Acknowledgments - I'll Be a Home for You

Girlies, we fucking did it!

Writing a book is not easy. Self-publishing a book is not easy. Writing acknowledgments is straight-up impossible. So many people contributed to this book, and I will do my best to give credit to everyone.

Dziękuję my mentor, Charlene Thomas, for her developmental edit of my book, as well as for becoming my first writer friend and supporting me through this journey.

Dziękuję the We Need Diverse Books nonprofit for organizing the mentorship and connecting me to Charlene. The work you do is invaluable for promoting authors from all walks of life and fighting book bans.

Dziękuję my editors. You saw my vision and helped me shape it. To my developmental editors, Aïcha Martine Thiam and Amy Ewing. To my line editor, Natashya Wilson. To my copyeditor, Rachel Rowlands. To my proofreader, Kelsey Klosterman.

Dziękuję my book designer, Ken Crossland. The book would not be half as readable without you.

Dziękuję my cover artist, Allaine Kate B. Leoncio. You’ve brought JJ and Aang to life perfectly. Thanks to you, I’m not afraid of people judging my book by the cover.

Dziękuję my website designer, Chus Margallo. It’s the best website I’ve ever seen. Go check it out, everyone!

Dziękuję my PR team from Peruse Lit, Mya Brown, Mya Guardino, Nel Herche, and Elisabeth Connell. You made sure people were actually aware that the book exists!

If I had a nickel for each physiotherapist I need to thank for helping me write this book, I would have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot. But it’s weird that it happened twice. Dziękuję Daniel Tsang for answering my endless questions about Hong Kong culture while forcing me to do single-leg deadlifts with the proper technique. Dziękuję Jo Leung for doing a sensitivity read for this book. I guess, also, thank you for torturing me and fixing my injuries.

Dziękuję my friends, particularly Tilly and Toemas Longfoot, who were some of the first ones to read the book. When I sent it to them, I thought I was done writing and I couldn’t do any better. It turned out that it was draft fifteen, and this is draft thirty? Forty? I lost count. Either way, their feedback and their kind words came at exactly the right time to motivate me to keep going.

Dziękuję moim przyjaciołom z Polski, przede wszystkim Ance i Kowalskiej. Dzięki wam Polska to moje bezpieczne miejsce, nieważne jak ciężko czasami było.

Dziękuję mojej rodzinie. Mojej mamie i mojemu tacie. Ta książka istnieje, ponieważ wychowaliście mnie w wiarze, że jestem dostatecznie mądra i zdeterminowana, żeby osiągnąć cokolwiek mi się wymyśli. Dziękuję mojej babci za każdy obiad, za każde sto złotych, za każdy uśmiech. Gadanie mam na pewno po tobie i to na pewno pomogło mi napisać tę książkę. Dziękuję mojemu bratu, bo jestem o wiele fajniejszą osobą przez to, że on istnieje. Kocham was bardzo.

Dziękuję Danowi. I love you.

Dziękuję Chuckowi. Woof. Woof, woof, woof. Woof! You’re a pretty cool dog when you don’t terrorize me with your diarrhea.

O kurwa. Napisałam książkę.