Suddenly, he had a chance to rebuild what had been stolen from him. To go home again and make it something new.
Serena wandered away from him, back toward his truck. She stood there, with her hands jammed in her pockets, staring southward at the chaos on the Strip. He wished he could be inside her mind. He wondered if, as she absorbed the madness of the city through her green eyes, she was staring at her past or her future.
She shook her head, as if laughing at an old joke. Then she opened the truck door, got in, and leaned back out the window. “Hey, Jonny,” she called to him. “You coming or what?”
Stride smiled and went to join her. He took a glance at the warm blue sky and thought that on the shores of the great lake in Minnesota, the colored leaves had already fallen. Winter would be shouldering down from the north. Soon, the snow would fly.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks as always go to the five amazing women who have been so instrumental in my career: my agents, Ali Gunn in London and Deborah Schneider in New York; my editors, Marion Donaldson in London and Jennifer Weis in New York; and my wife, Marcia.
There are many others, too, who have made this journey possible: Carol Jackson, Diana Mackay, Kate Cooper, Stephanie Thwaites, and the entire team at Curtis Brown; Beth Goehring, Gary Jansen, Victoria Skurnick, Carole Baron, and their colleagues at Bookspan; Brigitte Weeks; Sally Richardson; Peter Newsom; the tremendous sales and publicity staff at both Headline and St. Martin’s; and the creative Web team at Designstein (Nathan, Rob, Cat, Ed, and Mark).
I have also worked with many wonderful overseas editors and salespeople at publishers around the world. Thank you all for being early and enthusiastic supporters.
This life would be impossible without great friends, such as Barb and Jerry, Keith and Judy (and the entire Bath mafia), Janean, Janice, Kris, Cindi, our friends at HSCA and Faegre & Benson, and many more.
I’m blessed to have parents who have always supported and believed in my dream, along with a great family of supporters. We may not always be near each other, but you’re all close to me in spirit.
Finally, I must thank the many booksellers who have embraced my work and the thousands of readers who have joined me, Jonathan Stride, and Serena Dial on their adventures. (Special thanks to Gail F., Bonnie B., Tim S., Eric S., and Ed K.)
So far, I have always been able to reply personally to everyone who has written to me at brian@bfreemanbooks.com, and I hope you will, as they say, keep those cards and letters coming. You can also visit my Web site at www.bfreemanbooks.com for more information about me, my prior and upcoming books, and my blog.
Brian Freeman
