Acknowledgements

One year and five days ago, I received a phone call that set in motion the process which saw me acquire an editor and an agent and a two-book deal in the space of a week. That sounds fast, but it’s been a long journey to this, my first published novel, and I owe many people a great deal.

My Clarion South classmates, tutors, and convenors – otherwise known as the voices in my head – taught me so much about writing I’m still trying to remember and sort through it all: Nathan Burrage, Mark Barnes, Nike Bourke, Emma Munroe, Anne mok, Tessa kum, Trevor stafford, Lily chrywenstrom, shane Jiraiya cummings, suzanne church, susan Wardle, Kenrick Yoshida, evan Dean, ellen klages, Alison Chan, Rjurik Davidson, Sean Williams, michael swanwick, ellen Datlow, margo Lanagan, ian irvine, Scott Westerfeld, kate eltham, Robert hoge, Heather Gent and Bob Dobson.

Many people read all or some of the manuscript in its early stages, and helped me whip the starveling threads of narrative into a story: Ben Bastian, Anne Mok, Becky Keft, Nike Bourke, Ian Irvine, Rachel Holker, Liz Adkins and Tessa Kum. I am especially grateful to Tessa for her boundless enthusiasm, and for her amazing trick of driving to the heart of the story and telling me what isn’t working in a way that always gave me the energy to tackle yet one more revision.

To Sean Williams, Nike Bourke and Ian Irvine, my thanks for guiding me through the process of garnering an agent after selling a book, instead of the other way around, and my particular thanks for pretending that my nervous panicky wibbling at the time was entirely natural behaviour.

The editorial and design team at Allen & Unwin have shepherded this book – and me – through the publishing process with aplomb. For their eagle-eyed scrutiny of every word, comma and apostrophe, I thank all my editors and proofreaders, and I’m particularly grateful for their eternally patient and tactful manner in pointing out to me that ‘This word? It doesn’t mean what you think it means.’

My invaluable agent, Tara Wynne, always knew what I needed to be doing when I didn’t, which was most of the time.

Thanks must also go to Les Petersen, for knowing what the cover needed far better than I could ever put into words, and producing the marvellous artwork adorning this book’s cover.

I was lucky to have such good editors as Angela Handley and Louise Thurtell, who both pushed this book to be the absolute best it could be, and who both included me every step of the process. My especial thanks to Louise, for instituting the Friday Pitch which saw this book picked up out of the slush pile, and for those wondrous notes she included with every revision pass.

Last but by no means least, to my family, for never once doubting.

Deborah Kalin