Thank you to my agent, Josh Adams, for your support and encouragement, as well as the helpful reminders to breathe.
Thank you to James Sallis for taking me under your wing and teaching me how to fly.
Thank you to the Parking Lot Confessional: Amy McLane, Stephen Green, and Ryan Dalton. No one gets me like you do, grok?
Thank you to the Thursday-night crew, including Patricia Grady Cox, Marty Murphy, Nanor Tabrizi, Michael Greenwald, Jonathan Bond, Jonathan Levy, Paul Giblin, Hirsch Handmaker, Lynn Galvin, Martha Blue, Charles Dunham, Karen Reed, and Dean Burmeister.
Thank you to Dana Hinesly, Karen North, Trish Burdick, Nannette White, Natalie Veidmark, Tim and Flower Darby, Cyndee Andrino, and Heather Wiest for your friendship.
Thank you to fellow authors Sara Wilson Etienne, Amie Kaufman, Shannon Messenger, Kimberly Sabatini, Allan Mouw, Jodi Moore, Jeff Cox, Chuck Wendig, Stephen Blackmoore, Beth Revis, Austin Aslan, Shonna Slayton, Bill Konigsberg, Erin Jade Lange, and James A. Owen for your support and example.
Thank you to the booksellers, librarians, and bloggers who’ve enthusiastically supported this series, including the incredible people at Changing Hands, the Poisoned Pen, and Mysterious Galaxy. Special thanks to Lee Whiteside, James Blasingame, Faith Hochhalter, Brandi Stewart, Jeff Kronenfeld, and Maryelizabeth Hart.
Thank you to my parents for instilling in me a love for books at an early age. Apologies, again, for the crayon scribbles in your antique-poetry collection. I think it was a sign. Thanks to my brother for all the Saturday mornings spent watching sci-fi movies and episodes of The Twilight Zone. I think that probably was a sign, too.
Thank you to Zoe and Cooper for your boundless joy and imagination. You inspire me no end. Thank you to my husband, Jim, for convincing me to give this writing thing a try in the first place. None of this would have happened without your love and support, not to mention your making sure the house didn’t fall apart while I was on deadline.
In the words of Joe Banks: “Dear God…thank you for my life. I forgot how big. Thank you. Thank you for my life.”
Finally, thank you, Reader. May you never stop asking, What if? And may you live a life your parallel self will envy.
While You Were Gone Page 21