The Variables (Virulent Book 3)

by Wescott, Shelbi

  BOOK CLUB! Y’all get top billing because you are my sustenance and my joy. In my best Groban voice: “You lift me up…” Look, I can’t even START to communicate what you all mean to me; so, I’m not even going to try right now. But the love I feel for all of you and for the group we have created is real and powerful. You are a necessity in my life, not unlike breathing. Sometimes I wish my world was just weekends with book club and nothing else. An endless rotation of time with my best friends, my biggest cheerleaders, and just, in general, some of the best women in the entire world. (The world’s a big place, but I’m still very confident in this assessment.)

  Sunshine: thank you for all of your hard work as a beta-reader and early champion of all the various forms this book took over the past year. You are honest and thorough and have pulled me back from the brink on so many occasions. Superfluous words don’t cut it. The gratitude runs deep and I hope you know that.

  Nicole: I don’t know what I’m going to do without you. You are my rock and my partner in crime and you allowed me to waste entire prep periods with book talk and you never once made me feel like you had better things to do (when you totally had better things to do). You, more than anyone, know exactly where this ending could have gone; thank you for reading seven different versions and helping me put things in perspective. Thank you for peddling this book to all your students and making me feel like a celebrity.

  Samantha: you are singularly responsible for giving me the confidence to finish Virulent. And your work on The Variables helped tremendously. Thank you for amazing edits and your insight. I still can’t believe that you gave up your winter break to help get me ready for this launch. You are so incredible in every way. (I mean, there are pictures of you on a Segway on your way to Quidditch practice. You are, in short, my hero.)

  To all of my other early readers: Jill, Ruby, Debbi, Rachel, Reina, and Tara. Thanks for your willingness to see this book in its early, messy glory and believe in me enough to know it could be better. You each caught things that I would have never even thought of and together you are an unstoppable force of beta-awesomeness.

  My colleagues and my students and parents of students: thank you! When people ask me how I marketed my books and how I found success, I have said, “Really, if you can get one of the biggest schools in Portland to have your back, that would be really helpful.” Your love for these books has carried them forward into the world. Your fandom, despite knowing me in other capacities (tardy meeting attendee, writer of referrals, copy machine hog), is the lifeline to which I cling.

  Last, but not least: thank you readers. If you’re reading this far, then that means you decided to take the plunge and journey with me to the very end. Thank you for being you. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for loving my characters. Thank you for taking a chance on an unknown. Thank you for your kind reviews (and your honest reviews that have helped me examine my own writing to make it better: you are right random Goodreads reviewer, I do have a wayward hyphen problem and I’m working really hard to correct it) and your emails and your words of appreciation. You never know when someone needs to hear them the most and your timing is always impeccable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  To everyone I forgot: I love you, too. But the snow days and being trapped in my house are getting to my head. It’s the snow and ice and not a lack of gratitude. I promise.

  About the Author

  Shelbi Wescott is a high school Language Arts and Creative Writing teacher, a television junky, and a board game connoisseur. The Variables is the third and final book in the Virulent Trilogy. Other books in the series: Virulent: The Release and The System.

  When she isn't writing, Shelbi can be found wandering the aisles of Powell's Books, throwing elaborate birthday parties, and officiating weddings. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband (a newspaper editor), her two sons, Elliott and Ike, and their newly adopted dog, Darby.

  Visit her at www.shelbiwescott.com or follow her at www.facebook.com/ShelbiWescott