I Almost Forgot About You (38 page)

Even though you write alone, it takes the support of, confidence in, and patience from a lot of people during the journey. I am grateful to the following: Molly Friedrich and Lucy Carson, my forever agents, for their faith in this story from the beginning and the great advice after reading the early drafts; my young, smart, insightful, and intuitive editor, Lindsay Sagnette, for her brilliance and not being afraid of me; my publisher, Molly Stern, for her faith in and general excitement for my past work and this story. I'm also grateful to Maya Mavjee, David Drake, and Rose Fox.

Solitude is precious to a writer and sometimes hard to get, which is why I appreciate Adrienne Brodeur, the creative director of Aspen Words at the Aspen Institute, for giving me a monthlong residency in a very cool house in the mountains along with Boo Boo the Bear to keep me company.

From there, I went back to Jamaica for another month, where Charlotte Wallace, manager of the Rock House in Negril, gave me a round bungalow with a sea view that helped me continue to bring this novel to life.

I lie for a living. But in the hope of telling someone's truth. I respect and admire all the women I know and don't know for their bravery in changing lanes at a later (not late) stage in their lives. This party ain't over. Yet.

TERRY MCMILLAN
is the #1
New York Times
bestselling author of
Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, A Day Late and a Dollar Short,
and
The Interruption of Everything
and the editor of
Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction
. Each of Ms. McMillan's seven previous novels was a
New York Times
bestseller, and four have been made into movies:
Waiting to Exhale
(Twentieth Century Fox, 1995);
How Stella Got Her Groove Back
(Twentieth Century Fox, 1998);
Disappearing Acts
(HBO Pictures, 1999); and
A Day Late and a Dollar Short
(Lifetime, 2014). She lives in California.