Heart Breaths (27 page)

“What’s a quest?” Noie’s voice was getting sleepier.

“It’s a special trip that people have to take. Sometimes it’s very scary, because when you’re on a quest, you have to fight the things that make you afraid. But there’s something special that happens when you go on a quest.” I smiled. “You find your brave.”

“Did the girl find her brave?”

I was silent for a moment. “I think so.”

“And so then she lived happy after, right?”

I smiled. “Right.”

A Note About John White And The Lost Colony:

The story of the Lost Colony was not one I made up. As Grandma Evelyn mentioned, Raleigh sent a group of colonists to settle in North Carolina under Governor John White.

There are many, many theories as to what happened to what is now called the Lost Colony, but there has been no substantial proof of any theory at the time of writing. Popular theories include the Native Americans of the area came and conquered the settlement, and took it apart for their own use of the materials. The other popular theory is that the colonists did indeed move to Croatoan Island, now called Hatteras Island, and they integrated in with the Native American tribes that lived there.

Finding the remains of any settlement has proven to be extremely difficult because of the shrinking of the Carolina shoreline.

Fort Raleigh is located on Roanoake Island, and is open to the public.

A Note About Eno:

There is no town on Hatteras Island called Eno. However, Eno has characteristics of many of the other towns on the Outer Banks, such as Waves, Frisco, Avon, and Rodanthe.

Eno was actually a Native American tribe who used to reside in North Carolina. There are those who postulate that the Lost Colony survivors may have taken shelter with the Chowanoke, who were attacked by another tribe—known to the Jamestown Colonists as the Mandoag. The Mandoag were either the Tuscarora, or the Eno, known also as the Wainoke. There were sightings of Europeans at Ritanoc, an Eno settlement in the early 1600s. Some say the white girl they had seen was Virginia Dare, but there is no concrete evidence to support the claim.

Acknowledgements

Thank you thank you thank you thank you.

To my early readers...

Alex Brown: From the first live tweeting of the road trip, we’ve been living simultaneously. Thank you for being one of the first to bother me for my words- I’m so lucky to have read yours and so happy you’ve wanted to read mine. Job hunting and writing are so much more fun with you- especially when they come with g-chat sing alongs.

Gina Denny: For ripping apart Heart Breaths and showing me where to make it better. This book is infinitely better because of your awesome notes. And yes, I still love you :)

Michelle Smith: For reading yet ANOTHER one of my MSs, telling me why you loved it, and for making sure all my Southern things were right. All the cookies for you, darling.

Sarah Benwell: For word sprints and crazy g-chat hours, for the fine tuning and support- so many thank yous. One day we’ll go tea house hopping in person, and not just on Google Maps.

Angi Black: For finding all the words I don’t know how to stop using, for the love and mutual squeeing over eye candy. I’m so happy we found each other. New York will never know what hit them.

Tabitha Martin: For my last round of eyes, and catching all my little Southern quirks after revisions. Thank you for spending your Starbucks hours with my story.

Hafsah Laziaf: The cover. There is not enough squeeing to tell you how much I love it. Thank you for taking the time to really understand what I was asking for, even when I wasn’t so sure how to say it.

Sarah Henning: For cleaning up Heart Breaths and making it shine, and giving me the best bragging rights ever.

Cait Greer: For making the inside of the book as pretty as the outside, and for being my photo-bombing partner in crime.

My fabulous street team: Jamie Grey, Natalie Blitt, De’Anne St Yves, Tiffany Treichel, Jen Ellision, Michelle Smith, Sarah Benwell, Alex Brown, & Iris Kwakernaat. Thank you for helping me get the word out about Heart Breaths. I am in awe of your enthusiasm. I could not have done this without you. You know I love you, y/y?

Laura Howard, for fielding the first freak out and introducing me to the indie world. I owe you all the cake.

Bells, Rach & Shar: The world’s greatest partners in crime and the best cheerleaders a girl can ask for. Thank you for your endless support and cups of coffee. I could not ask for better friends.

Family: You don’t always know what the heck I’m doing, hunched over my laptop with a slightly maniacal grin on my face, but thank you for all of your support, and for being mostly okay with the fact that I’ve only gotten weirder with age. I promise this one has no boarding schools. And no blacys. I love you all, and I’m really going to find a place for all my books soon. Really. I mean it this time.

To all of my Twitter peeps: There are no words. Y’all have become my family since I took the official writing plunge. Thank you for the endless support, love, snark, and metaphorical hugs, baked goods and booze. My life is infinitely richer with you in it.

Readers & Reviewers: The fact that you’ve read this book literally makes my heart explode in happiness. There are hundreds and thousands of books to choose from- thank you for taking a chance on mine.

About the Author

KK Hendin’s real life ambition is to become a pink fluffy unicorn who dances with rainbows. But the schooling for that is all sorts of complicated, so until that gets sorted out, she’ll just write. Preferably things with angst and love. And things that require chocolate.

She spends way too much time on Twitter (where she can be found as
@kkhendin
), and rambles on occasion over at
www.kkhendinwrites.blogspot.com
.