Inside Out

Acknowledgments

I couldn’t have written Inside Out without the books and other sources I mention after these acknowledgments, and I couldn’t have written it without the generous help of my agent, editor, friends, and family, either. My thanks to:

My agent, Dan Conaway of Writers House, and editor Mark Tavani of Ballantine Books, for getting what I was trying to do with this story from the beginning, enriching it considerably with their input, and for reading and rereading the sex scene beyond what editorial requirements could ordinarily explain.

A whole bunch of superb bloggers and other journalists, for the reporting and commentary out of which this story grew. To name just a few: Juan Cole, Informed Comment; Digby, Hullabaloo; Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!; Glenn Greenwald, Unclaimed Territory; Hilzoy, Obsidian Wings (Hilzoy, come back!); Scott Horton, No Comment; Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo; Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish; Marcy Wheeler, Firedoglake. Some others I admire have characters named after them in this book and in my other books, too-see if you can spot them. And you can find even more on the blogroll of Heart of the Matter at www.barryeisler.com/blog.html. If you like your journalism independent rather than corporate-owned and corporate-addled, I recommend reading these people every day.

The Washington Post’s Barton Gellman, author of the superb Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, for coining the term “information laundering” that appears in the prologue.

John Alkire, Tom Bourke, Jason Evans, Scott Gentry, and Ken Rosenberg, for their expertise on international banking, and for steering me toward uncut diamonds as an appropriate means of anonymous exchange.

Ron Winston, for sharing his peerless expertise on diamonds and the diamond industry.

Tom Hayse, for everything I needed to know about satellite phone security.

Peyton Quinn, for familiarizing Ben with the notion of the pre-violence “interview” that appears in chapter one-and more of which can be found at www.rmcat.com.

Jane Litte of dearauthor.com and Sarah Wendell of smartbitchestrashybooks.com-smart, insightful, hilarious critics-for terrific feedback on the sex scene. If there’s something you don’t like about the scene in question, I hope it goes without saying that Jane and Sarah are entirely to blame.

The extraordinarily eclectic group of “foodies with a violence problem” who hang out at Marc “Animal” MacYoung’s and Dianna Gordon’s nononsenseselfdefense.com, for good humor, good fellowship, and a ton of insights, particularly regarding the real costs of violence.

Alan Eisler, Judith Eisler, Tom Hayes, novelist J. A. Konrath, Naomi Andrews and Dan Levin, Owen Rennert, Ted Schlein, and Hank Shiffman, for helpful comments on the manuscript and many valuable suggestions and insights along the way.

Most of all, my wife Laura, for never being too busy to help me figure out a story point or to indulge my political rants. Thanks, babe, for everything.