Acknowledgments

Writing an acknowledgment page is fraught with anxiety. You
suddenly realize: one, just how many people have helped you get
over the finish line; and, two, how fallible your memory is. I know
I’m going to forget someone who should not be forgotten. If
you’re that person, my apologies.
It’s taken me more than four years to get this book written, and
along the way I wrote three versions of it that weren’t very good.
At all. So the usefulness and elegance of this is due to the
encouragement and enthusiasm and talents of a rather large group
of people.
Supportive readers of various sucky versions of the book
include Jill Murphy, Kate Lye, Jen Louden, Pam Slim, Michael
Leckie, Karen Wright, Eric Klein, Molly Gordon, Mark Silver,
Venita Indewey and Gus Stanier, all of whom managed to
encourage me to go on while steering me away from mediocrity.
Suzie Bolotin and Bruce Tracy at Workman said no to earlier
versions, which proved to be astute. Lindsay Miller and Elizabeth
Woodworth helped me ground my work with insightful research.
I’ve had a fantastic editorial and design team. Catherine Oliver
of Oliver Editorial Services stopped me using so many ellipses...
And Capital Letters... and much more. She’s shaped this