Don't Look Now (27 page)

Authors: Michelle Gagnon

It’s funny that while writing a trilogy about hackers, I’ve ended up dealing with more computer gremlins that at any other point in my career; the PERSEF0NE curse, maybe? This time around, human error was involved when 30,000 feet above Bakersfield, a flight attendant accidentally spilled an entire glass of liquid onto my laptop. Fortunately, the stars at Hard Drive 911 were able to salvage my nascent draft of
Don’t Look Now
, and all was not lost. But suffice it to say that now I’m officially the queen of backing up data. I like to think that would make Noa and Peter proud. (And thanks to Southwest Airlines for covering all the costs. Despite this mishap, they remain my favorite airline.)

Because of my hard-drive issues the last time around, I made an egregious oversight in the acknowledgments of
Don’t Turn Around
. Rocket Science Consulting is a real company that specializes in IT services, web design, and truly epic Friday happy hours at their San Francisco office. CEO Matt McGraw was kind enough to allow me use of the company name to serve as Noa’s fictitious employer for freelance work, and I, inexcusably, forgot to thank him. So as promised, there’s a muffin basket en route, along with my sincerest apologies. On the bright side, my frequent computer headaches promise them much future business. They’re also located in New York, Los Angeles, and Portland, and I highly recommend them for anything computer related. (Consider that an extra thanks, Matt.)

Diem Ha was my roommate at Wesleyan University junior and senior year. She’s a fantastic person to live with, and if I ever got carted off in an ambulance, she would insist on climbing in to escort me to the hospital (unlike her namesake in the book).

Kelly Essoe kindly provided me with post-op surgical forms, which helped enormously with research. I’m also indebted to Colin Dangel, who responded quickly to any and all Beantown-related queries.

And once again, tech guru Bruce Davis not only wrote the informative “Top Ten Techniques a Hacker May Have Already Tried on You” (still available on Pitch Dark!), he also painstakingly combed through a draft of the manuscript to make sure that I didn’t confuse KiBs with MiBs. I owe him a huge debt.

Beta readers Noah Wang and Marissa Gaylin helped ensure that this was the cleanest, most accurate manuscript possible—and as teenagers, they would know. Any remaining errors belong to me and me alone.

I really can’t say enough good things about the amazing folks at HarperTeen—working with them has been an absolute pleasure.

Karen Chaplin is the best editor I’ve ever worked with, period. She’s also extremely generous with deadline extensions, a novelty that I’ve deeply appreciated.

Olivia deLeon is my dream publicist—this series couldn’t have a better champion. And Barbara Lalicki has been a great person to have in my corner.

My crack copyediting team—Brenna Franzitta and Aaron Murray—never cease to amaze me with their ability to unearth mistakes in what I had believed was a perfect manuscript. In fact, it’s a safe bet that they caught some errors in the previous sentence and corrected them before this went to print.

I’m graced with the best agent on the planet, Stephanie Kip Rostan. Not only is Steph an astute editor and agent, her market savvy and taste in dining establishments can’t be beat. I’m exceedingly fortunate to have her and the rest of the team at Levine Greenberg representing my work.

The plight of the foster kids in this trilogy, while it has been fictionalized, is sadly all too real. Nearly 40 percent of former foster children end up living on the streets after they turn eighteen. Fortunately, a fantastic nonprofit has been formed to help. Every donation goes directly to a foster kid who is aging out of the system, supporting their educational and life needs through crowdfunding. And any amount of money helps. Please visit www.rising-tides.org for more information.

Thanks, as always, to my family, for tolerating “working vacations” and not minding when I vanish into my writing cave for extended periods. I promise to always come back out.

Finally, years ago I met the perfect man, but at the time I was too young and foolish to realize it. Luckily, nearly two decades later, we got a second chance. So it seemed appropriate to dedicate the second book of this trilogy to Kirk, my first and last reader. There’s no one I’d rather eat eggs with, burnt or otherwise.

About the Author

MICHELLE GAGNON
has been a modern dancer, a dog walker, a bartender, a freelance journalist, a personal trainer, and a model. Her bestselling thrillers for adults have been published in numerous countries and include
The Tunnels
,
Boneyard
,
The Gatekeeper
, and
Kidnap & Ransom
. In a starred review,
Kirkus Reviews
called
Don’t Turn Around
, her first novel for young adults and the first book in the trilogy about Noa and Peter, a “pulse-pounding scary-great read. A surefire hit.” You can visit Michelle online at www.michellegagnon.com.

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Also by Michelle Gagnon

DON’T TURN AROUND

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Credits

Cover photographs by Thinkstock

Cover design by Sammy Yuen

Don’t Look Now

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ISBN 978-0-06-210293-5

Epub Edition © JUNE 2013 ISBN 9780062102959

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