Anyone who has read the other works in my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series knows that one of my favorite characters is Dandy, Jamie Hewitt’s young Boston Terrier.
The dog my father had as a young man was a Boston Terrier named Tippy, who he had to leave behind when he went off to fight in WWII. Therefore it wasn’t surprising that when it came time to get me a dog, my parents chose a Boston Terrier. Misty was a female (her full name was Miss Tea of the Boston Tea Party—so you can see I was already a budding historian when in elementary school) and much beloved by me.
However, like my father, I had to leave Misty behind…in my case when I went off to college. You might imagine, though, how happy I was when it was time to get my own young daughter a puppy and she asked for a Boston Terrier, bringing the indomitable Sammy into our lives.
Sammy never solved a crime or scared off an attacker or saved the day, as Dandy has done in my fictional world, but he did bring me and my family unending joy and laughter, through good times and bad, and that’s what I hope Dandy will do for my readers.
As usual, my heartfelt thanks goes out to those fans of the series who are willing to put everything aside and read a draft of my work. Thanks this time goes to Jim Brown, Micheline Plummer Golden, Robin Harsh, Casey Jones, and Judy Mahony for doing such a lovely job in such a short period of time. I also want to thank Michelle Huffaker for coming up with another sweet cover for the novella and my proof-reader Jessica Meigs for eradicating all the little errors that my beta readers failed to find.
Finally, I can assure you that once again I would never have gotten this novella written and out to the world without the continued love and support of my husband (and first reader) and the motivation that my daughter Ashley and her children provide for me every day.