Motorcycles I've Loved (18 page)

This book is as much about family as it is about motorcycles, so I'd like to thank mine: thanks Mom, for your wisdom, unconditional support, and keen sense of beauty, and Dad, for your humor, supersized heart, and intuition. Thank you both for holding me close as a child, letting me go as an adolescent, and taking me back with open arms when I was ready. Thanks also to my brother, for all the challenges and all the love—it's never been easy but it's always been worth it.

I want to thank my grandfather, Gordy Brooks, for the enigmatic advice and lovable wisecracks; Annie Brooks and Woody Rothe, for all their support; Denis Dalton, for reminding me how to have fun; and Vail Juhring, for the hospitality.

Thank you Jennifer Gates, my extraordinary agent, for taking this rough, flawed manuscript into your heart and helping it shine. Thanks also to everyone at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth for believing in me and in this story.

Thank you, Ali Cardia, my wonderful editor, for giving this book a home at Riverhead and for your patience, insight, and encouragement—I am nothing short of blessed to have you in my corner. Deepest gratitude also to the multitude of Riverhead believers, helpers, and promoters.

I want to thank the group of Capstone 499, the very first readers of the very first chapters—in particular Jane Derderian, for taking the time to edit a rough draft in the midst of her own adventure, and also Shelby Kinney-Lang, for all the cheerleading.

There isn't room to thank everyone I'm grateful for, but there are a few friends I want to name who have been so incredibly supportive of this endeavor, from start to finish: thank you, Yana Tallon-Hicks, Malia Werle Gaffney, Isaac Pirie, Katie Koerten, Susan Kaplan, and especially Sally Clegg. Thank you, Ofurhe Igbinedion—you've been my anchor for the past thirteen years.

Thanks also to Amber Schaefer, Maisie Sibbison-Alves, Seth Capista, Nick Brown, Ian Tapscott, Tenaya Schnare, Ben Schnare, Anna Meyer, Nick Meyer, and so many others, for being a part of my story, whether on the page or off.

Thank you, Tenzin Rigdhen, for the motorcycle help and, Kannan Jagannathan, for the physics help. Thank you, Elizabeth McHale and Mira Bartok, for the suggestions in the early stages.

A very special thank-you to Matt Valliere—for everything.

Last but not least I want to acknowledge the teachers who guided me along the way: Bill Ackemann, who always wanted to know what I was reading; Joel Howes, who always wanted to see what I was writing; and especially John Hennessy, who believed in this book before I did—it would not exist without your encouragement. Thank you.

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