Girl Mans Up (29 page)
Authors: M-E Girard
THANKS TO . . .
I shall begin my thanks with Linda Epstein, my agent. Lindaâyou picked Pen and me out of the pile, whipped us into shape, and guided us through the whole book publishing thing. I owe you many, many thanks for being a badass agent. To my editor, Jill DavisâI am so thankful for the awesome experience of working with you. You knew exactly where this story needed to go. It would not have grown into what it is without your expert input and guidance. Mega-thanks to the folks at Harper. First, the Katherine Tegen Books people, including Katherine Tegen and Katie Bignell. Then to the HarperTeen group, including Ro Romanello, Stephanie Hoover in publicity, and Nellie Kurtzman's marketing team, including Bess Braswell, Elizabeth Ward, Julie Yeater, and Sabrina Aballe. I'm insanely proud to be sending this book out into the world through Harper and its badass team of professionals. I am so grateful for HarperCollins Canada and the stellar opportunity to be co-pubbed in my kickass country. Melissa Zilberberg, Cory Beatty, Shamin Alli, Suzanne Sutherland, and Hadley Dyerâplus all the people I met during my visits at the offices: You guys are so welcoming, professional, and enthusiastic,
it blew me away. Special thank you to my Canadian editor, Suzanne. I'm so glad the timing of all this brought us together! Thank you to Alexei Esikoff, Mark Rifkin, and Veronica Ambrose: Your thorough copyediting and proofreading skills left me feeling like you've got some kind of superhero powers. Jacket artist Adams Carvalho and designer Katie Fitch: You guys made my book cover kick some serious ass, and I thank you both a million times for that. Malinda Lo, you chose me to be one of your Lambda workshop participants, and then you went above and beyond. I am beyond grateful for all the support you've given me. Thank you for all of your advice and many discussions about Pen and her story. I didn't have to explainâyou just got who she is! To Michael Cart, I. W. Gregorio, Lauren Myracle, Sarah Ryan, and Ariel Schrag: It is an honorâand a mind-blowing fangirl experienceâto count you amongst my first readers. Thanks for the words! I must thank Julie Anne Peters for writing the book that sparked my love of contemporary queer YA. It's no coincidence that Pen's high school is named St. Peter's. Thanks to my friend Laura Chandraâwho I met at the 2013 Lambda retreatâfor being the fastest and most thorough beta reader ever. Your feedback was invaluable when it came to rewriting the crap out of this story. I want to thank Lambda Literary and the YA/Genre workshop crew for giving me the opportunity to live amongst queer people for a week (twice!), for the many friends I've made, and for opening my eyes in a million different ways. Thank you to all the writers I've met along the way for the support, the tips, the opportunities to rant, and the many examples of what being a writer
can look like. I also have to mention the stellar coffeehouses that allowed me to sit for hours while I wrote, revised, and rewroteâCoffee Culture, Williams Coffee, Starbucks, and the few indie spots I tried out in between. Combined, you were the best office this working writer could ask for. To my family for not laughing at me when I started going around saying I was suddenly a writer, and thanks in advance for buying multiple copies of my book. For real, though, I have the kind of parents who brought me up to believe I literally could go as far as I felt like taking myselfâno limits. Maman et Papa, je le sais que vous êtes fiers de moi pour cette idée folle de devenir écrivaine, pis c'est pas mal encourageant, donc . . . merci! And finally, thank you to Melissa Silva for the inspiration, the insider look at all the Portuguese goodness, for reading almost every draft of this story, and for dragging me deeper into gaming, toys, and horror. I <3 you. There would be no Pen if it wasn't for you.
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M-E GIRARD
lives just outside Toronto, Canada, where she splits her time between writing YA fiction about badass teen girls and working nights as a pediatric nurse. A 2013 and 2015 Lambda Literary Fellow, M-E is a proud feminist who is endlessly fascinated by the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding the concept of gender. You can find her online at
www.megirard.com
and all over social media.
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GIRL MANS UP
. Copyright © 2016 by M-E Girard. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ISBN 978-0-06-240417-6
EPub Edition © August 2016 ISBN 9780062404190
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