From idea to book, the path to publication for Dead Girl Walking has taken twenty years. There are many people who helped along the way that I’d like to thank: my first critique group, which saw the first version of this book (formerly titled Turn Left at the Milky Way) in 1988—Micqui Miller, Eloise Barton, Barbara Woodward, Nan Finch, and Dorothy Skarles; talented author Julia DeVillers, who while at a SCBWI conference in the early 2000s offered great critique suggestions and encouraged me to keep working on this book; the wonderful authors in my face-to-face critique group — Patti Newman, Erin Dealey, and Connie Goldsmith; and my savvy editors — Andrew Karre, who came up with the idea of turning this book into the first title of a series and to add dark villains, too, and Sandy Sullivan, who improved the final draft. Thank you everyone!