Thanks to the staff of Seven Stories Press, especially my editor, Dan Simon, for taking on this manuscript.
My thanks to everyone at the publications in which some of these chapters first appeared. Without you this book would not exist.
Special appreciation to David Marr, Carol Shamon, and the B Street Art Group, San Diego, for their support and interest in my work.
Thank you to Roland Sharrillo, Bruce Janssen, and Jesse Barker for critiquing early drafts of this manuscript, and to Dennis Conkin and Molly Giles for encouraging me to write. And to the memory of Thom Bartasavage and J. Walter Carson, good friends until the end.