Many thanks to Marilee Earle, Louis and Charlotte Fischer, my high school English teacher Dr. W. Frank Landing and his wife Carolyn, Micki and John Singer, Peg Breiholz, my daughter Christine Joseph, and my granddaughter Bailey Roseveare for reading my manuscript. I appreciate so much the editorial input, encouragement and suggestions all of you offered me. Thanks also to my friend Martha Stokes for a really cool idea, and to Amy Thomas for giving me more time to write.
The gals in my real-life bridge club—Mary “Boo” Bane, Sue Griggs, and Helen Guthrie—are the complete opposite of the bridge club in my novel. For this I am truly grateful! Thanks, girls, for all the fun and laughter at the bridge table and elsewhere.
The Lake Writers, sponsored by the Smith Mountain Arts Council, encouraged me and let me bounce ideas off them. Betsy Ashton, Becky Mushko, and Bruce Rae—fellow Lake Writers—read my manuscript and offered excellent advice. As with my first novel “Secrets at Spawning Run,” I laughed and learned every time Becky used her red pen to scrawl “Aaarrrggghhh!” and “Cliché!” Betsy and Marilee Earle also have active red pens. I honestly like red pens!
I have a vivid imagination. At times it isn’t easy being around me, much less living with me. To my husband Ron Roseveare, thanks so much for your incredible patience and perseverance, your support, and for listening to all my “What ifs.”
If not for all of you listed above, I may not have finished this novel.