Critical Conditions

Acknowledgments

I have the great fortune of receiving generous assistance from virtually everyone I ask for help. Where license has been taken with reality, though, the responsibility is mine.

This time I needed medical attention, and I got it STAT from Drs. James Todd, Terry Lapid, Stan Galansky, Randy Wilkening, and Alfred Jackson. Joani Rogers Jackson, R.N., M.S.C.S., refreshed my memories of my days working on adolescent in-patient units. I’d suppressed a lot.

Steve Klodt showed me the bowels of Denver International Airport and Mike Silva of KCNC the skies along the Front Range, each in a way that granted a perspective I could never have otherwise gained. Authorities in Boulder continue to provide their expertise. Special thanks to Tom Faure of the coroner’s office and Detective Melissa Hickman of the Boulder Police Department.

Critical Conditions involves teenage girls in difficult circumstances. I was fortunate to receive the counsel of a group of remarkable young women still in, or not far from, their teens. My deep gratitude to Holly Greenburg, Alexis Wilson, and Erin Graham. You helped more than you know.

Harry MacLean, Mark Graham, Tom Schantz, and Elyse Morgan are always among my first readers, and they usually find ways to critique without drawing too much blood. I thank them not only for their sharp eyes but also for their friendship. Jeffrey and Patricia Limerick have been there for me since the beginning. And I commend Jay and Miggy Monroe for their courage and thank them for their generosity and goodwill.

I think I’m running out of ways to show appreciation to my family long before they’ve begun to run out of ways to support and help me. Rose and Xan, you have my heart. My mother, my brothers and sister, and my extended family are, too, always there for me, and I thank them.

In New York, Jariya Wanapun and Julie Harston make every task and every day easier. I thank them for their graciousness and their patience as much as for their always smooth assistance. Lynn Nesbit, Michaela Hamilton, and Elaine Koster are true publishing professionals, and I’m fortunate to be in their care. It’s no small sleight-of-hand to turn a manuscript into a book and they make the magic happen.

Finally, this book is dedicated to Al Silverman. He is a world-class editor and an even better human being. Al, thank you.