Doing my first Kickstarter campaign and my first indie publishing venture the past couple of months for Fever on the Forgotten Coast has been fun and, frankly, very vulnerable! But my community has come through in a big way.
One of my favourite parts of a book is doing the acknowledgements, and I’d love to share what I wrote for Fever (I’ll be updating the hard copy and e-book files with my Kickstarter backers soon!).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book was such a blast to research and write, even though I did it in the middle of the COVID pandemic and it was about a Yellow Fever epidemic in the 1800s. Definitely a strange choice, I know!
The reason it was so fun is because I got to brainstorm about portals and timeslips and survival stuff with my amazing 9-year-old (at the time) son, Andre, and my 39-year-old (at the time) husband, Doug. You both are super smart and know more about quantum physics (and scifi, and zombies) than I do! Thanks for the help. Adele – hopefully you grow into this book in a few years! I love you all so so much.
There are lots of other people who helped me learn things for this book as well, and provided awesome insights: Houston-based children’s author and friend Tonya Ellis read an early manuscript and offered important feedback about Black experiences in life and on the page. Omar Mouallem and Owais Siddiqui in Edmonton helped me understand Isla’s character as a Muslim girl of Lebanese-Canadian background. And my brother-in-law Dan contributed his knowledge of historical firearms.
Of course any mistakes rest with me alone.
My kidlit writing group friends – Michelle Nott, Cheryl McCosh, and Connie Dowell – all provided important editorial input and cheerleading. My literary agent Elizabeth Copps believed in this book from the get-go and lent her editing and video-making expertise.
A huge shout-out to Brianna Barron for her cover art and illustrations in the book and Helen Dalton for her design and layout expertise. I think we made a great team!
Thank you to my amazing Kickstarter backers. Without you, this book wouldn’t exist! Dayna Annett, Sarah Romkey, Elizabeth Barbour, Tia, Josephine Hoegaerts, David A. Wimsett, Lynn Callahan, Jonathan Malesic, Maria McNeil, Candra Anaya, Ceal Klingler, Allison Lawlor, Rachel Lea Heide, Melanie Ormand, John Corrigan, Elizabeth Copps, Amber Henry, Rachael Herron, K Paterson, Robert Chenail, Richard, Angie Wierzbicki, Nadine Gallant, Stéphanie Chenail, Miki O’Kane, Cathey Nickell, Tonya Ellis, Dominique McCormick, Connie Dowell, Lynn Fisher, Andria, Carol Bream, Gail Lee, Emily Richards, Melony Boutilier, Frederique Charbonneau, Anne Gafiuk, Jean Crozier, Marcy Cwiklewich, Megan, Denise Wilson, Inge Trueman.
Last (but certainly not least) a big thank-you to Ms. Kaitlyn Smallwood and her 3/4 class in 2021-22. The characters of Mason, Brook, and Parker were named after students from that class who won a prize draw when I did a virtual author visit. Thanks for all those fun memories. You’re the best!
