Poison Shy (15 page)

I don't deserve the support and assistance I received from the following people:

Michael Holmes

Russell Smith

Andrew Pyper

Amanda Wetmore

Jowita Bydlowska

Sarah Dunn

Erin Creasey

Jake Howell

David Gee

Cat London

Matthew Firth

Sarah Gardner Borden

Everyone at ECW Press

Everyone involved in the Creative Writing MFA program at the University of Guelph

STACEY MADDEN
holds a BA from the University of Toronto and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph. He lives in Toronto.

Copyright © Stacey Madden, 2012

Published by ECW Press

2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2

416-694-3348 /
[email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. 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.

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 AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Madden, Stacey, 1982–

Poison shy : a novel / Stacey Madden.

ISBN 978-1-77041-075-6

ALSO ISSUED AS: 978-1-77090-286-2 (PDF); 978-1-77090-287-9 (ePUB)

I. Title.

PS8626.A314P63 2012 C813'.6 C2012-902687-5

Editor for the press: Michael Holmes / a misfit Book

Cover design: Dave Gee

Cover image: i.m. ruzz

Interior image: The black silhouette of a bedbug © lantapix / Shutterstock

Type: Troy Cunningham

The publication of
Poison Shy
has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada, and by the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities, and the contribution of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit. The marketing of this book was made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation.