Medusa's Child

Acknowledgments

High-energy fiction requires a very large, very accomplished team of professionals hand-carrying the author's words into print, and I'm privileged to have the best.

First, I'm very fortunate to have as my literary agents and dear friends the indomitable George Wieser and the indefatigable Olga Wieser (of the Wieser and Wieser Agency in New York). Quite simply, they make my books possible.

Medusa's Child took shape at home in Tacoma with the creative assistance of my wife, Bunny Nance, who also provided editorial scrutiny as the chapters moved out of my laptop (yes, I do live with a computer; and no, I don't write in the cockpit). Medusa reached literary maturity under the accomplished care of my samurai editor and business partner, Patricia Davenport (for some reason I keep buying her red pens with which to slash my copy to shreds).

Finally, in New York—in the offices of my publisher, Doubleday—Medusa's Child received the expert developmental and editorial skills of my editors Lori Lipsky and Rob Robertson, and the attention and enthusiasm of my publisher Arlene Friedman and editor-in-chief Pat Mulcahy, as well as the extraordinary efforts of our promotion guru, Jane Schorn.

And to all these world-class pros, my heartfelt thanks.

Thank you as well to the folks who helped with fact-checking and technical suggestions, such as Dr. Alan Diehl and Air Force F-15 pilot Captain Gary Rhoades, who was last thanked with his name misspelled (this time, Gary, we're getting it right!). To all those nuclear experts who helped on the Internet and by phone, my specific appreciation, and a note of thanks to Greg and Sue Coe of Seattle, whose early insights into the vulnerability of our computer systems helped spark this work.

Special thanks also to Navy Lt. Commander Elmer Nagma for his above-and-beyond assistance with technical details of Navy life accomplished through E-mail from the middle of some distant ocean (we Air Force guys simply don't know a lot about carrier life—we prefer our airfields to remain precisely where we left them!).