title: Writing For My Sanity: Emotions Purged by the Pen
author:  Melony Hill 
description: Melony Hill is an author, magazine columnist and blogger from Baltimore, Maryland. Melony has been writing since her early teen year but started writing professionally in 2012. In addition to being a writer, Melony is a legally disabled motivational speaker and mentor to women who have faced adversity in their lives. Melony lives by the slogan "Stronger Than My Struggles" and runs a website and business by the same name. Melony loves to help people find peace through writing.
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  ## [Acknowledgments](9780062574183_Contents.xhtml#r_idParaDest-22)
  
  
  This book was a long time coming. I wrote the opening pages of what would
  eventually become _Contagion_ back in early 2012, but the book didn’t even
  begin to resemble what you hold in your hands today until 2016. It has been a
  labor of love (and oftentimes frustration) as I rewrote and revised and
  polished, but in the end, it was well worth it.
  
  
  I owe an enormous debt to Susan Dennard, who brainstormed aloud with me as we
  walked through a cemetery in her hometown in the fall of 2015. I can still
  remember the weather (so mild for November!) and the moment we stumbled upon
  the twist that the entire book would hinge upon: Lisbeth Tarlow’s backstory
  and secrets. _Contagion_ only began to take its true shape after that. So
  thanks, Sooz. I’d probably still be writing in circles if you hadn’t helped me
  puzzle that out.
  
  
  Additional thanks to Alex Bracken, Amie Kaufman, Mackenzi Lee, and Jodi
  Meadows, who all provided 