(Is this where the orchestra starts? Don’t play me off! I have more!)

Mom and dad: When I told you at age four that I wanted to be an Arthur and you thought that I meant I wanted to be an aardvark, but then you realized I meant author, you have always told me to go for it. You let me wake you up at 3am to read you things I was excited about and you always pretended it was the best stuff ever, even though I’m pretty sure you were sleeping when I read it and only woke up when I asked, “What do you think?” Thank you for raising my brothers and me to be creative, musical, and passionate. Dad, thank you for the jazz music and the introduction to Science Fiction. Mom, thank you for reading everything I’ve ever written. Thank you for being a voracious reader of other people’s books and saying more times than I can count, “You could’ve done that book so much better” even when it was very clearly not true. But that’s what moms are for. Also, THANK YOU for never censoring my reading material, especially when I was in junior high and all I wanted to do was stay up really late and read Stephen King books.

I will be forever grateful to Samantha Lynn for saying, “Um, my mom wants the next chapter right now” and it kept me writing. Thank you to Sam’s hotel bar at the Monarch for providing a mostly-quiet place to work without distraction. Thank you to all the screenwriters who write the amazing television shows and movies that get me excited to tell my own stories! Deborah Reed, thank you for offering me the encouragement I needed to try this publishing thing on my own. Thanks to Carin for your unbridled enthusiasm and cheerleading; I’m sorry sending you new chapters as I wrote them crashed your phone. And a huge thanks to the creative community to which I belong—I have supportive and awesome and exceptionally talented friends. I don’t deserve you, but I’m grateful you exist.

Lastly (as they push me off stage): To my little family. Matthew, Elliott and Isaac. In the event of a disaster, we will be together—fighting side-by-side. Actually, no, that’s inaccurate. I will fight and Matt will be the comic relief. Elliott, you are my gifted storyteller. My heart bursts with love and admiration whenever I listen to you telling me a story you created. You are my inspiration. Isaac, you are so funny and your snuggles make all my hard days better. You don’t understand why mommy is busy and doesn’t want you hitting the keyboard. I’m sure your additions would’ve been spectacular, but readers usually get confused when sdhjdf;lksdf is in the middle of a sentence.

I love you all. I am loved. I am blessed. I thank God for this journey. And I’m ready to start the next adventure.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

1PROLOGUE

2CHAPTERONE

3CHAPTERTWO

4CHAPTERTHREE

5CHAPTERFOUR

6CHAPTERFIVE

7CHAPTERSIX

8CHAPTERSEVEN

9CHAPTEREIGHT

10CHAPTERNINE

11CHAPTERTEN

12CHAPTERELEVEN

13CHAPTERTWELVE

14CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

15CHAPTERFOURTEEN

16CHAPTERFIFTEEN

17CHAPTERSIXTEEN

18CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

19CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

20CHAPTERNINETEEN

21CHAPTERTWENTY

22CHAPTERTWENTYONE

23CHAPTERTWENTYTWO

24ACKNOWLEDGMENTS