A big thanks to my mother for her never ending encouragement and boundless enthusiasm for my characters, my stories, and my talent. I’ve always believed I could do anything because she always told me I could.
Enormous gratitude to all the people who helped get me through the dark times until I could figure out where I was supposed to be:
John, one of the best friends a guy could have.
Brandy, who has been important to me since we met in the Army.
Joe, no one could ever ask for a truer friend.
Tony, who has had my back since the early days at the Kubert School.
Andrea, who helped me up from the depths.
Rebecca, a kindred spirit who has never let me down when I really needed her.
Dr. Malek, who set me on the path to understanding myself.
Dr. Midas, who helped me get further down that road.
The few special ladies who loved me when it couldn’t have been easy to do so.
I am very grateful to know so many wonderfully talented people like Tony Tabtong, who brought my concept for the book cover to life, Fernando Ruiz, Kim DeMulder, Pat Olliffe, Joe Episcopio and Joe Mondin, who each did one the magnificent illustrations for the stories. Many thanks, gentlemen.
“Thank You” to my beta readers: Terri, Andi, Rocco, Mom, Debi, Thad and Marie, Joe and Mr. Chen. Your feedback and answers to my endless questions were invaluable. Also appreciate those friends who took the time to read some of my stories and give me their thoughts and feelings about them.
Appreciation to those people who I based some of these characters on. You know who you are. If you weren’t already larger than life, it wouldn’t have been so easy to use you as templates.
Very special thanks to all my Kickstarter backers who literally put their money where their mouth is to help make this dream a reality. Your support and enthusiasm for this project means the world to me.
Finally, I want to thank the naysayers, the “haters” and the people that have tried to tear me down and denigrate me over the course of my life. You taught me to be strong, to never give up and to understand that you can’t please everyone so I might as well do what makes me happy. I’m happy now and I plan to stay that way for a long, long time.