Dedicated to editors and authors alive and dead

When an author finishes a manuscript, a sense of elation and job well done surges through his entire being, Then it is submitted to editors who have no emotional attachment to its birthing. Their job is to offer suggestions and corrections to make it better.

When the author receives their critiques and starts to incorporate their suggestions pressing him to cut and revise, his attitude toward editors begins to change.

In the end, it is all for the better. Four excellent critique artists and editors edited this book: some for punctuation, some for story arc, and some for overall sense of novel construction. Any remaining mistakes are mine. I would like to thank them all, for without them many of my original literary offenses would have made it to the printing press.

Irena Praitis: Instructor of Creative Writing, UC State, Fullerton
Robert Masello: Instructor, speaker, author of Romanov Cross
Lisa Cron: Speaker, author of Wired for Story
Cathy Bromley: Copy Editor

An author tends to find other authors he enjoys both for style and content and their work guides him. They provide good reading and form a stable base. I owe a lot to the following.

Living Authors

James Alexander Thom, John Graves, Howard Frank Mosher, Kent Haruf, Pat Conroy, Nick Jans, Lynn Schooler, Herman Wouk, Richard Russo, Dick Couch and Andrew Neiderman.

Deceased Authors

Jessamyn West, A.J. Cronin, Erskine Caldwell, Robert Service, Robert Ruark, R.F. Delderfield, Vardis Fisher, Robert Penn Warren, Wallace Stegner, Rudyard Kipling, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Jack London.