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~~~Acknowledgments~~~
I started writing Thieftess on June 23, 2015. I wrote about 17,000 words and then put it in the trunk. I started working on it again when I got the rights back to the Woodcutter Sisters series in October 2023.
How do you write acknowledgments for a book that was 11 years in the making and took 2.5 years to finish?
I’ll go ahead and apologize in advance to anyone and everyone I’m not able to name here, for lack of time, space, and memory. However, many of you have characters in this book inspired by you (thanks for providing that help when I needed it!), so I’m not that sorry.
I find myself going back to the dedication I wrote in AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First.
To all the wonderful, mixed-up families everywhere—
the ones we’re born into
and the ones we make along the way
The Woodcutter Sisters books have always been about family, Thieftess possibly more than most. Thursday Woodcutter was born into an extraordinary family (as was I), a family she never forgets, one just as important as all the other families she makes along the way.
Like me, Thursday Woodcutter is a collector of excellent misfits.
I don’t know how I would have existed without any of my families: my Cajun family (Webster Poom & James Mudd forever!), my North Springs family, my Greek family, my Jewish family, my Movies at Polo family, my SVHS family, my Tennessee family, my DC/NY family, my VA/PA family, my Vermont family, my Adam Ezra Group family, my Mo*Con family, my Dragon Con family, my Baen family, my Dark-Hunter family, the Codex Writers, the Waterworld Mermaids, my PBBC family, my Brute Squad, the Saturday Songwriters, my Egypt family, my online workspace coven, my VVS and Peak Time family all over the world, my L.A. Black Roses, my Stationhead family, my TikTok family…
The list goes on.
And, of course, there are the storm chasers.
When I told Mom that I would finally be able to work on Thursday’s book again, she instantly assumed I would pull from all of my experience storm chasing.
I had to think about that one for a minute. When I started writing Thieftess, I wasn’t a storm chaser. I had just moved to Florida and figured I’d have to find someone with a boat who could teach me how to sail. I would still love to find that person…but Mom was right. That wasn’t the experience I needed to write Thursday’s adventures.
I often refer to everyone in our little international auto club as “my crew,” but I never once equated them to Thursday’s pirates. Ha!
Thanks, Mom.
My storm chase family has weathered quite a bit of weather since I teamed up with fellow author Chris Kridler in 2018. We’ve constantly stayed in touch even when it’s not storm season, as each of us travels the globe and sends back pictures like digital postcards. We’re incredibly different, smashingly brilliant, and we all share the same twisted sense of humor. I will forever feel completely ignorant standing next to them as they forecast, review models, and plot courses, but I am always eager to learn. And I never tire of hearing the stories of storms and adventures past.
I remember after that first season, Chris was delighted to find that not only did I enjoy the photography, the landscape of Middle America, the hidden gems, and the endless travel, but I also loved her friends. I am honored that they continue to invite this know-nothing picture-book-writing ex-marine-chemistry-major to join them on and off the road. (They even consider me one of them now! Madness, I tell you.) They are a treasure I never knew I would find, and certainly one that I could not have written this book without.
The fact that I got to cast a bunch of them as villainous ice pirates was an absolute joy.
If you have ever been part of one of my families, and should you ever become part of one in the future, please know how incredibly important you are to me.
My life and my books are so much better with you in them.
xox
Princess Alethea
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