Thanks to Tami Taylor, who runs my website, creates my newsletters, and creates some of my foreign-language book covers. I ask Tami for help and she gets things done quickly and efficiently. Thanks to Pam Binder and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association for their support of my work. Thanks to Seattle 7 Writers, a nonprofit collective of Pacific Northwest authors who foster and support the written word. I’m proud to be a member of both organizations. Thanks to Jennifer McCord, a good friend and publisher who many years ago got me on the right path.
One of the cool things I get to do is sell characters to raise money for school auctions. In this instance, I sold two characters to raise money for my daughter’s school. Really, however, the thanks go to those with the checkbook. Special thanks to Tim and Brenda Berg. We met through basketball and became fast friends. They are both a kick, and when they started bidding I was blown away. Brenda, I didn’t get you the profession you sought in my novel, but I hope I did you justice! Thanks also to Ying Li and to Chong Zhu, who purchased a character for their son, Jonathan, an aspiring writer. I hope one day to be reading his books.
Thanks to all of you, the readers, for finding my novels and for your incredible support of my work. Thanks for posting your reviews and for e-mailing me to let me know you’ve enjoyed my novels—always a writer’s highlight.
Thanks to my mom, who had a rough 2016, but is back and better than ever; to my son, a sophomore in college at the time of this publication; and to my daughter, already a junior in high school. Life is great when I spend it with you. Thanks to my wife, Cristina, who listens patiently when I lament how I’ll never get a book finished or write another page, then celebrates with me when I leave my computer and say, “I’m done!”
Ah, the life of a writer’s spouse.