And the relationship between teachers and students works in both directions. I’m indebted to a number of brilliant students for reading my book in its earliest stages. The same teens who inspired me to write a character like Emmett eagerly dove into beta-reading on my behalf. Over fifteen students offered their sage advice and life experiences to help me form Emmett into a more fully realized character. If you ever need a reminder that you’re capable of moving mountains, all you need to do is look at my first and final drafts. Thank you so much. I hope all of you keep writing, and reading, and thinking deeply: the world needs your brilliant stories.
To the members of the Cramp, thank you. Life is unpredictable, but on Thursdays, you’re all there, waiting to talk shop about whatever project is on the table. The leaps and bounds in my writing career might look impressive to the casual observer, but it was really all of you lifting me on your shoulders and throwing me off a cliff, confident that I had learned to fly.
To Daniel, Wes, and Scott. You’re a bunch of clowns, but you’re my clowns. Half of what I know and who I am has shades of each of you in it. Thanks for always being there for me.
To my agent, Kristin Nelson, thanks for being such a warrior. From our very first conversation, there was no other option in your mind for this book than to be a smashing success. Such was your confidence and faith in me, and never once did that falter. Thanks for always taking up my fight.
That same gratitude should be extended to the rest of the amazing team at Nelson Literary Agency and their affiliates: Angie Hodapp, Jamie Perischetti, Kassie Evashevski, and Jenny Meyer.
Last, people always ask what I do for a living. In an effort to sound remotely normal, I tell them I’m an author, but in reality I’m a sub-creator. As such, my biggest thanks will always be to God. I look around at our world, which Gerard Manley Hopkins described as charged by His grandeur, and I’m stunned by the endless creativity. It’s a pleasure to take all that He invented and try to make my own characters, stories, and worlds from it. There’s joy in sub-creation, but always with a nod to the God who was clever enough to envision baboons:
“And you? You shall have a bubblegum butt….”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SCOTT REINTGEN has spent his career as a teacher of English and creative writing in diverse urban communities in North Carolina. The hardest lesson he learned was that inspiration isn’t equally accessible for everyone. So he set out to write a novel for the front-row sleepers and back-row dreamers of his classrooms. He hopes that his former students see themselves, vibrant and on the page, in characters like Emmett. You can follow him on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Twitter at @Scott_Thought.
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