Into the Dim (Into the Dim, #1)(102)
It also wouldn’t exist without my book-loving mom, Nena Butler. My mom is my alpha reader, my traveling companion, and the one who put a book in my hand when I was three years old, teaching me how the little squiggles on the page could carry you away into a million different worlds. Thanks, Mom, for reading all the terrible first drafts and telling me each one would be a movie someday. To my sweet daddy, Duck, who’s so very proud of me, and to my beautiful sister, Jennifer, and my gorgeous nieces, Hannah, Kayley, and Ava—who let me use her middle name for my main character.
A humongous thanks goes to my incredible rock-star agent, Mollie Glick. Mollie, you never gave up on me or on Hope. You recognized something in my little time-travel story, then whipped me beyond the boundaries of what I thought I could do. Thanks also to her fantastic assistant, Joy Fowlkes, who fielded a million emails from me and never got tired.
Thank you to my fabulous editor, Sarah Landis. Sarah’s my guru, my sherpa, and the keenest editorial eye I’ve ever known. Thanks also to Mary Wilcox and Christine Krones, for taking me in hand while Sarah was off being fecund. My brilliant publicist, Rachel Wasdyke, and marketing sage, Ann Dye, and all the wonderful folks at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for believing in this story.
To Heather Webb, author extraordinaire, leader of our writing group, and the best friend/sprinting partner in the world. Huge hugs to all the girls in the SFWG writing group—Susan Spann, Candie Campbell, Julianne Douglas, LJ Cohen, Marci Jefferson, Amanda Orr, DeAnn Smith, Arabella Stokes. Together we’ve become better than we ever dreamed.
Love to all my Arkansas friends. My BFF since third grade, Kelley Riggs Nichols (yes, you can come with me and dress me on book tour), Linda Gayton, Yolanda Longley, and Lynette Place (whose talent made my author picture look halfway decent). Michelle Buchanan; her brilliant daughter, Marlee; Barbara Varnon. Thanks to my DFWcon writer friends, Jenny Martin, Dawn Alexander, Kate Michaels, and Lindsay Cummings.
I’m forever grateful to Diana Gabaldon, for making historical time travel cool. And to my experienced guides through this crazy biz—Joelle Charbonneau, Leigh Bardugo, Rysa Walker, Kendare Blake, Alethea Kontis, Danielle Page, Brenda Drake, CJ Redwine, and Rachel Caine.
A huge thanks to my new “posse,” the Sweet 16s. I couldn’t get through the day without WAY too many texts, IMs, emails, frantic phone calls flying between me and Marisa Reichardt, Shea Olsen, Shannon Parker, Catherine Lo, Kathryn Purdie, Ashley Herring Blake.
The most massive “I love you” goes to my brilliant, hilarious sons, Phillip and Parker, who keep me in line when I try to be cool.
And finally, in loving memory of Parker’s beautiful girlfriend, Katherine Palludan, who loved books as much as I do, and whom we lost so tragically last year. We love you, Katherine.