Running with the Alpha's Son, page 31
I turn to him, and he speaks:
“Max?”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could never have imagined when Max and Jasper first entered my imagination that this cute little love story would turn into what it’s become today. Drawing from my experience as a ghost writer in the shifter/werewolf space, I wanted to take familiar tropes and use them in a queer way to examine how they worked as a queer narrative. Which is why the first book in this series is perhaps more familiar in structure to some other romance novels.
In the sequel and now in this book I have been able to stretch my literary muscles to use the romantic foundations of the first book and examine what it means to be a queer young person and to define oneself within relationships, ––which can be incredibly rewarding but also traumatic–– as an individual, and as part of a wider queer community.
For me being a part of the queer community has given me great joy and strength and helped me to figure out who I am, apart from my beloved partner, and within this crazy, messed up, and sometimes terrifying world. In this way Max’s journey is similar to mine and all of ours. Max is learning that there are people out there he can relate to, who are full of love, and who need him, a person of privilege, to stand up for them.
And so I have dedicated this book to the rogues, the mystics, and the warriors because this is a book and a series that is written with the queer community in mind, and as this is the third book (and I’m running out of individual names to mention) in these acknowledgements I want to thank the queer community, for keeping me afloat, for giving me spirit, and gifting me with purpose.
I also want to thank those who have found and championed these books, who have reached out with kind words, shared their art with me (always wild to see my characters through the lense of other people’s art!), and for whom these books have become a part of their queer experience.
I hope they are strengthening and enlivening, romantic and joyful, and cathartic.
Your support and enthusiasm are what makes this process so worthwhile. And keeps me at my computer figuring out how to continue Max and Jasper’s story.
I would be remiss not to mention the folks at Tiny Ghost Press, who are the best collaborators and who have helped guide me and these books in the right direction and who have shown all the care in the world for these characters and this story. So thank you Joshua Dean Perry, Reuben Davies-Hoare, and Thomas Shah.
Huge thanks also to Dana Keller, the most amazing copy editor, for polishing and making this book shine. Your care and attention to detail always has me floored.
And of course, to Kayleigh Fine who, in my humble opinion, is the greatest living artist today. You continue to bring Max and Jasper to life in new and stunning ways. I think you’ve truly outdone yourself with this cover. It might be my fave of them all…so far ;). Thank you!
And finally, to swing back to the queer community I want to thank the readers once more, thank you for staying with me and this story, I’m sorry for all the cliff hangers, but you’ll be pleased to know there is (at least) one more chapter to go in this story, and I so appreciate you going on this ride with me. I hope you’ll be there with me to see how it ends.
Don’t forget to commune with your wolf selves and thanks for howling with me.
Penny Jessup, Running with the Alpha's Son
