Rachel Goldman seems to have brought Duffy Madison to life quite by accident, but believe me, it’s not that easy. I get a lot of help in bringing Duffy (and Rachel and the gang) to you, and you can trust me that each and every person who worked on this book is indispensable. Maybe even me.
Thanks to Josh Getzler and the astonishing team at HSG Agency for bringing my strange imaginations to the right people every single time and for caring and for being good friends and for exploding every negative stereotype assigned to agents. There wouldn’t be an E. J. Copperman without them, I can tell you.
You wouldn’t ever have seen this book or heard of Duffy without the wonderful people at Crooked Lane Books: Matt Martz, Sarah Poppe, Heather Boak, and Dana Kaye, especially. It’s nice to work with people who see books as something other than numbers on a ledger report. Although making the occasional dollar isn’t a bad thing, either.
Thanks to Louis Malcangi for the cover design of Written Off, along with Robert Crawford for the cover illustration and Jennifer Manzone for book design. I send impersonal computer files; they make it look like a book. Kudos, guys.
I must take a moment to acknowledge the wonderful work done by the staff at Audible for the audiobook versions of Duffy’s adventures. Amanda Ronconi, who brings all the characters to life, does a mind-blowing job living and breathing for all the oddballs I create, and she makes me believe it when I listen. Which I do.
The crime fiction community has been remarkably open and welcoming to me for some years now. Authors are a strange bunch, but you can’t find better company anywhere. I’ve made many friends, and that’s better than anything. But the readers are the best of all—you all should be decorated with distinguished service medals and sent boxes of chocolates on your birthdays. Suffice it to say, this author is awfully grateful to anyone who reads these books.
See, it’s a solitary life, writing. Except you get to deal with all these lovely people.
E. J. Copperman
Deepest New Jersey
October 2016