Mindy McGinnis: In a Handful of Dust

“I know it,” Lucy said, her hand reaching up for Lynn’s. “But I’ll be all right here. Stebbs and Vera need to know we made it. You tell…” Lucy swallowed hard, having promised herself she was done crying. “You tell my grandma I love her, and that I’m happy.”

Lynn sighed. “This caring about people is for the birds. ’Specially when they gotta live so far apart from each other.”

Lucy swiped at her eyes. “What do you want me to tell Fletcher, should he show up?”

Lynn shrugged. “He knows where Ohio is.”

“The way he was making eyes at you on the road, I wouldn’t be surprised if he accidentally crosses your path before you get there.”

“My luck I’ll find his wife instead.”

Lucy smiled, shaking her head. “You’re a hell of a woman, Lynn.”

Lynn reached down to touch the crown of her bright-yellow head. “You’re a hell of woman too, Lucy.”

She kicked her horse and was gone, a trail of dust marking the beginning of a long path she was willing to travel again, if her pond lay at the end. And the sun rose higher, warming Lucy’s face and reflecting off the ocean into a million points of light.

It’s much easier to write a novel than acknowledgments because the latter is chiefly comprised of reality and that’s not an arena I excel in. However, I shall try.

First, thanks goes to my agent, Adriann Ranta, without whom my literary gunslingers would still live in the slush pile and not in the hearts and minds of readers. In the same vein I heartily thank my editor, Sarah Shumway, for allowing me to be an instinctive writer, as well as not minding when I respond to serious emails with Star Wars gifs.

Thank you also to the HarperCollins family at Katherine Tegen Books, true lovers of books, supporters of writers, and champions of literacy. I must thank my cover designer, Erin Fitzsimmons, whose artwork puts the book in readers’ hands, while hopefully my words keep it there. Also I would be remiss not to mention Margot Wood and Aubry Parks-Fried, the “Epic Reads Girls,” who tirelessly promote myself and my fellow HarperCollins authors, as well as Ali Lisnow, my publicist, who doesn’t mind when I make up fake new names for book fairs.

Also instrumental in the creation of any book I write, my crit partner, R. C. Lewis, who changes all my spelling mishaps from UK to US and constantly reminds me what time zone I live in, even though she’s half a country away and I should know by now. It’s a good thing I have a keeper.

Authors need other authors both as sounding boards and friends. My first tour experience was amazing and I can only hope I continue to be surrounded by such amazing women as Rae Carson, Michelle Gagnon, Madeleine Roux, Sherry Thomas, and Amelia Kahaney as my career continues. The Class of 2k13 remains a tight-knit group and I must especially mention my Midwestern cohorts Kelly Barson, Geoffrey Girard, Demitria Lunetta, Jennifer McGowan, and Kate Karyus Quinn for keeping it lively and making me feel like perhaps I’m not crazy, but if I am, I’m in good company.

You can’t swing a dead cat in Ohio without hitting a YA author. I especially want to thank Liz Coley for support, encouragement, and good road conversation.

I must thank my boyfriend, who accidentally supplied the catalyst for both Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust . Art is not created in a vacuum, and he has provided more inspiration than he’ll ever know.

There are also people in my everyday life who deal with my resistance to phone calls and occasionally answering with, “WHAT?!” Thank you to my family for the support, especially to my mother, who keeps hoping that someday I’ll write a happy book about cats. We’ll see.

MINDY McGINNISis the author of Not a Drop to Drink and an assistant YA librarian who lives in Ohio. She cans her own food and graduated from Otterbein University magna cum laude with a BA in English literature and religion. Mindy has a pond in her backyard but has never shot anyone. You can visit her online at www.mindymcginnis.com.

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Not a Drop to Drink

Cover art © 2014 by Richard Nixon/Arcangel Images, Joana Kruse/Arcangel Images, Dale Kaminski/NebraskaSC/Getty Images, iStockphoto, and Shutterstock

Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

In a Handful of Dust

Copyright © 2014 by Mindy McGinnis

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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McGinnis, Mindy.

In a handful of dust / Mindy McGinnis. — First edition.

pages cm

Summary: “In a barren land, teenage Lucy is taken away from the community she has grown up in and searches the vast countryside for a new home”— Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-06-219853-2 (hardback)

[1. Survival—Fiction. 2. Water supply—Fiction. 3. Self-reliance—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.M4784747In 2014

2014009661

[Fic]—dc23

CIP

AC

EPUB Edition AUGUST 2014 ISBN 9780062198556

14 15 16 17 18 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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