Spoonbenders

Acknowledgments

Many people read drafts of this book and offered advice and encouragement. My undying thanks to Liza Trombi, James Morrow, Gary Delafield, Matt Sturges, Dave Justus, Andrew Tisbert, Fleetwood Robbins, Nancy Kress, and Jack Skillingstead.

My children, now inexplicably grown up, were in my heart on every page. Thank you, Emma and Ian Gregory.

My thanks to my editor, Tim O’Connell, who saw what this book needed—and what it didn’t. It should be illegal to laugh so much while doing such hard work. Richard Arcus of Quercus and Kiara Kent at Penguin Random House Canada provided valuable notes on the penultimate draft. My agent, Seth Fishman, as well as the entire team at the Gernert Company, has been magnificent from start to finish.

There are others who helped me without knowing it. The Chicago Cubs taught me everything I needed to know about fate, faith, and suffering. You bastards broke my father’s heart year after year—until you didn’t. My thanks as well to the gullible members of Congress who funded Project Star Gate for decades, and provided so much material for this novel.

I owe an apology, however, to one of my heroes, James Randi, aka the Amazing Randi. His lifelong crusade to investigate psychics, faith healers, mediums, and frauds of all paranormal stripes inspired a story that might provide aid and comfort to the enemy. And so, though it seems ridiculous to have to say this in the twenty-first century: none of it’s real, folks. There are no mind readers, no remote viewers, no water dousers, no one who can warp kitchen utensils with the power of their mind—except in fiction. But isn’t that enough?