Acknowledgments

Without my loving wife, Michele LaGamba-Himmel, I could never have written this book. I credit my wife Michele as being a co-editor of the novel. As I wrote this book over the years, she reviewed every word, every sentence, every name, every scene, every plot, finding the names of the characters, especially the two main characters, Will and Erica, and often reworking the images and scenes. She gave true resonance to all of the healing areas, which were based on her actual experiences and intuitions. If you wish to learn about Michele and her healing, you can find her at www.energy-matters.us. The inspiration that pushed this book forward came from Michele as well as from the dynamic of our relationship.

This book also benefited from the guidance and wisdom of my daughter, Nicole. One day, when I grow up, I hope to write as well as she does. Her encouragement and enthusiasm for the project, and her understanding of the written word, proved to be of great value.

My mother, Betty Himmel, and my father, the late Arthur Himmel, provided me with wisdom and devotion, which continue to sustain me. I am also thankful for my great relationships with my siblings, Carol, Tony, and Jeffrey, as well as with my in-laws, Eleanor and Anthony LaGamba.

I am thankful for the twenty-year affiliation of my law partner, Tracey Bernstein. I thank Jim Ford, the real-life motorcycle instructor who appears in the novel. If you are serious about motorcycle riding, I commend you to his website, www.ridersworkshop.com, and to his book, The Art of Riding Smooth.

I’m also thankful for my forty-year friendship with Charles Santangelo and his sister, Pat Santangelo, who introduced Michele to me.

A special thanks to the Fenner family in Los Altos, California, and in particular to Tom Fenner, Deputy General Counsel, Stanford University, whose toast at his daughter’s wedding I shamelessly borrowed at the end of Chapter 11. Can you copyright a toast? I hope not.

And finally, thanks to the Greenleaf team in general, and to Jessica Choi, my editor, in particular. Jessica combined gentle guidance with incisive commentary, which helped bring this novel to the next level.