Acknowledgments

I have endless gratitude for all those who’ve dedicated their time and talent to making this book a reality. Here’s to you, Toni Streckert, for sharing wine; mulling ideas; and not chalking it up to merlot when we posited a woman, stalled in traffic, seeing herself walk out of a hotel. To Ron Webster, my favorite Madison cop, who schooled me on procedure and somehow got his points across despite my constant distraction by his stunning good looks. To my writing group, The Fictionistas. Your unerring insights and critiques are the lifeblood of every word I pen. To Barbie Simons and Judy Knoll. I should get you uniforms and pom-poms, so rapacious is your support. To my brilliant agent, Victoria Skurnick, whose take-no-prisoners honesty gives me guidance, courage, and confidence. To my editor, Wendy McCurdy. Where did you get that memory? That ear? That nose for sniffing out what stays and what goes? Can you share? Oh, wait . . . you do! A special toast to my family and friends, who tolerate my long disappearances into the writer’s isolation. Thanks for welcoming me back into the fold each time I resurface. And finally, but never meagerly, here’s to Lance. I’ll never know what I’ve done to deserve the support, protection, and comfort you give me every, every, every day. It’s faint reimbursement to tell you I acknowledge and appreciate all you are and all you do. I thought I loved you on our wedding day. Oh! What a tiny seed that feeling was. You are my person.