by Paul Rowe
She was still smiling softly at the thought of him when she heard the drone of a car engine approaching in the distance.
acknowledgements
I owe a note of thanks to the following organizations: The Centre for Newfoundland Studies at Memorial University, The Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador, The Public Archives of Nova Scotia, The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, The City of St. John’s, The Banff Centre, The Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador.
For mentoring, advice and editorial assistance along the way I want to thank Paul Bowdring, Paul Butler, Stan Dragland, Adriana Maggs, and Bernice Morgan. Special thanks to Ed Kavanagh for his skillful final edit.
I read and collected many fine Newfoundland books in the course of my research. Particularly helpful was Politics in Newfoundland by S.J.R. Noel, as well as Eighty-Four Years a Newfoundlander by William J. Browne. Also helpful was Postage Stamps and Postal History of Newfoundland by Winthrop S. Boggs.
When the Mind Hears by Harlan Lane and I See A Voice by Jonathan Rée were useful in acquiring information about deaf history, culture and modes of perception.
Mr. John C. Perlin was kind enough to make available material from a personal archive.
The story elements in this novel are derived largely from Newfoundland history and from the folklore of Newfoundland’s Cape Shore. However, I am principally indebted to my late mother, Elizabeth Rowe, whose personal experience of growing up deaf in Newfoundland in the early twentieth century and whose attendance at the Halifax School for the Deaf from 1926 to 1932 provided both the inspiration and motivation for this work.
A final word of thanks to Donna Francis at Creative Book Publishing.