eeeeeeeeeeee

It's up it's up it's up it's up!

Okay-- so it's not AVAILABLE until January 18th-- and it will probably be another week or so before it hits amazon.com... but it's up on the 'Coming Soon' and Deacon is just SOOOOOOOO purty, and I'm so excited...

And since it's up, and it's not all a dream and there IS proof that someone else is actually putting this one out, it's time to share something with all of you. Some of you all may recognize yourselves in the acknowledgments... for everyone else who didn't this time, know that you were in my thoughts-- thanks everybody, for the love and support! (It's UP!)

Anyway-- even if you don't buy the book, know that a lot of you have inspired it. This here's the tip of the iceberg.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My friend Wendy has been running a horse ranch mostly by herself for the last twelve years. She has killed seventeen rattlesnakes with a shotgun, can break a horse and show it and win medals, and has never, ever let anyone tell her that a woman can’t do this alone. This book’s for my friend Wendy.

My friend Julie has followed her husband around as a Navy wife for over twenty years. She has worked her way back from a hand injury in a motorcycle crash via knitting, takes shit from absolutely no one, and has read more than any human being I know of. This book’s for my friend Julie.

My friend Barb has lost every adult she’s loved with her whole heart in the space of a year, and she’s still raising her children and fighting for her home. This book’s for my friend Barb.

My friend Bonnie will answer her e-mail at three-thirty in the morning, because she knows that sometimes a time difference makes no difference in how much she’s needed. She’s spent a year and a half telling me that the people who are mean to me about my writing are fuckers and clueless bastards, and really? I can’t hear that enough. This book’s for my friend Bonnie.

My friend Roxie has lived a full, fierce life with enough empathy and self-assessment to look upon the screw-ups of others with compassion and understanding—she is creative, amazing, and reserves judgment except in the case of blatant meanness or bigotry, and then she has no mercy. This book’s for my friend Roxie.

My friend Saren sends me Supernatural videos constantly, even if I don’t have time to look up others to send back to her, and she has a husband who offers me virtual brisket with my real Top Ramen. Without her happy indulgence of my weird aging-cougar obsession with young and tasty veal, this book would never have been written. This book’s for my friend Saren.

My friend Matt has a really flaky wife who would rather write than do housework and who keeps pinning the family’s hopes on what should probably have stayed a hobby with mystique as opposed to an obsession for success. He is kind, empathetic, and never yells at me for traffic tickets even if they send us to the verge of bankruptcy, and he still loves me after twenty years. This book is especially for my friend Matt.