A big mahalo nui loa to Cindy Chow and Deborah Turrell Atkinson, for their help with Hawaiian life and customs. All the mistakes are mine, though.
Thanks to Laura Baumbach, Kris Jacen, and everyone at MLR who has helped bring the Mahu books to new life, and to Vicki Landis for the great cover.
Every successful writer is supported by family, friends, and the generosity of other writers, and I’m not different. Lots of gratitude goes to my mother, Shirley Globus Plakcy, and to friends Andrew Schulz, Eileen Matluck, Lois Whitman and Eliot Hess, Neil Crabtree, Pam Reinhardt, Sharon Sakson and Steve Greenberg.
Special thanks to my critique group members: Ware Cornell, Christine Kling, Mike Jastrzebski, Miriam Auerbach, Sharon Potts, and Marie Etzler.
Kudos to John Spero, Leigh Rosenthal, Gerry Kennedy, Steve Wahl, and the other members of the Stonewall Library GLBT book group.
Thanks once again to my colleagues in the English department at Broward College, to my Florida International University classmates and friends, my fellow members of the Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and everyone who’s emailed me or stopped me at a conference to say they’ve enjoyed meeting Kimo and learning about his life.