Deep thanks to my parents, Beth and Frank Williams, for their love and support and for never once suggesting that I might just be sensible and go to law school. Thanks, too, to Laura Furman for her friendship and mentorship and for the phone call she made over her summer break telling me to write this novel.
I am near worshipful of my agent, Judy Heiblum, for her candor, strength, and smarts, and of my editors, Julie Romeis and Mary Colgan, brave warriors of the writing process. These three made this book better than it was.
Thanks to the Michener Center for Writers for their support and to my teachers—Michael Adams, Laura Furman, and Elizabeth Harris—for their guidance.
I have had help from friends along the way. Thanks to Dr. Matthew Wemple for lending me his expertise. My gratitude to Riley Hoffman, Morgan Johnson, and my San Francisco workshop group for the early reads and to Kris Bronstad, James Hannaham, and Susie Meserve for the later reads. My gratitude for their friendship, too.
Finally, special thanks to Ulysses Loken for walking me around the block when I get muddled and all the rest of it.