I went back to the setting of my memoir, The Last Cadillac, to write this mystery, Saving Tuna Street, but I changed the name of the setting from Anna Maria Island to Santa Maria Island. I needed license; writers love license, all they can get. Then I took off in this new mystery series with my peripatetic character, Blanche Murninghan, who couldn’t go anywhere without a lot of help:
Thank you, Marie Corbett, author of the memoir; January, who introduced me to Gillian Kendall, her excellent editor; and to Gretchen Hirsch, an insightful editor who is all about getting down to the bones.
To my editors at Light Messages Publishing—Thank you to the Turnbulls, Elizabeth and Betty and Wally, for taking on my story and making it better.
To my cousin, Charles J. Nau, a lawyer by trade and former English teacher at Notre Dame, thank you for your meticulous and often hilarious (thanks, I needed that) editing. A voracious reader, a discerner of truth, he went with me line by line down Tuna Street on our beloved island.
Many thanks to my sisters—Elizabeth Nau Montgomery, my first reader, who said I “nailed it” and, with that, gave me the boost I needed. To Patricia Nau Mertz, an inspiration, and Janet Nau Franck, for her unflagging generosity.
And, especially, to my grandmothers, who will always be with me: Elizabeth Nau Murninghan and Frances Ella Pike McLoughlin—You fill my heart and there you stay.