I owe a debt of gratitude to the writers of the Upper Mississippi Young Writer’s Association who saw early drafts and provided crucial feedback. Nick Healy, Roger Hart, Hans Hetrick, and musician Nate Boots are lifelong friends and writers whose judgment I know I can trust. They helped me see early on that this was a story I needed to honor. I am likewise indebted to my campus writing group at Normandale, including Dan Darling, Loli Dillon, and Eric Mein, who inspired me to make some important revisions. Amit Bhati provided crucial advice about game development and programming in the 1990s. My wonderful agent, Laura Langlie, saw the novel when it was halfway done, and spurred me on to finish.
I knew when I was halfway through the novel that I had to send this to my editor, Mark Doten at Soho Press. This needs to go to Mark, I thought. We worked together on my last novel, Little Wolves, and I felt strongly that sending this to Mark and Soho would also complete a Minnesota trilogy that started all the way back with my novel The Night Birds, set in 1862. There are few things writers appreciate better than the natural completion of a story arc. Mark Doten helped shape this novel into what it is. I’m grateful to him and to the entire team at Soho, including Rachel Kowal and many others.
To my mom and dad and my siblings, who have been champions and great supporters of my work, and to many others in my family, I thank you.
Last, but certainly not least, I need to make sure I thank the one who makes all of this possible, my wife, Melissa Jean Dahlke Maltman. A long time ago, she was my first reader, the one who nudged me to go back to graduate school, the one who helps me find the time to write and to create as we raise three daughters together. It’s a good life.
—Tom Maltman