ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
I would like to thank my agent, Bill Contardi, and my editor, Tom Colgan, for having faith to take a chance on a rookie, and Eric Boss and Mike McGroder, for greasing the wheels and to Richard Tuschman, whose beauty with the brush portrayed so precisely the mood and theme of the novel. I thank my mentors Judy and Craig Johnson and my wife, Heather Wendelboe: Without their help, you wouldn’t be reading this.