Without Brooke Warner, my coach and publisher, who believes in me, there would be no Frances Pia or Lavinia Lavinia. Thank you and the staff at SWP, especially Shannon Green, Krissa Lagos, and Julie Metz, who helped make this a beautiful book.
November and the glorious days between the autumnal spirit world, November 1 and the shortest day of Winter Solstice, lend me a creative spirit. In November, anything is possible, including the unfolding of plot and story inspired by my inner fire and Chris Baty’s No Plot No Problem. November is novel-writing month.
Many thanks to others who inspired the particulars of this novel. Peter Schumacher introduced me to The Long Now Foundation in Fort Mason, San Francisco, where the real Millennium Clock originated from the efforts of Danny Hillis, Stewart Brand, and others. Thank you.
Others I owe thanks to:
Cary Pepper, professor at The Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco, in whose class the characters Lavinia Lavinia and Zack Luce were born.
Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms and The Open Floor Dance, Sausalito, where dancing brings me closer to my best self. Dancers and teachers Kathy Altman, Claire Alexander, Lori Saltzman, Jennifer Burner, and Andrea Juhan, as well as Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness, inspired this work.
Miriam Philips, who first brought flamenco dancing to Marin County.
My Sicilian and Abruzzese grandparents, who found their way to America. This ancestral heritage appears in all my works to date.
Thank you to my parents George and Gloria Indelicato and my sister Catherine Kurkjian for your love.
The Ancient Bristle Cone Forest, which I first visited in 1999 with my husband, and which has stayed with me into the Millennium.
Tebby George’s sculptures, which, like George Lavinia’s, are eternal.
My love for my dear husband, Peter Sapienza, informed Lavinia’s relationship with the barista Mario.
Lavinia Lavinia would like my gum-chewing, African-dancing daughter, Elisa Sapienza, and my granddaughters, Isabella and Milla, who dance every day. My son, Peter Sapienza, is a storyteller whose skills I admire. His wife, Valerie, is an incredible chef who inspired the great dishes on Mercedes’s table.
Thank you to my teachers at San Francisco State and the Fromm Institute, who gave me the gift of craft, which I tried to apply here to balance my more open style of writing.
And thank you, dear readers: Kathy Andrew, Sue Salinger, Marsha Trent, Janet Constantino, Clarice Stasz, Ann Ludwig, Sharmon Hilfinger, Susan Shaddock, Marlene Douglas, and Marie Greening. Thank you Sister Mary Neill, Chris Durbin, and Laurie Schubert.