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I want to thank the many people who have helped to make this book possible. My deepest gratitude and love go to my life partner, Stephen Mehler, who took me home to Egypt, who introduced me to the indigenous wisdom tradition of that ancient land, who read my unpublished work and encouraged me to keep writing, and who loved and supported me through the process of writing, editing, and finding a publisher. My deep thanks go to Abd’El Hakim Awyan for his knowledge, wisdom, and patience, and to JoAnn Parks and Max for introducing me to Stephen and helping me find myself again. I also must thank Sekhmet for her love, support, and guidance.
Special thanks also go to Christopher Dunn and his wife, Jeanne, for his ideas about Egypt and for accompanying us on the path; also to John DeSalvo for his support and friendship, and all the independent Egyptologists and theorists whose ideas I’ve brushed against in this book. I am deeply grateful to Stephen Simon and the Spiritual Cinema Circle community for helping me believe my dreams can come true, and to Neale Donald Walsch for suggesting Hampton Roads. I also thank Andrea and Mark Pinkham of Body, Mind, Spirit Journeys for all they do to take people to the sacred sites of the world, and all those at the Clan Sinclair Study Centre in Noss Head, Scotland, for their tolerance of the stories being written about their family.
Special thanks go to my critique team, Traci Morganfield, Carol Valera Jacobson, and Susan Johnson, as well as the members of the Science Fiction Studio at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Thanks also to Broad Universe, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, the Northern Colorado Writers’ Workshop, Women’s Voices, and all my writing teachers, including Joanna Russ, Valerie Miner, Irena Klepfisz, and Chuck Schuster.
I also want to thank family and friends who have encouraged me, including Aldrin, Shaniqua, Ashley, Aldrin Jr., and Aubria Gresham; Sunny and Bob Mehler and family; Phyllis and Ron Hoffman and family; Marylee and Joe Swanson; Ruth Adele; my parents, Ralph and Lois Crater, who wondered why their child kept saying she wanted to be a writer; Eddie Crater; and the felines who sniffed, poked, and purred the book into being—Thea, Persephone, Ting Li, Wizzer, Parsifal, and Arwen.
Finally, an enormous thank you goes to all the great people at Hampton Roads for their excellent work, especially Frank DeMarco for his insightful editing.