The Girl Who Never Was (27 page)

I must provide a special extended note of thanks to my parents and sisters. They have supported me in every crazy thing I've ever done, even the ideas I have that I know make them shake their heads and wonder where I came from. Perhaps more importantly though, they make me laugh, harder than anyone else in the universe, and in the end, that's what life should be about. This planet is a crazy place full of crazy people. Some of them I write about. The rest of them I talk to my family about, in giddy, hilarious, confusing conversations without equal, and I honestly have no idea what I would do without them. People ask me if I write about my family, and the truth is that I don't really, because I'm not sure anyone would believe me if I did; they are too amazing and fantastic. So Mom, Dad, Meg, Cait: Thank you for making me laugh, for loving me, for making sure I know I'm loved, for always being my home, through good times and bad. The world can be a big and lonely place. You may not be ogres or faeries, but you are magical in that you keep my world crowded with love

and laughter and delight and happiness. You have made my life bright, exciting, unpredictable'as we would say, never a dull moment! And I genuinely would never want it to be any other way. You are the greatest gifts, and I am the luckiest person. We end every telephone conversation with 'I love you,'and I want, with these acknowledgments, to make sure you know how much I mean it every time I say it: I love you. And thank you.

aBOut the authOr

Skylar Dorset grew up in Rhode Island, so she hates to drive more than twenty minutes to get anywhere. After receiving a law degree from Harvard, Skylar was an attorney in Boston for many years, where she wrote much of her first book during bouts of being stuck on the subway. Visit her at www.skylardorset.com.