Rachel Vater is a very, very amazing individual. From hand holding to brainstorming to agent wheeling and dealing, she does it all. I only wish we lived closer to each other, so we could hang out.
I’m not exactly sure how I ended up with the most talented, most brilliant, most creative editor in the whole wide world. Wendy Loggia, you are incredible. Seriously, I can’t gush enough.
Thank you also to the entire genius team at Delacorte Press, including Beverly Horowitz, my publisher; Marci Senders, designer extraordinaire; Heather Lockwood Hughes, eagle-eyed copy editor, and Krista Vitola, Wendy’s right-hand person.
I’m forever indebted to my dedicated and gifted critique group, Denny’s Chicks: Kelly Hayes, Kathy Krevat and Sandy Levin. Where would I be without you guys? Oh yeah, drinking coffee and eating veggie omelets all by myself.
Heartfelt and humongous thanks to Owen, Katie, Jocelyn, Hannah, Alexander and Melanie for providing such interesting material(!), but mostly for just being beaucoup de fun! Always be loving and kind to your mothers. They are the best sisters around.
And then there is my family. My children: Stan, Stephen, Drew and Claire, who know the true length of a minute. As in “I’ll just be a minute; let me finish this chapter.” Thank you for being such good sports. And to Mark, who holds us all together. Not to mention his advanced map-reading skills. Thanks, honey.
Last, but not least, kudos to all involved in FIRST Robotics. Students, teachers, parents, judges, other volunteers, industry mentors, you are an inspiration. Check them out at www.usfirst.org and www.firstroboticscanada.org.