Thread by @seananmcguire

MIDDLEGAME would not exist without three people:

@Aiglet, @dcb42, and @DrMaryCCrowell

If you enjoy it, thank them. If you hate it, blame me, for I am the Instant Pot in which their contributions were combined and subjected to horrific pressure.

@Aiglet is one of my two official Personal Assistants, and while we're both much happier with our lives now that we've left the Bay Area, I truly miss and mourn our weekly dinners.

I talked through many of the big twists and complications of MIDDLEGAME with her over Indian food, years before the book became a real thing. The character of Erin is partially based on her. And when I finished the book...she didn't like it. Oh, well.

As I've said, this book is not to everyone's taste. She had a prose allergy to the specific authorial voice that suited the story, and that's fine, She still gets her gold star for making all things possible.

Next up, @dcb42, also referred to fondly as "Stupid Brother." His heart beats with mine at the center of this story. He was First Reader, the one whose opinion mattered more than anyone else's. Every time he approved of a draft, I felt like I won something.

I can't even count the scope of his contributions. I think only @LeeAHarris managed to make more. He's my brother in every way that matters, even if we have incompatible blood types.

And then we come to @DrMaryCCrowell. She's a musicologist, and she wrote a song about a Greek philosophical concept called the Doctrine of Ethos. I fell in love. I demanded she record it, and when she did, I listened to it on endless repeat.

It's on the album COURTING MY MUSE, if you want to give it a listen:

marycrowell.bandcamp.com/album/courting…

I had never heard of the Doctrine before Mary's album. It sent me down a research rabbit hole that lead to the story at the center of this book. It's a brilliant song by a brilliant musician, and I found it right when I needed it.

If you remove any of these three people, my house of cards collapses. I am so grateful to each of these muses, even if they left me alone to rip a 150,000 word novel out of my own skin one bloodied word at a time.