Kiss the Morning Star (23 page)

This book has been an amazing journey, and I’m so thankful for the tremendous help and encouragement I’ve received along the way—all of it seeming to come at precisely the moment when, without the assistance, I surely would have given up.

Thank you to my very honest early readers—to David, who lets me talk each problem through until I find the answer, and doesn’t say a word when the answer I reach is the one he suggested from the beginning. To Rae Mariz, Amy Danziger Ross, Brianna Privett, Amanda Thrasher, Bethany Griffin, Cat Hellisen, Cai Young, Jenny Pinther, April Castillo, Ryan Gebhart, and Andrew Carmichael, who read and often reread drafts. Each of you gave me exactly what I needed to push my book further.

Thank you to Tami Lewis Brown, for letting me read her terrific thesis on the road trip novel and for empathizing with the overwhelming feeling of tackling editorial revisions for the first time.

Huge thanks to the musers—I am in debt to you all. Writing without you might be possible, but it would be so much more painful. Thanks for inspiring me, amusing me, and talking me off the ledge. Thanks for query letter wrangling and plot brainstorming and ridiculous amounts of hand-holding.

Thank you to my family—for feeding me and snuggling me and putting up with me. Also for going to bed early and letting me write.

Thank you so incredibly much to my extraordinary agent, Sarah Davies—for the surprise phone call from London two days before Christmas, for her thoughtful reading and her brilliant strategizing, and for always making me feel as though my dream coming true is the most important part of her job.

And finally, so many thanks to all the people at Marshall Cavendish, and extra special thanks to my editor, Melanie Kroupa, whose careful questioning forced me to search out the heart of Anna’s story and to make every word of her journey my very best work.