I’D LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT #!%$&

by Lupe Fernandez

I’ve read a lot of novel acknowledgements. The order of gratitude is roughly as follows:

Agent
Editor
Friends
Family
Assorted Teachers, Pets and Cosmic Forces

I look forward to the day when I can write my own acknowledgement page, and express my thanks to people who have helped the manuscript get published. Agent. Editor. Publisher. Pen & Ink Colleagues, Etc…

I’d like to thank the real people who affect my life. They determined my themes, plots, characters and style. Let me turn back the neurons of time, to those thrilling days of yester-year….

The short list: The Seventies, OPEC Oil Embargo, The International Communist Conspiracy, Rocky Road Ice Cream, Pork Rinds, Head Cheese, Romita - Mexico, Bernard Hermann, James Bond, Raquel Welch, Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, a ray of sunshine, the speed of light, the Apollo Space Program, and the planet Mars.

I’d like to thank the Cardiac Surgeon at Oakland Children’s Hospital who sewned up my heart in 1966. Far out man.

I’d like to thank Stephanine E., who during my first day of kindergarten, alerted Mrs. Mean, “Teacher! He’s crying.” I’m still cry during my first day of any class.

I’d like to thank my father for buying me a clarinet instead of a trumpet. I felt like a girl playing a reed instrument.

I’d like to thank Georgina C. for being a distant object of adoration in the fourth grade. At the summer SCBWI Conference, I struggled with the urge to hide behind a tree due to the presence of so many women.

I’d like to thank my brothers for letting me read their comic books as long as I washed my hands and didn’t tear the pages. I still wash my hands when I read my own comics.

I’d like to thank Marlene G. for stirring my manly desire in the eighth grade and remaining out of reach. I’m still stirred.

I’d like to thank all the guys on the varsity football team who showed me that playing the clarinet and being skinny is not the path to dating. I’ve put on weight since high school.

I’d like to thank Melissa who turned me down for the high school senior prom. “I have a boyfriend,” she said. That’s okay. I really didn’t want to go. Nope. I needed to stay home and study.

I'd like to thank all the lovely ladies in SCBWI.

Lastly You Dear Readers of this Fine Blog. You. Yes you.