Donna Packard, my friend and typist for more than thirty years, passed away November 17, 2017. She left behind an adored husband, two grown children, and legions of friends. Working without my wonderful backstop was a sorrowful adjustment.
J. M. Cummings, another novelist, stepped up to the plate so that much did not need to be explained. My handwriting, however, did.
As always, Kathleen King and Dee Phillips, Ph.D., both foxhunting buddies, pitched in when I needed odd bits of information.
I stuck Raymie Woolfe, Jr., briefly in this novel to tickle him. Born July 31, 1935, he died on May 10, 2018, before publication. His bursting onto the steeplechase scene occurred when he was sixteen, winning the Saratoga Steeplechase on Hampton Roads. He was a winner in the saddle and out of it. He also wrote clear, excellent nonfiction. His book on Secretariat in 1981 remains the touchstone. In 2016 The Doomed Horse Soldiers of Bataan was published to high praise. There were books in between, and at his death he was writing another.
As to acknowledgments, if I have forgotten anyone, cuss me like a dog.
Speaking of which, my greatly admired, beloved Jane Winegardner, MFH, gave me a Norfolk terrier for my birthday in 2016. She chews my papers. That’s all I need, another literary critic.
Couldn’t resist putting her in this novel.
May you all be well.
Rita Mae Brown, MFH