I generally don’t include an acknowledgements section in my books because I figure the average reader doesn’t particularly care how well my husband manages my pre-release meltdowns (“Everyone’s going to hate my baby! The sky is falling!”) and how ably my father hides his disdain of genre fiction when he picks apart plot holes in my second drafts (“That’s why you got an MA in English. Right?”). But I figured a blog post on the topic wouldn’t hurt — that way if you’re bored, you can skip it.

In addition to my ever-supportive friends and family, Half Wolf had an astonishing number of both enthusiastic volunteers and professionals helping turn my buggy manuscript into the (hopefully) polished product you might have downloaded to your e-reader this past weekend. First and foremost, I want to thank all of my early readers…and specifically Mel who found a typo that all of the professionals missed. Second, the enthusiasm and kindness of everyone who tried a copy of my book, told their friends, or left a review really helped me see that the sky wasn’t falling after all.

Next on my list — the blurb. Blurb-writing is an art that I’ve been practicing, but it still took several writing buddies and about a week to polish those all-important 160 words. Specifically, David J. Normoyle and Sylvia Frost‘s sentences actually ended up on the Amazon page, while Lindsay Loucks asked just the question I needed to make the blurb (finally!) veer off in the right direction. Everyone else’s feedback washelpful too! (Yes, I did really have more writers that I can easily name in a single blog post look over those four short paragraphs.)

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank the pros who turned my homemade story into a polished product. Chereese at Grammar Rules A to Z is always willing to slide my manuscript in at a moment’s notice for a thorough polish and Rebecca Frank is definitely the world’s best cover artist. If you’re a writer in need of some professional assistance, I can’t recommend these two ladies highly enough.

Still here? Then I want to thank you as well for reading all the way to the end and giving me the impetus I need to open up my laptop every day. You are why I write.