Freezing

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first draft of this book was written in September 2004. Yes, that long ago. The only way you can be reading these words on this page or that e-reader is because of the people who made sure I didn’t give up on Freezing, or myself, for more than six years. This was a tall order at times. Some of these folks fed me, others bought the new computer I couldn’t afford on my own, almost everyone had to see me weep (both kinds of tears), and too many of them had to endure me quoting Jayne and Steelie like they were friends of mine, not just words on the page. I would like to name these very important, very real people.

I am indebted to my constants since 2004: David, Msindo, and Kimera Koff, Sam Brown, and Suttirat Anne Larlarb. In ways unique to each of them, they propped me up, often literally. Between them all, they read every draft. Yet at every turn, they put the manuscript on a pedestal and illuminated it with the intensity of their conviction, keeping the light shining for as long as it took for me to stand up and reach for it again. Thank you.

For 2005, I thank Isobel Dixon and Deonie Fiford, whose first impressions of Freezing sent me back to the keyboard with the transformative knowledge that what I had written could become a book. I was tremendously lucky to have two experienced people to whom I could entrust my long-held, private dream of becoming a writer of mystery novels.

Early readers of Freezing in 2005 and 2006 were key. In those days, the manuscript was known as Freezing: The Pamphlet but Peter ‘In the shops in time for Christmas!’ Brown and Victoria ‘There’s a scary Portland connection!’ Bodell’s enthusiastic but considered responses remain a touchstone for me to this day. I also thank my grandmother, Geri Koff, for reading everything I had one magical weekend in Santa Barbara. It was her birthday but I was the one who received the gift.

In 2007, George Lucas shared the important rules of crime fiction with me while Amy Uyematsu took me to Little Tokyo so I could meet a real, live writer of crime fiction. I dined out on that combination of education and inspiration for the whole year and thank Naomi Hirahara for encouraging me, both in person and through her mystery series.

If a manuscript could have a pulse, 2008 was the year to call for a really experienced medic to check that Freezing still had one. The manuscript was post-op with an organ transplant that wasn’t quite taking and the surgical scissors might have been left inside. I was living in LA and didn’t have health insurance, so calling a medic was out. Then I had a conversation with Paul Crowther who told me in no uncertain terms, and not for the first time, to stand by my convictions: my book, my characters, my dream. His words were the right ones at the right time; my laptop became a triage unit and Freezing lived to fight another day, which was essential, given what happened next.

I will be forever grateful to Michael Ondaatje for his unquestioning assistance and generosity of spirit in 2009. He changed the future of this book. Conrad Ketterer provided a refuge where I could write myself into that future; thank you for being sure of me and it. And I thank Pat LoBrutto for insisting I consider life, death, and the life to be had after death.

Finally, I am still buoyed and emboldened by my agent Ellen Levine’s original, immediate, unwavering ‘Yes’ in 2009. Thank you for bringing me together with Severn House, of which I’m so proud to be a part. 2010 and 2011 are now inextricably linked with Ellen, Monika Woods and Trident Media Group, along with my publisher Edwin Buckhalter, editor James Buckhalter, and all at ‘Team Severn’, including the visionary Tony Mulliken of Midas PR. Thank you for talking about my characters like they’re real people, thereby letting me finally stand, in fact, through fiction.