Acknowledgments

AS SOMEONE WHO writes two-minute stories and reads on TV for a living, writing a book was completely out of my comfort zone. I had no idea how the process worked or how challenging it would be. (Wait, I need to use complete sentences?)

This book would not have happened without some pretty remarkable people: To my friend Sara, for encouraging me five years ago to make a seemingly impossible goal of writing a book a reality. To my phenomenal literary agent, Lilly, for her unwavering support from the day she read my disjointed, pathetic excuse of a proposal and has gone above and beyond in championing me every step of the way. To my editorial director at McGraw-Hill, Donya, who saw our vision, shared my passion, and ran with it. To my husband, who kept me sane and held down the fort while I tapped away at paragraphs here and there while traipsing around the country covering natural disasters, NBA celebrations, the Oscars, and anything else in-between. To my parents, for being terrible communicators but who inspired me through their hard work to become what they couldn’t. To my viewers across the country, many of whom have followed me on this wild journey no matter what city. Oh, and to the many coffee shops (Blue Bottle, in particular) in San Francisco that didn’t mind me posting up for hours, monopolizing precious cafe table real estate to get this book done.