All the Bright Places (36 page)

I wanted to write something tough, hard, sad, but funny.

I wanted to write from a boy’s point of view.

In July, I signed with the most wonderful and amazing agent (champion, partner, editor) a girl could have. Thank you to the incomparable Kerry Sparks for believing in that first fifty pages and me. No one will ever know what her belief and enthusiasm meant at that particular time in my life. I wake up every day
counting my lucky stars for Kerry and all the fantastic folks at Levine Greenberg Rostan (especial thanks to Monika Verma and Elizabeth Fisher). They make me lovely.

So does Allison Wortche, my brilliant editor, who is as savvy and insightful as she is warm and kind, and who is as invested in Finch and Violet as I am. Their story would not be the same without her skilled hand. She and the entire team at Knopf and Random House Children’s Books (President and Publisher Barbara Marcus; Vice President and Publishing Director Nancy Hinkel; Senior Vice President and Associate Publisher Judith Haut; Isabel Warren-Lynch, Alison Impey, and Stephanie Moss in Design; Artie Bennett, as well as aces Renée Cafiero and Katharine Wiencke, in Copyediting; Managing Editor Shasta Clinch; Tim Terhune and Barbara Cho in Production; Pam White and Jocelyn Lange in Sub Rights; Felicia Frazier, John Adamo, Kim Lauber, Lynn Kestin, Stephanie O’Cain, Adrienne Waintraub, Laura Antonacci, Dominique Cimina, Lydia Finn, and the rest of Sales, Marketing, and Publicity) have created the brightest of places for me to live, breathe, and work, and I am thrilled out of my head to be there.

I’m also thrilled to be working with my wondrous film agent, Sylvie Rabineau, and RWSG Literary Agency.

Thank you to my family and friends for unwavering support, even when I am insufferably consumed by my work (which is most of the time). I couldn’t do it without you. Special thanks to my favorite cousin, Annalise von Sprecken, my consultant on all things teen-related and the person who gave me “________ is life.”

Thank you to Louis, love of my life and partner in more ways than one, who has had to endure hours of worrying, brainstorming,
outlining, suicide-fact reciting, querying (“What if Violet and Finch met on the bell tower ledge?” “What if Finch and Roamer used to be friends?” “What if Amanda was at Life Is Life too?”), not to mention hours of One Direction listening (my own personal Boy Parade). He, more than anyone else (with the exception of our three literary cats), has lived this book with me.

Thank you, John Ivers (Blue Flash, Blue Too) and Mike Carmichael (World’s Biggest Ball of Paint), for creating such uniquely awesome, wander-worthy sites, and for letting me use your real names.

Thank you to my very first editor, Will Schwalbe, who remains a wise mentor and cherished friend. And to Amanda Brower and Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy for leading me to Kerry Sparks.

Thank you, Briana Harley, for being my go-to one-girl band of a YA focus group. Thank you, Lara Yacoubian, for being the World’s Best Assistant Ever.

Thanks to the
Germ
girls and guys for all you are and do, particularly Louis, Jordan, Briana Bailey, Shannon, Shelby, and Lara. You are the prettiest girls (and boys) anywhere.

Thank you to the generous people (who wish to remain nameless) who shared their personal stories of mental illness, depression, and suicide. And to the experts at the American Association of Suicidology, the Mayo Clinic, and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Thanks most of all to my beautiful mother and fellow author, Penelope Niven, who made the world lovelier just by being in it. She was my best friend. She was my best everything.

We used to say to each other, “You are my best.” And she was. And she always will be. She taught me from childhood that my mountain was waiting, and she never stopped encouraging me to keep climbing. Her unexpected death on August 28, 2014, was the single worst event of my life. This book, and all the books to follow, are because of her and for her. To quote Theodore Finch,
You are all the colors in one, at full brightness
.

Lastly, thanks to my great-grandfather Olin Niven. And to the boy I loved who died too soon, but who left me a song.

All the Bright Places
is Jennifer Niven’s first book for young adult readers, but she has written four novels for adults—
American Blonde, Becoming Clementine, Velva Jean Learns to Fly
, and
Velva Jean Learns to Drive
—as well as three nonfiction books—
The Ice Master, Ada Blackjack
, and
The Aqua Net Diaries
, a memoir about her high school experiences. Although she grew up in Indiana, she now lives with her fiancé and three literary cats in Los Angeles, which remains her favorite place to wander. For more information, visit
JenniferNiven.com
and
GermMagazine.com
, or find her on Facebook.