People
I thank my critique group in Lakewood, Colorado, affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Fiction
Writers, which means my sincere appreciation to Curt Craddock, David Foxall, Catherine Montrose,
Laurey Patten, Donna Sagan, and Susan Smith, as well as Karen Duvall, who went off to eventual
publication. Please look for fantasy novels from Susan and Curt from Write Way Publications.
Catherine has written many books, the latest Wendigo Border you can find at your
favorite bookstore or at least www.tatteredcover.com.
I also thank:
. my friend, Rabbi David J. Zucker, for his support, but more importantly, for his interest in
this work of mine so far outside his normal interests
. the members of the Colorado Springs Writing Workshop, for the months they indulged my struggle
to improve my writing skills, including Jeanne Cortinas, Pat Sloss, Jack Burkhead, Mark Francis,
Pam Jessen, Georgeanne & Steven Nelson, Carla May, Andrea Alton, John Hudson, Keith Baugues, Ed
Bryant, Jennifer Roberts, Sasha Miller, Patricia Coleman, and Barbara Nickless who put me in touch
with this group, and special thanks to John Stith for his kindness.
. Carol Word, Russian teacher at Cherry Creek High School. Her devotion to accuracy and her
language would make her welcome citizen of Yeibichai. I did, however, have to beg off one of her
recommendations. She advised me to use "mezhdunarodnaya," which means "international," as the
adjective in Yeibichai's name for its Global Electronic Village. Instead, I chose "mirnaya," which
means "global" or "peaceful" because I liked the "peaceful" as well as "global" aspect of the word
and wanted to avoid the implication of nations per se on Yeibichai. I hope Carol will forgive me.
. Kathie Gully, librarian at the Denver Museum of Natural History
. Jerome Roy of Hamburg, Deutschland (whose name I picked off a Javascript list-serve) who has
been most kind to share his native language with me. He's working to become both a programmer and
a linguist, an admirable combination in this day of globalization.
. Miguel Jordan for his help with Harlan's native language, Castellano Chileno, the Castilian
Spanish of Chile, and his niece Paola Klinger, who worked hard with her family here in the U.S.A.
and in Chile to fit their words into my scheme
And of course, Bob Dylan for his words from "Tryin' to Get to Heaven," which Phoebe uses as she
hits bottom.
