Rapture Practice (41 page)
Authors: Aaron Hartzler
Tags: #Juvenile Nonfiction, #Family, #Parents, #Social Issues, #Homosexuality, #Biography & Autobiography, #Religious, #Christian, #Family & Relationships, #Dating & Sex
It’s a leap of faith.
It’s a rush of pure freedom.
It’s the feeling of rapture.
noun
: a thing done or given in recognition of something received
Most first-time authors feel fortunate to find a single editor who believes in their writing. I was lucky enough to have two. Thank you to Jennifer Hunt, who adopted this snarling mutt of an idea, and to Kate Sullivan, who made it behave. No book is too much for Kate. She rehabilitates manuscripts; she trains authors. She
is
… the Book Whisperer.
Thanks also to the fantastic Little, Brown team who believed in this book and worked so tirelessly to make it the best it could be: Megan Tingley, Andrew Smith, Alvina Ling, Melanie Chang, Steve Scott, Victoria Stapleton, Zoe Luderitz, Leslie Shumate, Pamela Garfinkel, Barbara Bakowski, and Pamela Barricklow.
Thank you to my agent, Michael Bourret, for being fearless, frank, funny, and my friend.
David Lipsky once wrote, “A book, like a writer, has
friends before it has readers.” Constrained by space (and under threat of the orchestra playing me off the stage), please forgive in advance this impersonal, alphabetical list of the best friends a book has ever had: Chad Allen, Gee Cee Bahador, Robin Benway, Stacie Chaiken, Rachel Cohn, Kathleen Dennehy, Anthony Glomski, Holly Goldberg Sloan, Brian Hedden, Sean Hetherington, Annie Jacobsen, Jenny Janisko, Allyn Johnston, David Levithan, Ian MacKinnon, Ken Madson, Jack Martin, John Ryan Martine, Sandy Matke, Peter McGuigan, Molly McIlvaine, Laura and Tom McNeal, Moira McMahon, Tim Miller, Michael Neely, David Ozanich, Rachel Parker, Gary Rosen, Francesco Sedita, Julie Strauss-Gabel, Kim Turrisi, Sam Wasson, Isaac Webster, Nicholas Weinstock, Jamie Weiss-Chilton, Tina Wexler, Alan Jay Williams, John Andrew Wolf, Sara Zarr, and John Ziffren. Each one of you has been pivotal at some point in the process.
Thank you to the authors whose books were my map for writing memoir: Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, Anne Lamott, David Rakoff, David Sedaris, Ryan Van Meter, and Jeannette Walls. Your words were instructive whether you intended them to be or not.
Mom, Dad, Joshua, Miriam, Caleb, Elizabeth Joy, and Nanny: I hold each of you in my heart and love you more than these pages could hope to contain.
Finally, to Nathan Hatch, the man with whom I have chosen to spend my life: For words to fail me is uncommon, yet each day your love leaves me speechless.
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Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by Aaron Hartzler
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
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First e-book edition: April 2013
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The definitions of
rapture, belief, genesis, exodus, revelation
, and
acknowledgment
are used by permission. From
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
®
Dictionary
, 11th Edition © 2012 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
ISBN 978-0-316-09465-8