The Middle Ground
Page 17
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The stories that make up The Middle Ground took their sweet time arriving, and might easily have been left by the roadside if it wasn’t for the patience and encouragement of my wife Diane and my daughter Romy. Their steady love and ruthless confidence eased me forward against considerable currents, and it’s for them I wanted to make something strange and—if not beautiful, at least companionable—an odd artifact they might be proud of.
My mother and father, for mysterious reasons, chose to love me unreservedly, and I can’t thank them enough for that. My brother and sisters formed a net we alternately held out under one another, only occasionally flinching.
It’s safe to say this book wouldn’t exist without the belief, kindness, and tireless work of Philip Elliott. He took a chance on the evidence of two stories, and dove in headfirst. Into the Void, which he founded and raised quickly to prominence, has been a welcoming home to me. I have nothing but admiration and gratitude for his solid judgment and advice, and his chutzpah in tackling this adventure.
And then there are the friends who did what friends do. Yeah, I’m looking at you.
My thanks to the following publications in which some of these stories first appeared:
Eleven Eleven, “Tule Fog”; Crazyhorse, “Silo”; Into the Void, “Ice Flowers” and “Coast Starlight”; Elm Leaves Journal, “Double Helix”; Atticus Review, “Lake Mary Jane”; Laurel Review, “Crossing to Lopez”; SmokeLong Quarterly, “Parliament of Owls”; Anomaly Literary Journal, “Repurposing”; SAND, “Sognsvann”; pif, “Barn Sale”; So It Goes, “The New Canaan Village for Epileptics; Juked, “Masterpiece”; Cold Mountain Review, “The Shallow End; Origins, “Hiddenfolk”; Hawai`i Pacific Review, “Dick Fleming Is Lost.”
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
Thank you so much for purchasing The Middle Ground and supporting small press publishing and the arts. We truly appreciate it.
We hope you enjoyed reading The Middle Ground. We’d love to know how you found it. Please consider posting an honest review of the book on its Amazon and Goodreads pages, and/or anywhere else you wish. Aside from purchasing a book, reviews are the most effective way to support a writer. The quantity of reviews (positive or negative) of a book increases how many people discover that book, even if the reviews are just once sentence long.