At the back of my novel Angel from the Rust, you’ll find the acknowledgments section. This is the part of the book that is often overlooked. So I thought I’d give it special attention in its very own post…
When people think of a book-in-the-making, the image that often comes to mind is of the author at work: an introvert hunched over his or her desk, shut off from the rest of the world, and completely absorbed in the story on the screen. While this is a big part of a book coming into existence, the image is incomplete. When it comes to publishing a book (and publishing it well), an author can’t function as an island. It takes a team of good people—as it did with this book. I’d like to thank them all.
Book Production
My thanks to Chris Arnold, Helen Blakeman, and the team at Heroic Books. You believed in the story and gave me a chance, doing most of the heavy lifting to see it produced. Heroic was a fun ride while it lasted. Fred Johnson, my editor, turned up the volume on my action scenes and masterfully made the story all that it could be. Nat MacKenzie did a wonderful job on the cover, capturing the essence of the story into an image.
This story has also been produced as an audiobook, and this project was made possible with the help of the backers on my Kickstarter campaign. All my backers are generous, but some of them went above and beyond by being extra generous. My thanks to Tanda Fitzsimmons, Brett McKenzie, and the Puleos. Tiffany Morgan Baker, the audiobook narrator, did a wonderful job bringing the story to life with her voice.
Friends and Family
I also have to mention my writer’s group in La Grande: Sean Crow, Will Bowman, Alex McHaddad, and Heather Rekow. You took the early drafts of this story—pieces of my soul on the page—and you utterly crushed them into millions of jagged pieces. And for that I thank you.
To my students at NCA who bugged me to get mentioned in my book—here you go. You’ve been mentioned. Happy now?
I thank my wife, Jessenia. Without your support, I wouldn’t be able to live out my dream of putting stories on the page. Thank you for your sacrifices and for putting up with my wandering writer’s mind.
And of course, I thank God for giving me my imagination and giving me the opportunity to tell this story.