Breathless - Jennifer Niven Page 0,136

the very best writers. (Seriously, please do yourselves a favor and go buy all of her books right now!) Speaking of excellent writers who are dear friends, Angelo Surmelis and Ronni Davis are a very important part of my floor. They hold me up and make me laugh and love me, freckles and all.

Thank you to The Lovelies for making it lovely, and Lisa Brucker, Grecia Reyes, Krista Ramirez, Beth Jennings White, Megan White, Jennifer Koerner, Shari Franklin, Logan Franklin, Karen and Jon Preble, and Janet Geddis (whose Avid Bookshop is THE BEST) for your friendship. Thank you, Alex, Hilda, and Terrie (not to mention Sloane!), for looking after the furry ones while we’re away.

Big appreciation to the actual Wednesday for supporting CLIC Sargent and letting me use your name. (Fingers crossed you like fictitious you!)

Thank you, Paula Mazur and Mitchell Kaplan, for believing in my books and me, and for all of your beautiful, sensitive understanding and genius.

The homefolks, back in Indiana—Elizabeth Bailey, one of my cherished second moms, for being there for my eighteen-year-old self when I needed to talk to someone. Thank you for protecting my secret all these years. Jim Resh and his staff at the Wayne County Convention & Tourism Bureau, for being tireless champions of my books and me. Joe Kraemer, for being my brother and best friend and partner in crime and general bad influence (but in the most good way). Saz is for you and Laura Lonigro, gone too soon but forever young in our hearts and so, so missed and loved. I raise a glass to you both from the steps of the Dayton Art Institute. Our art institute.

Thank you to my family for their unwavering love, humor, and support, including cousin–daughter–kindred spirit Annalise von Sprecken, sister-cousin Lisa von Sprecken, brother-cousin Derek Duval, my adoring and adored aunts, Lynn Duval Clark and Doris Knapp, my favorite niece, Grace Payne, and favorite sister-in-law, Jennifer Payne, and my uncle Bill Niven, beloved surrogate father, protector, friend, and cat whisperer. Thank you beyond words to my spectacular Ansley for getting me, heart and soul, for hamming it up on Instagram Live with me, and for spontaneous dance parties (Harry Styles and the Jonas Brothers forever!). And to my marvelous Ashton for being always the gentleman, teaching me things with great patience, and reminding me—frequently—to calm down. All the snugs and love in the world for you both.

I don’t know what it would be like to write without cats walking across my keyboard or running away with office supplies or making sure I’m awake at three, four, or five a.m. Thankfully, I’m fortunate enough to have five very interactive literary kitties—Her Highness, Queen Lulu, of the computer keyboard and the early-morning awakenings; dear, perpetually befuddled, purr-factory Rumi; grateful, courageous Scout (with her giant polydactyl feet); the ever-maddening Linus “Shitbag” Niven Conway (whom I often wrote this book in spite of); and wide-eyed Luna, our “sweetly dim” (but oddly willful), bicoastal rescue fluff, who travels better than we do and is destined for movie stardom (consider this the start of my campaign for Luna as Dandelion in the movie version).

As I mentioned, this book is a personal one. Neither Claude nor I would be here without my parents, Penelope Niven and Jack Fain McJunkin Jr., who taught me I could be or do anything, who told me never to limit myself or my imagination, who gave me unconditional love, and who saw to it that, no matter what, I was encouraged and enabled to fulfill all my “Jenniferness.” I have been missing my funny, gruff, marathon-running, cookie-stealing, gourmet-chef-in-his-spare-time dad for eighteen years, and my exceptional, sparkling, heart-calming, book-writing, soul-twin of a mom (best friend, mentor, Penny and Jennifer, Jennifer and Penny, the Niven women) for six, but I am surrounded by and filled with their extraordinary love. And every word I write comes from them.

This book is personal in another way. In 2018, I traveled to a remote Georgia island, laptop in hand, the idea for Breathless forming in my head. My first day there, I met my now-husband, Justin Conway—the real-life Jeremiah Crew—who swept me off my feet and into his truck. I’d gone there in search of this book and instead found a golden, barefoot, age-appropriate flesh-and-blood version of the character I’d been envisioning for a year or more. This man who, on our first day together, learned my secrets and told me his. Who taught me to find shark teeth. Who brought me mud boots. Who showed me his island. Who carried me through a creek that became a river. Who drove me through the night by the light of the fireflies. Him. Me. Me. Him. Us. Intertwined. This book is for him. For our muddy feet and locked basements and blood moons and all the things we said to each other when no one else was listening. We just knew that first day. Six months later, we were married, and we’ve been continuing to write our love story every day since.

Last but not least, I need to thank my readers. Dear lovelies: none of this would be possible without you. I never lose sight of that, and I never will. I love you more than I can ever say.

Now.

Close the book.

But first—remember to open yourself up to love and possibility, to almostness and maybe.

Use your voice.

Let others in.

Choose your future. Choose your body. Choose yourself.

And go out there and write your life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Niven is the number one New York Times and internationally bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe. Her books have been translated into over seventy-five languages and have won literary awards around the world. When she isn’t working on multiple book and TV projects—including the script for the film version of All the Bright Places (Netflix)—Jennifer also oversees Germ, a literary web magazine for high school age and beyond. Jennifer divides her time between coastal Georgia and Los Angeles.

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