Shipbuilder (42 page)

About the Author

Marlene Dotterer grew up as a desert rat in Tucson, Arizona. In 1990, she loaded her five children into the family station wagon, and drove north-west to the foggy San Francisco Bay Area. To stay warm, she tackled many enterprises, earning a degree in geology, working for a national laboratory, and running her own business as a personal chef. She is a frustrated gardener, loves to cook, and teaches natural childbirth classes. She says she writes, “to silence the voices,” obsessed with the possibilities of other worlds and other times.

She is married to The Best Husband in the World, and lives in Pleasant Hill, California.

Her website is
http://www.marlenedotterer.wordpress.com

Please visit for a peek at the next book in The Time Travel Journals series:

BRIDGEBUILDERS

Acknowledgements

There is a wealth of
Titanic
information in the world. I spent over a year plowing through a lot of it. Shan F. Bullock's little book, "Thomas Andrews, Shipbuilder," was the source of my inspiration. M.A. Kibble's website, "Thomas Andrews, Builder of the Ship of Dreams," while not a new site, is still the definitive page for information about Thomas Andrews. The people at
Encyclopedia Titanica
are
always ready for advice or debate, and always good for a laugh. The Titanic Inquiry Project, with every word of both the British and American inquiries scanned into the World Wide Web, is a wonder of the electronic age. The Belfast Titanic Society is a constant source of inspiration. And jealousy. I always wish I was there. I am grateful to all the people who contribute to these sites.

Closer to home (sort of), I send humble thanks to the members of the Online Writers Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Amy Raby, Jesse Bangs, David Fortier, Rhonda Garcia, and Greg Byrne deserve several pitchers of beer for their faithful reading of forty chapters and three revisions. You guys made a real writer of me.

Special thanks to Daniel Hawkes, who never doubted I could do it, and whose thoughtful editing of the first version made it a book to be proud of. And also to Stefan Finsterle, who provided a review of the final draft that was the equal of any peer review given to a scientific colleague. You guys rock.

My most heartfelt thanks, and all my love, go to Rick, "the Best Husband in the World.” He didn't know he married a writer, but he persevered when these strangers took up residence in our house via my obsessed mind, and I disappeared nightly behind my computer screen. For better or worse, indeed. I love you, darling.

And finally, to Thomas Andrews, February 7, 1873 - April 15, 1912. He had no idea of the inspiration he would provide to so many people through the ages. He just lived his life with all the goodness and joy instilled within him by nature and a loving family. I wish he could have had a full span of years. I hope he would be pleased with my feeble attempt to give him another chance at life.

Marlene Dotterer

Pleasant Hill, California, 2011