Acknowledgements

I should like to begin by thanking Choc Lit and my lovely editor. I feel privileged to be published by such a great team of people, and to be part of a group of authors who are so unstinting in their support for each other and in their friendship.

Before I began The Lost Girl, I was already familiar with the history of the American West, and of Wyoming in particular, having visited Wyoming and also having read a wide range of books prior to writing my first two historical novels set in Wyoming, A Bargain Struck and A Western Heart. However, The Lost Girl was the first novel I’d set in the south west of Wyoming, and it called for research into the tensions that developed between the white miners and the Chinese in that area during the 1870s and early 1880s.

I’m extremely grateful for the tremendous help given me by Janice Brown, The Rock Springs Historical Museum, Wyoming. Amongst the literature given to me by Janice was the invaluable ‘The Chinese Story and Rock Springs, Wyoming’, written by Henry F. Chadey, Director of Sweetwater County Historical Museum.

There are many articles on the tensions prevalent during this period and it’s difficult to single out any one article from the many sources I found, but I should like to say how greatly indebted I was to ‘Marriage and the Family Among Chinese Immigrants to America, 1850–1960’ (Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture, Vol. 29, no. 4, 1968, p. 322).

Once again, I have to thank my Friend in the North, Stella, who reads every word I write, and who never fails to tell me the truth. Such honesty is the sign of a true friend, and I very much appreciate Stella’s friendship and support.

Thank you, too, to the members of the Choc Lit Tasting Panel – Isabelle, Helen D., Sarah C., Jenny K., Lee, Tina and Bruce – who took the story of Charity and Joe to their hearts and recommended its publication.

A writer’s life may be a solitary one, but it is never a lonely one if the writer belongs to the Romantic Novelists’ Association. A source of help, support and, above all, friendship, the RNA continues to play a large part in my life. In addition, I derive a great deal of pleasure from my membership of the Oxford Writers’ Group and of the Historical Novel Society.

Finally, my two sons have fled the nest and are unaffected by the many hours a day that I hide myself away in my study, writing. My husband, however, is not so lucky, and I’m extremely grateful to Richard for keeping our real world running so smoothly while I create a fictional world.