Crush. Candy. Corpse. (17 page)

A huge thank you to Brendan Neil, a criminal trial lawyer who often defends young people. Brendan guided me right from the premise of the story, through the trial process (I sat in on a couple of his trials), to the final verdict, suggesting scenarios and wording changes along the way. The condensing and other liberties taken with the Canadian justice system were purely for the sake of the story and all of my own.

Thank you also to test teen reader Ola Lukawski and to many other writers who read this story: Gisela Sherman, Lynda Simmons, Jennifer Filipowicz, Rory D’eon, and Jim Bennett, to name a few.

While the emotional pain of loss due to Alzheimer’s disease are true to my own experience, the names, characters, places, and incidents were produced entirely from my imagination.

When Sylvia McNicoll was born (in Ajax, Ontario), her mother contemplated naming her Sonja or Sunshine. The family later moved to Montreal, Quebec, where Sylvia graduated from Concordia University. Her writing career began when she returned to Ontario with her husband and three children. She has written twenty-seven books for young people and has won the Silver Birch Award and the Manitoba Young Reader’s Choice Award.

Sylvia enjoys long bike rides but always wears a helmet and never rides in the winter.

Copyright © 2012 by Sylvia McNicoll.

The right of Sylvia McNicoll to be indentified as the Author of this work has been asserted by her.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $24.3 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada. We acknowledge the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

McNicoll, Sylvia, 1954-
Crush candy corpse [electronic resource] / Sylvia McNicoll.

Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4594-0064-1 (EPUB).--ISBN 978-1-4594-0065-8 (PDF)

I. Title.
PS8575.N52C78 2012 jC813’.54 C2012-900033-7
This digital edition first published in 2012 as 978-1-4594-0064-1

Originally published in 2012 as 978-1-4594-0062-7

James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers
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Toronto, Ontario
M5V 1P9

www.lorimer.ca