Down and Across
Page 22
Down
1. Thorny desert plants
2. Accolades
3. Wise baboon in The Lion King
4. You might do this to your hair
5. Online shopping
6. Iranian city of poets and literature
7. ___ the tail on the donkey
8. So far
9. Pet reindeer in Frozen
10. Lower in status
11. Classic Disney movie with the characters Slink and Rex
12. “Ew, I didn’t need to know that”
15. What you might study for at the last minute
18. Cul-de-___ (where I live)
23. Important type of 15-Down
26. Screwed or ripped off
27. Cops, in slang
29. Empire that dissolved in 1806: Abbr.
31. First thing you do when you start your 9-to-5
33. Once ____ a time
36. Outside doctor evaluation: Abbr.
37. Spanish word for “cow”
39. ___-mo replay
40. Cecily Mallard’s latest bestseller
41. Vishnu or Shiva, for example
42. Toni Morrison novel first published in 1973
43. Popular sandwich with jam: Abbr.
47. I used Carlos Zambrano’s to get into 17-Across
49. DC circle
50. Type of salmon
52. Turban-wearing Punjabi man
54. The City of Light
55. You open a new one for Facebook
57. Models strike these at photo shoots
59. Common Vietnamese surname
62. Valuable mineral
64. Jaw-dropping wonder
65. Ruin
66. Gives a thumbs-up
Answer Key:
Acknowledgments
I’m going to tell you a story. Just one more. You thought I was done with storytelling, didn’t you? Well sit back down, because this is my book, and it’s not over until I say it is.
A few years ago, I read an article titled “Thank You to the Author’s Many, Many Important Friends: How the Acknowledgments Page Became the Place to Drop Names.” At the time it sounded like the silliest thing. Why would you need to thank hundreds of people, wasting extra pages and your readers’ precious time, when you could just thank your editor, your agent, and your mom? I figured authors must be a weird breed of self-righteous humans. Or that it was a scheme to sell more books. Yes, that had to be it. If you publicly thank a million people, they’ll all talk about your book and you will in turn sell millions of books.
This was before I’d started writing Down and Across. Before I spent late nights in coffee shops and hung out in YA circles and called myself a writer. Now that I’m on the other side, holy crap. A few pages isn’t nearly enough.
So here’s my serpentine list of thank yous—and apologies in advance to Penguin for these unexpected pages. You asked for one book and now you’re getting another.
First, Tina Wexler. I’m so grateful to have you as my agent. You’ve been my biggest cheerleader and champion, and these pages wouldn’t exist without you. Thank you for your brilliant feedback, your brainstorming sessions, your ability to put out fires with class, and your pep talks and emails. Those long-distance phone calls from Helsinki were so worth it.
Alex Ulyett, you are the sharpest Ravenclaw I know. You deserve a genius award just for your editorial letters. I can’t thank you enough for connecting with Scott, Fiora, and Trent, and for taking this story to the next level.
A special shout-out to Angela Duckworth. You are the real deal. Thank you for your inspirational TED talk and for being even friendlier in real life than Cecily Mallard.
It took a lot of editing to whip this book into shape. Huge thanks to my good friends who read early drafts and provided invaluable feedback: Joey Jachowski, Emma Stein, Isabelle Fisher, Brian McCormick, and Josh Dillon. Nicole Bleuel, who pitched my book so well to a bookseller in Helsinki that he actually thought she was my literary agent. Nava Ahmadi, my teen editor, who put awesome YA books in my hands. Lauryn Chamberlain for her slay warnings and 14/10s.
Eliot Schrefer, your editorial letter not only meant so much to me but taught me how to tell better stories. I still owe you that scotch.
Finn Vigeland, my forever roomie (Rumi!) and cruciverbalist-in-chief. You inspired (Finnspired) this novel’s downs and acrosses and answered all my crossword questions. That last puzzle would have been a major disaster (Major Disaster!) without your help. Wordplay forever.
ADAM SILVERA. You deserve all caps. Damn, sometimes I feel like I owe this career to you. Thank you for aggressively hand-selling me Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda at the Strand, for your friendship, and for your dope blurb.
The entire team at Penguin! Ken Wright and Lily Yengle, for your tremendous support. Elyse Marshall (you are so not an Elaine). Maggie Edkins for this perfect cover. Venessa Carson, Rachel Wease, and the rest of the schools and libraries team. Colleen Conway, Jill Bailey, and all the wonderful sales reps. Mariam Quraishi, Samira Iravani, and any other designer who helped produce this book. The folks over at Listening Library for the audio version. And Jen Loja, Divya Sawhney, and Markus Dohle for running the show. I’m so thankful for this publishing family.
Emile Holmewood, aka “BloodBros,” many thanks for the original cover. Isometric never looked sexier.
Oftentimes, the smallest interaction or encounter will inspire a character for me. Shout-out to Jeanette, who checked me into my hostel in the Scottish Highlands—I’m sure you’re actually a lovely person and nothing like the Jeanette on these pages. Mimi, the photographer I sat next to and talked to for hours on a bus ride between Boston and New York. Even the tall, drunk man who tried to beat me up at four in the morning in Hong Kong.
Sofia Vassilieva and Fiora MacPherson, who embody the best of Fiora Buchanan.
Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh for providing some excellent last names.
And while we’re talking about locations—I have to thank all the coffee shops and cafes where I wrote this book, both in New York City and around the world. There are far too many to name, so of course I’m going to try: Third Rail Coffee (your baristas will forever be too cool for me), Lilia Caffé (your baristas are extremely friendly), Think Coffee (thank you for not having WiFi), Dream Baby (my home away from home), Ground Support, Starbucks, Toby’s Estate, Brew Lab, Apero . . . I could go on, but now that I think of it, the owner of Blue Bottle Coffee probably isn’t reading my book, let alone the acknowledgments.
Down and Across is a bit of a love letter to DC, which has so much more going on than just politics. Places like Kramerbooks, Tonic, and Dupont Circle are very much real, and you should visit them the next time you’re in town!
Much love to my New York writing crew: Kheryn Callender, Emily Pan, Jeremy West, Jeffrey West, Lexi Wangler, Cristina Arreola, Karen Bao, Kim Small, Sarah Smetana. Patrice Caldwell, has anyone actually read it yet? And psst, Laura Sebastian, more upstate writing retreats please.
Arthur Levine and David Levithan, for being pals. Marty Mayberry for her fantastic feedback on my query letter, and the Sun vs. Snow organizers for a really fun query contest.
Speaking of fun, can we talk about the crossword puzzle community? I knew from the moment Finn brought me to Lollapuzzoola in 2014 that I was writing about a very special group of people. Thanks in particular to Sam Ezersky and Will Shortz for your kind words about the book.
Thanks to the Yext community, who kept me energized and happy while I wrote Down and Across on nights and weekends.
Jon Torre and Amanda Mui, it was an honor being your first “artist in residence” in Helsinki.
Khaled Hosseini, David Arnold, and Jasmine Warga, thanks so much for your kind words about Down and Across, and for your stories that have inspired me. Becky Albertalli and Angie Thomas, le
t’s go to Harry Potter World again!
To every teacher, librarian, and bookseller out there—thank you. You’re doing the real work.
To my family. Maman, Baba, Neeki, Arman, and Nava—I could fill every book in the world with my love and gratitude for you, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Merci.
And to you, kind reader. Thank you for picking up this book. I hope you connected with Scott and his journey, and I hope you figure out how to be gritty. Maybe you already are. Or maybe, like it did for me, it’ll click when you least expect it.
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