The Summer I Wasn't Me (24 page)

It might sound crazy, considering I don’t actually
know
her, but I must start this long list of thank-yous by sending an enormous shout out to Lady Gaga, whose song “Hair” is the reason this book exists. Thank you, Gaga, for inspiring me in such a profound way, and for giving a voice to all the teens in the world who just want to be loved for who they are.

Thank you to Leah Hultenschmidt, my wonderful editor, for being so smart, insightful, patient, enthusiastic, and all around cool. Major props and thanks to my publicist Derry Wilkens for working tirelessly to bring
The
Summer
I
Wasn’t Me
and
My
Life
After
Now
to the world. And thank you to Aubrey Poole, Jillian Bergsma, Cat Clyne, Abbie Digel, the Sourcebooks cover design team, the sales and marketing team, the copyeditors and proofreaders, and every single person at Sourcebooks who worked on this book.

In case you didn’t know, Kate McKean is the best agent
ever
, and I am so lucky to have her on my side, from Lucy to Lexi and beyond.

This book was my creative thesis for my MFA, and I absolutely won the thesis advisor lottery with Sarah Ketchersid. Thank you, Sarah, for your unparalleled wisdom, and for making me rewrite the first fifty pages more times than I can count. You were always right.

Thank you to David Levithan for not only being an incredible professor and inspiration, but for doing all you do to help little guys like me find a real place in the NYC YA author scene.

The Lucky 13s—including Alison Cherry, Mindy Raf, and Lindsay Ribar—is just the coolest group of kid lit authors ever, and I’m proud to be one of you.

To my creative writing instructor Sarah Weeks and my New School peeps Amber, Jane, Kevin, and Molly, thank you so much for your encouragement as I was drafting the early chapters of this book.

To my beta readers, critique group, and kickass thesis group—Caela Carter, Sona Charaipotra, Dhonielle Clayton, Alyson Gerber, Corey Ann Haydu, Riddhi Parekh, and Mary G. Thompson—you’re all a bunch of geniuses. You were more integral to the creation of Lexi’s world than you probably realize, and I love you for it.

Thanks to the fam—Susan and John Miller, Jim Verdi, and Robert and Alyssa Verdi—for being so excited about my books. Thank you to my sister-in-law Emily Chiles for writing me a letter of recommendation for my grad school application! Thank you to the Petrie family at large—and Cynthia Farina and Rachel Leigh Smith in particular—for being so supportive and so cool with the topics I choose to write about. I would have written the books anyway, but, you know, it’s really nice to know you’ve got my back.

Paul Bausch, thank you for being such an awesome guy and for putting up with me all those times I couldn’t go out on the weekends because I had to work. Love you, homie.

Amy Ewing, this book was dedicated to you basically before it was even written. Thank you for reading and re-reading, for talking it all through, for squealing with me in South Africa when I got the happy news email from my agent, for loving this quirky little band of four like they’re real people, and for reassuring me that Carolyn is, in fact, super hot. You are my champion!

Jessica Verdi lives in Brooklyn, NY, and received her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She loves seltzer, Tabasco, TV, vegetarian soup, flip-flops, and her dog. She will choose Spike over Angel and Jess over Dean
every
single
time
, and has tattoos of a book and an elephant—two of her favorite things—on her arms. Jessica is also the author of
My
Life
After
Now
. Visit her at
www.jessicaverdi.com
and follow her on Twitter @jessverdi.

If you liked
The Summer I Wasn’t Me
, check out these other great titles from Sourcebooks Fire.

MY LIFE AFTER NOW

Jessica Verdi

What now?

Lucy just had the worst week ever. And suddenly, it’s all too much—she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a whole new Lucy. So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of.

And now her life will never be the same. Now, how will she be able to have a boyfriend? What will she tell her friends? How will she face her family? Now, every moment is a precious gift. She never thought being positive could be so negative. But now, everything’s different…because now she’s living with HIV.

PRAISE FOR
MY LIFE AFTER NOW:

“Debut author Verdi paints Lucy’s devastation and her tangled emotions with honesty and compassion…telling Lucy’s story with realism and hope.” —
Publishers Weekly

“Verdi forces her readers to face Lucy’s dilemma with unflinching honesty and unfaltering compassion. A gem of a novel.” —
RT Book Reviews
, 4½ Stars, Top Pick of the Month

IF HE HAD BEEN WITH ME

Laura Nowlin

“If he had been with me, everything would have been different.”

Finn and Autumn used to be inseparable, but middle school puts them on separate paths going into high school. Yet no matter how distant they become or who they’re dating, Autumn continues to be haunted by the past and what might have been. While their paths continue to cross and opportunities continue to be missed, little do they know that the future might separate them forever.

PRAISE FOR
IF HE HAD BEEN WITH ME:

“Friendship, love, secrets, hope and regret…this book has it all!
If He Had Been With Me
is a page-turner that you won’t be able to put down.” —
Girls’ Life

“This sweet, authentic love story masks complex characters dealing with complex issues…First-time author Nowlin keeps the story real and fast paced.” —
Booklist

16 THINGS I THOUGHT WERE TRUE

Janet Gurtler

Heart attacks happen to other people #thingsithoughtweretrue

When Morgan’s mom gets sick, it’s hard not to panic. Without her mother, she would have no one—until she finds out the dad who walked out on her as a baby isn’t as far away as she thought…

5000 Twitter followers are all the friends I need #thingsithoughtweretrue

With Adam in the back seat, a hyper chatterbox named Amy behind the wheel, and plenty of Cheetos to fuel their road trip, Morgan feels ready for anything. She’s not expecting a flat tire, a missed ferry, a fake girlfriend…and that these two people she barely knew before the summer started will become the people she can’t imagine living without.

PRAISE FOR JANET GURTLER:

“Just right for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jodi Picoult.” —
Booklist
on
I’m Not Her

“The characters breathe with life.” —
Kirkus
on
Who I Kissed