Wife-in-Law
Page 29
“Supper’s ready,” Daddy called, and I thanked God and my mama for bringing him home. And for the fact that I am now, officially, the highest-paid, happiest professional accomplice a best friend ever had. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Acknowledgments
Though I briefly lived across the street from my ex-husband and his new wife, whom we both knew years ago from church, that is the extent of any similarities to real life and the contents of this book. All the characters and events in this novel are entirely fictional and do not bear any resemblance to actual events or real people, including my ex-husband (who is gentle and talented) and his second wife (who is a warm, Christian woman). I remain grateful to have them in my life.
First, I’d like to thank all my readers who e-mailed me at haywood100@aol.com to tell me they liked my books. I print out and respond to every one, and when I’m discouraged, I get out those letters to cheer myself up. Works every time. God bless you for the encouragement.
Special thanks, as always, go to my wonderful editor, Jennifer Enderlin, who pulls the best out of me, even when I’m recovering from surgery. Thanks also to my agent, Mel Berger, to whom I am deeply grateful, despite the wretched contract clause. And I deeply appreciate the support from my faithful friends in Georgia Romance Writers, my new friends and fellow Christian authors in the WORD chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers, and the great folks at the Atlanta Writers Club and the Atlanta branch of Pen Women, committed writers and talented souls, all.
Extra-special gratitude goes to my longtime friend Magistrate Court Judge Bill Brogdon for information about the court systems, and for being such a wonderful gentleman that he restores my faith in the male gender. Thanks too to his wife, brilliant Julie, who always “gets it.”
When it came to writing this book, I needed a lot of help figuring out how to be accurate about what happens in Sandy Springs, Georgia, when somebody dies under suspicious circumstances. So I owe a debt of gratitude to Erica Hosley of the Sandy Springs Police Department for information about false alarms. And thanks so much for help and information from Gail Picard of the Fulton County Superior Court, April Champion of the Fulton County Criminal Courts, and Jennifer Bagwell, senior attorney with the Hall County District Attorney’s Office. And special thanks to Sgt. Lindstrom, detective with the Sandy Springs Police Department, for generously taking so much time to answer my questions. If I made any mistakes about procedure, they are mine and mine alone.
Thanks to my friend Anna DeStefano, a wonderful writer and a great driver and traveling companion who carted me to St. Simons Island for the Scribblers’ Retreat Writers’ Conference after one of my surgeries last fall.
To my usual support group, I must name you, because I’d never be able to do this without your friendship: “Miss Debbie” McGeorge, my pal and my grandchildren’s favorite librarian; to Doug, my friend and a reader par excellence who keeps me up with what’s good on the bookshelves these days. Thanks go to all my friends in John and Sharon Summers’ Small Group Bible Study, mighty prayer warriors who’ve been there for me through the storms of life; to all my single friends in Wade and Mary Ash’s SPLASH Small Group Bible Study (I need all the help I can get) at Blackshear Place Baptist, my amazing church in Oakwood, Georgia. You haven’t heard a sermon till you’ve heard Brother Jeff preach. Every time I do, I leave renewed, thinking, “You know, God, between You and me, we might just be able to do this thing.” Thanks to Brother Scott and Brother Dave for offering help and support to our congregation. And a special dose of gratitude and admiration for my friend and brother in Christ Ken Miller, who has used his strength to help me when my arthritis keeps me from doing what needs to be done at home.
Personal thanks and good wishes go to my longtime friend and bridge partner, Roslyn Carlyle, one of the smartest, funniest women I know. Aren’t we lucky that heaven’s just a breath away?
And thanks to my wonderful roommate, Sandi Grimsley, for being a prayer partner and a shoulder to cry on. Thanks for the friendship—and the rent. God bless you.
And to my next-door neighbor, Celia Dasher, thanks for being such a wonderful neighbor over the past thirty-nine years, and for feeding the cats and the fish when Sandi and I are away.
Thanks to my instructors, Dr. Guerty, Dr. Warwick, Dr. Shields, and Dr. Nicklas, for the wonderful teaching and encouragement. I love Gainesville State College, and if I live long enough, I might just graduate. Special thanks to Carolyn Swindle and her colleagues with the disabilities office; couldn’t do it without you.
And last but not least, thanks to God that I have a job I can do in a recliner, with a ten-foot commute and a dress code of pajamas. It’s hard work writing funny stories about deadly serious women’s issues, but I love it. I’m now working on Out of Warranty for 2012, a book that sends up the health insurance industry, the medical profession, and falling apart ten years before Medicare. As always, I hope it makes you laugh a lot, cry a little, and feel great in the end.
Also by Haywood Smith
Waking Up in Dixie
Ladies of the Lake
Wedding Belles
The Red Hat Club Rides Again
The Red Hat Club
Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
WIFE-IN-LAW. Copyright © 2011 by Haywood Smith. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
eISBN 9781429949873
First eBook Edition : August 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Haywood, 1949–
Wife-in-law / Haywood Smith.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Marriage—Fiction. 2. Female friendship—Fiction. 3. Triangles (Interpersonal relations)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.M53728W54 2011
813’.54—dc22
2011019513
First Edition: September 2011