Acknowl­edg­ments is a heart­felt chap­ter in which the author express­es pro­found grat­i­tude for the numer­ous indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions who played an inte­gral role in bring­ing their work to fruition. The jour­ney to pub­li­ca­tion is rarely a solo endeav­or, and the author begins by rec­og­niz­ing Grove Atlantic, the pub­lish­er, as an incred­i­bly for­tu­nate part­ner­ship. They note the great priv­i­lege of being able to work with such a sup­port­ive and ded­i­cat­ed pub­lish­er. Spe­cial thanks are giv­en to Mor­gan Entrekin, who stood as a con­stant pil­lar of sup­port through­out the entire process, always offer­ing guid­ance and encour­age­ment. Judy Hot­tensen, with her unique under­stand­ing of Mid­west­ern Eng­lish, is also sin­gled out for her assis­tance, along­side Deb Sea­ger, whose mem­o­ry and help­ful­ness were invalu­able dur­ing the writ­ing jour­ney. These indi­vid­u­als, along with oth­ers, pro­vid­ed the steady foun­da­tion on which the book was built, offer­ing their exper­tise, knowl­edge, and unwa­ver­ing belief in the author’s vision.

The chap­ter con­tin­ues with a trib­ute to Elis­a­beth Schmitz, the author’s edi­tor, who is praised for her sharp insight and remark­able abil­i­ty to trans­form the man­u­script into its final form. Schmitz’s edi­to­r­i­al con­tri­bu­tions were essen­tial in help­ing shape the nar­ra­tive and bring clar­i­ty to the book’s core ideas. The author acknowl­edges her excep­tion­al tal­ent for iden­ti­fy­ing the key themes and issues with­in the work, which played a vital role in craft­ing the final ver­sion. Addi­tion­al­ly, Kel­ly Winton’s artis­tic tal­ent is acknowl­edged for the book cov­er, with the author describ­ing it as mag­nif­i­cent. The cov­er, as a visu­al man­i­fes­ta­tion of the work, cap­tured its essence, set­ting the tone for read­ers and reflect­ing Winton’s artis­tic abil­i­ty to visu­al­ly express the story’s themes. This col­lab­o­ra­tion between the author and those involved in the pro­duc­tion and design of the book demon­strates the col­lec­tive effort behind the scenes that con­tributed to the book’s suc­cess.

Fur­ther acknowl­edg­ments are giv­en to the Friedrich Agency, with par­tic­u­lar thanks to Marin Takikawa and Lucy Car­son for their pro­fes­sion­al approach and unwa­ver­ing sup­port. Mol­ly Friedrich, the author’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive, is also thanked for her con­cise and wit­ty approach to lit­er­ary rep­re­sen­ta­tion, as well as her abil­i­ty to believe in the pow­er of com­pelling sto­ry­telling. The author notes how valu­able it is to have a lit­er­ary advo­cate who under­stands not only the tech­ni­cal aspects of the indus­try but also the emo­tion­al and cre­ative intri­ca­cies of a writer’s work. This acknowl­edg­ment high­lights the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion between a writer and their agent, empha­siz­ing the trust and mutu­al respect that forms the foun­da­tion of a pro­duc­tive and suc­cess­ful part­ner­ship. In addi­tion to pro­fes­sion­al sup­port, per­son­al rela­tion­ships also played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the author’s jour­ney, and these con­nec­tions are cel­e­brat­ed with heart­felt thanks.

The chap­ter also reflects on the per­son­al con­tri­bu­tions of close friends and fam­i­ly who pro­vid­ed emo­tion­al sup­port and prac­ti­cal help dur­ing the writ­ing process. Liz is men­tioned for her thought­ful ges­ture of pro­vid­ing Kellan’s octo­pus, a sym­bol of inspi­ra­tion, while Mike is thanked for intro­duc­ing the author to the eter­nal law of elec­tric bass, an impor­tant life les­son that res­onat­ed deeply. Lee’s embod­i­ment of Odysseus is also not­ed as a pow­er­ful reminder of the time­less qual­i­ties of adven­ture and endurance. Sol, too, is thanked for embody­ing the wis­dom of Homer, sym­bol­iz­ing the strength and resilience need­ed to per­se­vere through chal­lenges. These per­son­al acknowl­edg­ments empha­size the close-knit rela­tion­ships that sus­tain a writer through both the highs and lows of their jour­ney. The impor­tance of these con­nec­tions is high­light­ed as a source of strength and moti­va­tion through­out the cre­ative process.

The author also reflects on the crafts­man­ship of John, who built their mahogany writ­ing desk, a trea­sured object that became a sym­bol of the space in which the work was cre­at­ed. This desk, adorned with Reed’s paint­ing of the North Wind, was more than just a piece of furniture—it rep­re­sent­ed the envi­ron­ment in which ideas took shape and where the author could retreat to write in soli­tude. Robin is also men­tioned for being a devot­ed read­er, some­one whose keen eye for detail ensured that the char­ac­ters remained true to their arcs and that no nar­ra­tive thread strayed off course. Robin’s abil­i­ty to dis­cern when some­thing wasn’t work­ing in the nar­ra­tive was a crit­i­cal ele­ment in main­tain­ing the book’s integri­ty, and the author express­es deep appre­ci­a­tion for this invalu­able con­tri­bu­tion.

Ulti­mate­ly, the acknowl­edg­ments chap­ter serves as a tes­ta­ment to the col­lec­tive effort involved in bring­ing a book to life. It empha­sizes the impor­tance of both pro­fes­sion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion and per­son­al sup­port, rec­og­niz­ing the diverse indi­vid­u­als who con­tributed to the cre­ation of the work. The author’s grat­i­tude is expressed not only toward those direct­ly involved in the pub­lish­ing process but also to those whose love, friend­ship, and inspi­ra­tion helped shape the sto­ry. Through these acknowl­edg­ments, the author acknowl­edges that a book is not just the work of one indi­vid­ual, but the result of a com­mu­ni­ty of peo­ple who believe in the vision and sup­port the writer’s jour­ney. This chap­ter serves as a heart­felt trib­ute to the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of human rela­tion­ships, high­light­ing how the con­tri­bu­tions of many can come togeth­er to cre­ate some­thing last­ing and mean­ing­ful.