No novelist writes alone, for she is involved in an invisible partnership between herself and her reader. For helping to improve my contribution to this partnership, I am indebted to the group of women better known as the Traditions Book Club, who for seven years have read, laughed, and wept with me as we explored books we love. Many of them read this manuscript in its early stages, and I’m grateful for their insights.
I also owe thanks to my editors, Becky Nesbitt and Traci DePree, and to my agent, Danielle Egan-Miller, and her staff, Joanna MacKenzie and Lauren Olsen, for their inspired suggestions.
I am especially grateful to my cousin Ginger Wiggins who read this novel in its roughest incarnation and reminded me of stories I’d forgotten about our precious grandmother … who would certainly have worn Spanx, if she’d known about them.