On the Divinity of Second Chances

Table of Contents

 

 

 

On the Divinity of Second Chances

KAYA MCLAREN, author of
Church of the Dog
, lives and teaches on the east slope of Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. When she’s not working, she likes to telemark ski, sit in hot springs, moonlight hike, and play in lakes with her dog, Big Cedar.

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First published in the United States of America by DayBue Publishing 2004
Published in Penguin Books 2009

Copyright © Kaya McLaren, 2004

All rights reserved

 

Publisher’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or
dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
McLaren, Kaya.
On the divinity of second chances / Kaya McLaren.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-03265-7

1. Family secrets—Fiction. 2. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3613.C57O5 2009
813’.6—dc22 2008037232

 

 

 

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

Acknowledgments

2004

Thanks, of course, to my original editors, Elizabeth and Chris Day, who helped me stick with it when my attention span was shot, who edited without telling me what to write, but improved my awareness about where the holes were. Thank you, Nancy Burke, for providing the avenue to make my dreams reality. Thanks to everyone at DayBue Publishing, Chapter One Books in Ketchum, The Book Store in Wenatchee, and Sunflower Books in LaGrande—I appreciate all you’ve done to promote my writing. Thanks to my high school English teacher, Bill Hawk, who had high expectations and the skills as a teacher to help us meet them. I learned a lot from him. Thanks to Mary Hoeksema and Tess Haddon for great feedback and perspectives. Thanks to Barb Julian and Diane Honsinger for reading a very early draft a couple years ago and encouraging me not to go in that direction. Thanks, Mom and Gram, for tons of encouragement, and for always believing in me. Thanks to both Dad and Mom, who are happily married, for instilling in me the belief that I am capable of anything. Thanks to all the book groups who invited me to discuss my first book,
Church of the Dog,
and to screenwriter David Darch—I am a better writer for the awareness you gave me. Thanks to everyone who let me know
Church of the Dog
touched them. Some of my most productive days were spent at the homes of Leanne Webster, Andee Hansen, and Mari Wania—thanks for inspiration and clarity I couldn’t find at my house. Thanks to everyone in the Wood River Valley who helped or cared when I lost Tasha Good Dog and spent three months searching for her. Love comes in so many forms; to everyone in my past, present, and future who radiates it in my presence, thank you for the strength, encouragement, and inspiration it gives me.

 

 

2008

First, I’d like to say a big thank-you to my agents, Meg Ruley and Christina Hogrebe at JR A, and everyone at Penguin, but especially my editor, Kendra Harpster, for giving this book a divine second chance in a very big way. I’d like to thank Claudia Guilford and her mother, Gloria Campbell, whom Meg calls our Fairy Godmother for bringing me to them. Thanks to Clint at Greenleaf Book Group for giving my books a home while they were between publishers. I love this book. I love this book with all my heart. Thank
you
for reading it.