A writer’s world is inhabited by many beings. Some are imaginary, like the muse whispering in our ears – both distracting and inspirational in equal measure. Some are the spirits who come back to us from distant memories, or the phantoms who materialize from the shadow of our fears. Some are the real, flesh-and-blood people who come and go in our lives, and who stay and persevere throughout the insanity of the creative processs. The sane and encouraging influence in mine was that of my wife, Linda. The literal “push-in-the-back” came from my good friend Don Oldenburg, who after I had been researching this for several years admonished me that “sooner or later, you have to start writing.” And the drive to complete the work came from the memory of my father and the encouraging presence of my
