Road to Thunder Hill (25 page)

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the following people for reading this novel in part or entirety at various stages of its development. Their insights and opinions were greatly valued in the shaping of the work. Thanks to Hannah Ayukawa, Judith Berry, Terence Byrnes, Sarah Gilbert, Anna Turner, and Juliet Waters. I also want to thank my brother Robert Barnes for his sharp editorial eye, Ed Hubbard for his technical advice, Bärbel Knäuper for a timely suggestion, and Cathy Moss for her continued interest and encouragement throughout the years. I am especially appreciative of Luciana Ricciutelli at Inanna Publications for choosing to recognize my work and for bringing it to life. Finally, thank you family members, for showing me the way.

A variation of the chapter “Instant Sister” was published in the anthology,
Telling Stories: New English Fiction from Quebec
, under the title “How I Met My Cousin Biz” in 2002.

An excerpt from the chapter “Flue Fire” was published in the fall issue of
Matrix Magazine
in 2010.

Photo: Jens Pfeiffer.

Connie Barnes Rose is a native of Amherst, Nova Scotia. She moved to Montreal where she met her husband and where they raised their two daughters. She earned a
BA
in Creative Writing in 1992 and an
MA
in English from Concordia University in 1996. Her collection of linked short stories,
Getting Out of Town
, was published in 1997 and short-listed for the
QSPELL
Award and the Dartmouth Award. Since then she has taught creative writing at Concordia University and at the Quebec Writer's Federation. She continues to live with her husband in Montreal and still manages to return to Nova Scotia every summer.