first editor passed.
So did the second.
The third said the writing was strong but the subject would be difficult to sell.
I decided to forgive that sentence.
It took almost a year and a stack of rejection letters before a small Midwestern press finally said yes.
The advance was modest.
I cried over it anyway.
Not because of the money.
Because someone with no reason to be kind had read the worst year of my life and decided it mattered.
We titled the book from something Kora had once
