I’ve just had the thrill of opening a box of my upcoming novel, The Bee-Loud Glade, which was as exciting as you might imagine and probably more. The moment has been a long time coming — I sat down to write my first mess of a novel at the end of 1999, and here I am holding one in my hands much later than I would have imagined a decade ago. But it’s been the right amount of time, because this is the story I wanted to write and I couldn’t have written it until I did. I’m proud of this book, and I really hope people enjoy it, but before the waters get muddied by reviews and sales and all that sort of thing, I’m going to post the acknowledgements page from the back of the book with a few additions who earned a mention after it was already printed.
So…
Big thanks to my parents and brothers, for indulging my daydreamer’s mind, and to my wife Sage and daughter Gretchen for living with it.
To Michelle Bailat-Jones and Laura McCune-Poplin, the best first readers and friends a person could want, and to Tom McCarthy, Rick Reiken, Michael Kindness, Peter Grandbois, William Walsh, Lise Haines, and Jessica Treadway for their support.
To Nora Fussner at Pindeldyboz, Roxane Gay at PANK Magazine, Amber Sparks at Emprise Review, Laura Ellen Scott at Everyday Genius, Matt Bell at The Collagist, Steven Seighman at Monkeybicycle, Kate Miles and Molly McCarthy at Hawk & Handsaw, Jason Behrends of Orange Alert, Mel Bosworth at Flash Fire 500, and Gina Frangello of The Nervous Breakdown for publishing excerpts, and to Jeanne Holtzman, Kevin Fanning, Rob Kloss, and Erin Fitzgerald for reading along the way.
Also to Meng-hu, host of the invaluable Hermitary.com, Tony Robinson of The Worst Jobs In History, and AKM Adam for the inspiration, and of course thanks to Dan Cafaro, Libby Kuzma, Lindsey Kline, Jamie Keenan, and Angela Gabriel at Atticus Books.
In memory of Checkers, who always knew when I needed a walk to think about the next bit of writing.