ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
(as printed in Finding Imogene)
I had a seed of an idea in 2018, which needed a pot. Authors Maya Rushing Walker and Lisa Manterfield, thank you for a safe place to share all things writing, publishing, and marketing.
A seed needs soil throughout its life. Thank you to my book coach, Lizette Clarke, and beta readers, Ginger Knight and author Elaine Schroller. Each of you gave me the much-needed, otherwise absent, confidence to move forward. Oh, honey, Mary Jo Hazard, you were the first reader. Your response was what I needed to carry on. Your decades-long family counselor experience and historical insight made this story possible. Karsen and Crystal, it was fun to bounce around ideas as Frannie’s character evolved. Adam, thanks for encouraging me to stretch and write something new and unfamiliar. Bridgette and Daniel, thanks for fielding my questions about police records. My fellow Irrational Muses, thanks for letting me be irrational daily. Donald, I appreciate your discretion.
Author Cathey Graham Nickell, thanks for watering this plant. You’ve answered no less than ten million texts about this novel and read three (or four?!) drafts. From April to July 2020, we were writing buddies during unprecedented times. And you answered on December 7, 2020, when I needed to call someone before my family was awake on the West Coast and cry my heart out. Thank you. I met you in an online course several years ago, but have never met you in person (!!), and I can’t imagine life without you. Thanks for being my who-says-we-need-to-meet-in-person-to-be-besties friend. You’re the bee’s knees.
Plants need pruning and, oftentimes, dead-heading. Thanks to my editors at all levels and through multiple versions: Paige Duke, Edna Bay, My Brother’s Editor, The Missing Ink, and Fair Crack of the Whip Proofreading & Editing. Author A.J. Banner, I learned more from you in our one-hour conversation about writing and editing than any course I’ve taken.
A growing plant can outgrow its pot. There is no one I’d rather replant with than the team at Andrea Hurst Literary Agency. Andrea, Katie, and crew, you made Finding Imogene blossom. Your guidance, support, and friendship are some of the best outcomes of writing this novel.
This seed needed a lot of inspiration and sunshine, and for those lovely rays, I’m looking with heart-shaped eyes at Maggie & Devvie. And you’ll always be in my heart and on my mind, Bonnie Lou & Bonna Lee.
Ted, you’re the green thumb, the pollinator. Thank you for being you.
P.S.: Inspiration credit to Charles Dickens, C. S. Lewis, and the creators of The Smurfs, and Oliver!. Thanks for existing.