Borderline
Page 33
A character namesake isn’t enough to acknowledge Amanda C. “Dr.” Davis, the first person brave enough to tell me why that first draft drove thirteen other beta readers into hiding. Without her, the book would still being a drawer somewhere.
A paltry percentage isn’t enough to acknowledge my agents, Russell Galen and Rachel Kory, for taking a chance on a newcomer and aiming higher than I’d have dared. And there isn’t praise enough in the world for Navah Wolfe at Saga Press, whose perfect combination of fannish enthusiasm and surgical precision turned that stack of pages on her desk into a novel. In my wildest dreams I could never have imagined better synergy with an editor.
And Seanan McGuire! Good heavens. Still staggered by the unexpected outpouring of support from someone I’d only ever known as a name on my bookshelf. I think we’re doomed to be come either great friends or deadly nemeses.
There are many others who have made this book possible indirectly by propping me up when I faltered professionally or personally—too many to name, but I’ll try a few. My husband, Matt, of course, everyday. Wren Wallis, partner in many things. Paul Park, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kenneth Schneyer, Shauna Roberts, Scott H. Andrews, Ferrett Steinmetz, Mary Robinette Kowal, Myke Cole, Joe Monti, Michael R. Underwood, Charles Coleman Finlay, Sunil Patel, Nate “Frog” Crowley, Jason Gruber, Sarah Goslee, Stephanie Gunn, Rachel Hartman, and Guy Gavriel Kay. (Some of you may not even know exactly why your names are on this list, because many of you are so in the habit of giving that you may not remember small gestures that, to me, meant all the world.)
Thank you, all of you, and to those I’ve forgotten: don’t let me. Hound me, throw yourselves in my path. I’ll find ways to thank you too.
About the Author
Author photograph copyright © 2016 by Vanie Poyey
Mishell Baker is a 2009 graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, and her short stories have appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Redstone Science Fiction, and Electric Velocipede. She has a website at MishellBaker.com and frequently tweets about writing, parenthood, mental health, and assorted geekery at @MishellBaker. When she’s not attending conventions or going on wild research adventures, she lives with her husband and children in Los Angeles.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2016 by Mishell Baker
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Also available in a Saga Press paperback edition
Jacket photograph of woman copyright © 2016 by Jill Wachter;
jacket stock photography copyright © 2016 by Thinkstock
The text for this book was set in Chaparral Pro.
First Saga Press hardcover edition 2016
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baker, Mishell.
Borderline / Mishell Baker. — First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-4814-5306-6 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-2978-8 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-2979-5 (eBook)
1. Women with disabilities—Fiction. 2. Government investigators—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.A58665B67 2016
813'.6—dc23
2015009176