Idyll Threats (30 page)

This book owes much to many.

My Novel Incubator group midwifed the heck out of this book. My amazing instructors, Lisa Borders and Michelle Hoover, helped me revise and market this work, and I am so grateful for their efforts. My fellow students: Lisa Birk, Carol Gray, Michael Nolan, Patty Park, Hesse Phillips, Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne, Ashley Stone, Mandy Syers, and Gerald B. Whelan—thank you for inspiring and encouraging me. I can't wait to hold your books in my hands!

To Grub Street, for challenging me with every class, workshop, and event I've attended. I'm lucky to be part of such a wonderful writing community.

To everyone at MIT who has made my day job a pleasure and who has encouraged my “other” job, especially those in Computing Culture, High-Low Tech, Lifelong Kindergarten, and the Finance group at the Media Lab.

To my agent, Ann Collette, for loving Thomas Lynch as much as I do, and for gambling on both of us.

To my editor, Dan Mayer, for giving me the hard truth (you should get rid of the ghost) and for providing so many smart, insightful suggestions.

To my friends who are a delight and are always understanding when I go off the map to write: Karen Brennan, Maggie deLong, Jeff Hawson, and Tracey Schmidt.

To Sayamindu Dasgupta for taking a very good picture of me.

To my family, especially my parents, who always encouraged me to
write. And to Grandma Gayle, who once sassed back with, “Well, my granddaughter wrote a book!”

And to Todd, for living with me and my characters every single day.

Stephanie Gayle is the author of
My Summer of Southern Discomfort
. She's twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her short fiction, which has appeared in
Kenyon Review Online
,
Potomac Review
, and
Minnetonka Review
, and elsewhere. She co-created the popular Boston reading series Craft on Draft. When not writing, she is often playing board games. Her Settlers of Catan skills are exquisite.