After the Apocalypse

Acknowledgments

I will forget to thank someone. I always do. Please, I beg forgiveness in advance.

First, thanks to the folks at the Rio Hondo workshop: many of these stories were critiqued at 9,000 feet in the Taos Ski Valley. I can’t thank all of you because I will forget someone, I know but thanks especially to Walter Jon Williams who first brought me to a part of the country I love more than I can say. To L. Timmi Duchamp, and to Ellen Datlow, who asked for stories. To Caroline Spector, who read for me. To the group in Austin—Jessica Reisman, Caroline Yoachim, Ellen Van Hensbergen, Jen Volant, and Meg McCarron—reading, food, and cocktails. Thanks to the folks at WisCon for making the space in the world that they do. To Karen Joy Fowler for writing what she writes as much as for her insightful comments. To Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link for being so enthusiastic about, of all things, another collection of short stories. To Jackie Tunure at Fourth Wall Studios, who read for me in Los Angeles. To all the people I met at Clarion who have started out as students and gone on to be come friends and colleagues—you have no idea how much you have taught me.

To Adam who asked me to write “The Naturalist” based on a dream he had, and to Bob, who has always treated me as if there was nothing at all strange about my choice of careers.