Secret Value of Zero, The (31 page)

She smiled at the freedom of it all. She had choices now. Her grin faded when she realized that she didn’t know what to do with the choices.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are too many people for me to thank for making this book a reality. Since this is the Acknowledgments page, I shall try my very best to list them all.

First and foremost, I must be thankful for my mother's graciousness as my first reader. I shudder at the thought of what atrocities she endured. Yet, she unerringly supported me throughout my first book. Thanks, Mom!

Another thank you to a special someone in my life who prefers to remain anonymous (even though we all know that very few people read this far). He was the one who told me to get off my butt, stop whining and start writing. Thanks for the kick in the butt, big guy.

It may sound odd to thank a website, but I must. Thank you, Quora, for making this book possible in more than one way. On Quora, I found not only information, but I also received great encouragement and support, the lifeblood of an aspiring writer. Thank you, Quora users and employees.

I must thank everyone who read this book during its working phase. No matter what anyone says, writing doesn't happen in isolation. My beta readers gave me invaluable feedback that made my book far better. Special mention goes to: Danielle Maurer who gave me incisive critiques on everything from plot, character, to sentence structure (watch for her upcoming excellent fantasy series); Tamara Troup who brought attention to the warts and bumps in my characterization; Makarand Sahasrabuddhe who pointed out where I rushed my writing in my eagerness to get to the juicy parts; Jack Dahlgren who noted when one sword “magically” became two; Achilleas Vortselas who provided steadfast feedback and support; Jesse Lashley for being a hip youngster and giving me wonderful feedback from a young adult perspective; Laurel Pellegrino and Matt Daniels for being loyal friends (and claiming that they wanted movie rights).

I must tip my hat to two more people for their tireless editing work. Aman Anand intervened midway through my finalization process and smoothed out some of my rough patches. Valerie Cooper helped me perfect the finished product. Without them, this book would be a hodgepodge of misplaced apostrophes and typos. 

Finally, thank you to all of those who read my book. A writer is nothing without her readers.

Thanks, everyone!

—Victoria Halley (also known in real life as Cristina Hartmann)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Victoria Halley is not a real person. The real author of this story is Cristina Hartmann, who wishes to identify herself with this pen name when she writes science fiction. Cristina lives on the internet most days and tweets as @cmmhartmann.
The Secret Value of Zero
is her first novel.

If you have any comments about this book, please feel free to contact Cristina via Twitter at @cmmhartmann or via email at
[email protected]
.