Читать книгу A Life of My Own - Donna Wilhelm - Страница 7

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to the generous supporters of my memoir. Eminently, Kristin vanNamen, for more than a decade, has mentored me in the craft of storytelling and encouraged me to confront my truths with compassion, for myself and others. Her patience, skill, and fortitude during relentless editing revisions has nourished the manuscript’s coherence and essence. She rescued when computer technology thwarted my ineptness, and she conceived the reliable format and documentation that kept us on track and productive. I am grateful to members of the Forest Lane Writers Group, especially Rita Juster, Lauren Embrey, Trea Yip and Jane Saginaw, for their honest, cogent critiques, their encouragement and most of all, their friendship. My son Nick’s advice—“Just write your truths, Mom”—allowed me to reveal my parental angst without fear of invading his privacy. The input of beta readers, notably Bridget Boland, helped me define the narrative arc and deepen character development. In joint editing sessions, Beatriz Terrazas contributed journalistic skills, clarity, and best practices that fine-honed the manuscript for publication. Kay Cattarulla, a friend of more than fifty years who shared affinity as international corporate wives, generously read my entire manuscript pre-publication. Her feedback was perceptive and poignant. On the path to publication, my friends and published authors Jaina Sanga, Julie Hersh, and Rena Pederson gave wise counsel and magnanimously shared their networks. My publisher Will Evans and Deep Vellum have enabled a unique collaboration of mission and vision. Our partnership focused on the power of the literary art form to connect authors and readers across all geographic and cultural boundaries—an intent that superseded the core financial goal of commercial publishing and created an ideal match for my philanthropic identity. Finally, and with deepest gratitude, I acknowledge Julia Brown, my treasured personal assistant. Nothing in my daily life, my philanthropic life, and my writer’s life would be manageable without her loyal discretion, her compassionate efficiency, and her line-by-line proofing along with down-to-earth feedback.