On the Hachette Children’s Group front I want to thank my newest editor, Naomi Greenwood, who introduced herself to me along with a mountain of wonderful news (that somehow keeps on coming?). I am so excited to work with you on our next projects! Desk editor Laura Pritchard. The wonderful marketing team, Beth McWilliams and Alex Haywood; Lucy Clayton in publicity; Alison Padley in design; Joelyn Esdelle in production; and Nicola Goode and her entire team in sales. And an extra thank you to Joe Stansbury for the gorgeous illustrated cover for the UK edition.
I also need to thank the entire Dystel, Goderich and Bourret team including Michaela Whatnall, foreign rights director Lauren Abramo, foreign rights assistant Gracie Freeman-Lifschutz, and Andrew Dugan and Nataly Gruender for taking care of financials, and Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein for representing me overseas.
Once again, thank you, the reader, who has purchased this book, received it as a gift, borrowed from a friend or checked it out from a library. You’ve helped all the people above continue to do the jobs that they love.
As a Lambda Literary fellow, I submitted the early, messy, meandering draft of this book for workshop, so I absolutely have to thank the Young Adult Cohort in the 2021 Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellowship. Starting with our incomparable leader Robin Talley, and the rest of the fellows: Guthrie Blechman, Elizabeth Evers, Isaiah Holbrook, C. Julian Jiménez, Leah Johnson, Mary Maxfield, medina, Stephan Nance, Dionne Richardson, Nik Traxler and Joni Renee Whitworth, thank you all so much for sharing your work, and I’m so excited for the world to read your words! Stay hydrated for the revolution!
Jennifer Dugan, Jason June and Amy Spalding, thank you all so much for reading and blurbing this book. It’s such a wonderful feeling having people you admire read and enjoy your work!
To the authors I’m lucky enough to now call friends: Brian D. Kennedy, Naz Kutub, Susan Lee, Anna Gracia, Steven Salvatore, Zachary Sergi, Charles A. Bush, Amy Ignatow, Kristin Dwyer, Dante Medema and more, I’m so thankful for you all.
My after-school job in high school was as a server in a retirement community, so I absolutely have to thank my own ‘Sunset Estates Crew’ and residents for the wonderful years we spent together and for inspiring this completely made-up place. Also, my lawyers have instructed me to put in writing that the events and people in this novel are all one hundred percent fictitious and any similarities to real places or people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
I’m just kidding; I can’t afford lawyers. But the rest of that is true.
To be fair, though, some of the people in this book are real. When I wasn’t writingLose You to Find Meor working onAll That’s Left in the Worldedits during 2020, I was watching YouTube cooking videos andUNHhhh. So thank you to the internet personalities who never met me but still managed to provide me with much-needed comfort and inspiration: Sohla El-Waylly, Rick Martínez, Andrew Rea, Claire Saffitz, Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova.
Thank you, Katie Fehlinger, for creating the ‘Reese with Her Spoon’ pun that inspired a whole list of Academy Award-winning and -nominated actress ice cream flavors that I’ve been trying to include in a book foryears.
Once again, thank you, Dr Benjamin Clippinger, for answering my medical questions, including the nightmare-fuel tidbit that leech therapy is still effectively used in reattaching severed body parts. If anything is wrong it’s because I failed to ask him the right question, so just ignore it.
My friends pretend to care when I’m talking about writing-related stuff, and I cannot thank them enough: Brandon McMullin, Kellie Clark, Brittany Young, Maureen Belluscio, Bob Gurnett, Allie Beik, Tim Davis, Nick Biddle, Matthew Kelly, Sheryl Fields, Jesse Hein, Patrick Vacca and CJ Moore. And thank you, Erika Kincaid, who remains my biggest cheerleader but has now recruited everyone in the Kincaid/Von Tiehl family onto the squad! And to Jon Keller … I forgive you.
Thank you to my supportive family: Ann Marie Brown, John Brown, Sean, Jamie, Ryan, Ethan, Nolan, and Dylan Brown, Sean McLean (for watchingEmpire Recordswith me every single night for an entire summer when we were kids), Stephanie Sullivan, and my aunts, uncles and cousins too numerous to mention!
I dedicated this book to my grandparents, who I am eternally grateful for. I think I managed to adopt all their best personality traits, so I especially thank Margaret and Aaron Keels, and Ann and John ‘Jack’ Brown, from the bottom of my heart.
And finally, as always, to my wonderful partner, Michael Miska. I thank you for your love and support, but also for always knowing exactly what I’m thinking. You are the best surprise that life has given me.
