for indulging my rants and convincing me that I had the talent and the fortitude to do this. I repeat your words like a mantra on the bad days: I am not a failure. Full stop.
I would be remiss not to thank my amazing stepmother, Antonella. It was you who first showed me that it is love, not blood, that creates the bonds we cherish. Thank you for listening to me rant about the seedlings of these characters on the way to high school. I’m sorry I killed the guy. I have far more than fifty things to thank you for, so this will have to suffice: thank you for everything. Ti voglio bene.
To my darling Justin: I adore you beyond the measure of words. Thank you for keeping me steady, plied with sugary drinks, and for always believing in me. You make me feel like a swan.
Thank you to everyone who reads this book: to the lost, the found, and the somewhere-in-betweens.
And lastly, thank you to my former self: for surviving the rain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Asha Lemmie was born in Virginia and raised in Maryland. She attended school in Washington, DC, where she was fortunate to be exposed to a wide variety of cultural influences. She developed a passionate interest in reading at the age of two, and has been writing stories since the age of five. After graduating from Boston College with a degree in English literature and creative writing, she relocated to New York City, where she worked in book publishing. She’s still hoping to make some kind of “Thirty Under Thirty” list to soothe her millennial angst, but would settle for an honorable mention or a lifetime supply of free books. Outside of writing, she enjoys reading about history, learning languages, watching cartoons of all kinds, listening to classical music, wrangling cats, baking, and the performing arts. Fifty Words for Rain is her first novel.