All This Life (36 page)

Cheers to all at Counterpoint/Soft Skull. Charlie Winton and Rolph Blythe. The publicity folks, Megan Fishmann, Sharon Wu, Claire Shalinsky, Corinne Kalasky, all held my hand. Kelly Winton put together a lovely artifact. I mean, this book in your hands is super pretty, right?

The San Francisco Writers' Grotto is a rad place to scribble and a much needed artistic sanctuary for me. My colleagues there continue to dazzle and inspire with their own projects.

The MFA program at the University of San Francisco still lets me teach there sometimes, despite all the weed I sell to the students. And Stanford's OWS is probably the best job I've ever had, except the summer I was a chimney sweeper.

Every author needs smart readers to help them along the way and huge thanks to the following for their wise eyeballs: Ron Currie, Sean Doyle, Andrew Ervin, Anisse Gross, Calder Lorenz, Tyler McMahon, and Lauren Saft.

Also, a certain unnamed novelist may or may not have needed someone to swoop in at the last minute and stop an avalanche of public embarrassment for a glaring error in the text, and that savior was Lori Hettler. She's a generous reader and the mastermind behind The Next Best Book Club. Go to your computer and check out her site right now.

Thanks to Diane and Sarah, Jess and Katy, Shany and Kerrie and Veronica, Eric and Eliza, Rob and Gina.

And finally, my girls, Lelo and Ava. It is a beautiful life.