Then fate intervened.
One evening I was playing hockey (like all good Canadian kids do) when I got hit in the head. It was bad. Really bad. I was chasing the puck, skating as fast as I could, when an opposition player rammed his shoulder into my head. The world went black. My feet left the ice and my body hung momentarily in midair. I couldn’t see. I could barely think. My vision returned immediately. But an hour later, I could hardly talk. I couldn’t walk a hundred feet without collapsing.
I suffered a traumatic brain injury that night, one that left me unable to read a single sentence or even watch television for weeks. One that left me stuttering for ten months and with a chronic feeling that there was a bell inside me that wouldn’t stop ringing. My brain injury left me unable to hold a proper conversation, let alone write a book.
All was not lost. It took over a year, but with the help of some heavy-duty painkillers, I returned to the manuscript I’d left behind years ago: Hanna Who Fell from the Sky. I reread what I’d written during that sleepless long weekend in 2005. The story—of Hanna being forced to marry Edwin and her mother’s fantastical tale of her falling from the sky—was there. But the prose was not. I realized I had to rewrite it from scratch. And that’s what I did. An hour a day was all my head would allow. If I tried to do more, my concussion symptoms would return tenfold and I’d be forced to go into a dark room and lie there in agony until, hours later, the sensation would pass.
Still, I kept writing one hour at a time. Then eventually, two hours at a time. I forced myself to focus and tell Hanna’s story as best I could.
After many months, I had a brand-new version of the book. Only six words remained from the original manuscript. And I was thrilled with the result. Rewriting Hanna was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But it was also one of the most rewarding. If anything kept me sane through three years of the worst concussion symptoms you can imagine, it was telling Hanna’s story in the way I always wanted to tell it. As much as I am Hanna’s creator and the one who dreamed her up in the first place, she is the one who helped me get well again.
And I am well. My concussion symptoms are mostly a thing of the past. Some days I feel like I could step onto the ice and throw a body check just like old times. Although, other days I’m concerned a swift breeze might take me down. I’ll never be able to play contact sports again. But I’m able to chase my kids around the park and watch their smiling faces as I throw them into the air. I’m able to write for hours and days at a time again.
I hope you enjoy Hanna’s story. Publishing this book was my dream and one I never gave up on, even in the darkest of days. For the readers out there (if I’m lucky enough for you to read my book), at the risk of sounding cliché...never give up on your dreams. I am proof... Hanna is proof...that no matter what life throws at you, no matter the obstacles, you can do anything you set your mind to.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Wendy for being my first reader and for showing me what it’s like to still live the dream. Thank you to Hanna (age nine) for being kind and imaginative and for occasionally listening to your daddy. Thank you to Claire (age seven) for your creativity and joy.
Thank you to my editor, Erika Imranyi, for taking on this novel when it still needed a great deal of work. And to Erika and Natalie Hallak for their keen insight into my manuscript and for steering this story in the way it definitely needed to go. To the rest of the team at Harlequin/MIRA Books/Park Row Books, thank you for your hard work. Writing is a solitary pursuit, but it takes a village to publish a novel and I really appreciate everyone who’s had a hand in this book.
Thank you to my agent, Anne Bohner, for believing in Hanna’s story and for representing me with diligence and kindness. Thank you to Jen Hale, my literary BFF, whose opinion I can always trust. Thank you to Sarah Le Huray for your boundless encouragement and for reading this book at least a dozen times. Thank you to Nicholas Komick for always having my back.
Thank you to my cousins Joanne Knox and Jim Witty, who read every word I write with enthusiasm and (surprisingly) without complaint. Thank you to my aunts Joan Witty and Anne Craig. I grew up feeling like I had three mothers, and with my mom having passed away, I am incredibly lucky to still have you two. Thank you to John Dewan, my uncle Johnny, for his honesty and his support, and for $20 in an envelope every Christmas morning throughout the entire 1980s.
Thank you to my father, Larry Meades, for reading my work and for being the best grandparent you could imagine. And to Margaret Helsdon for believing in me.
And thank you to my friends, supporters and first readers: Clare Maloney, Angela Kruger, Aaron Moyer, Brian Simmers, Nicole Harvie, Rick and Nadine Gibbs, Cara Hills, Don Meades, Traci Meades, Theresa Eriksson, Rick and Jen Pantel, Deb Carter, Joalina Tolentino and Wayne Edward Gilchrist.
ISBN-13: 9781460300350
Hanna Who Fell from the Sky
Copyright © 2017 by Christopher Meades
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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