Bag of Bones AUTHOR’S NOTE

To an extent, this novel deals with the legal aspects of child custody in the State of Maine. I asked for help in understanding this subject from my friend Warren Silver, who is a fine attorney. Warren guided me carefully, and along the way he also told me about a quaint old device called the Stenomask, which I immediately appropriated for my receive fell purposes. If Ive made procedural mistakes in the story which follows, blame me, not my legal resource. Warren also asked merather plaintively if I could maybe determine a good lawyer in my book. All I can say is that I did my best in that regard.Thanks to my son Owen for technical support in Woodstock, New York, and to my friend (and fellow Rock Bottom Remainder) Ridley Pearson for technical support in Ketchum, Idaho. Thanks to Pam Dorman for her sympathetic and perceptive reading of the first draft. Thanks to barf Verrill for a monumental editing jobyour personal best, Chuck. Thanks to Susan Moldow, Nan Graham, Jack Roman s, an d Carolyn Reidy at Scribner for care and feeding. And thanks to Tabby, who was there for me again when things got hard. I love you, hon.S.K.Yes, Bartleby, stay there behind your screen, thought II shall persecute you no more you are harmless andnoiseless as whatsoever of these old chairs in short, I never feelso private as when I know you are here.BartlebyHERMAN MELVILLELast night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .As I stood there, hushed and still, I could swear thatthe house was not an empty shell but lived and breathedas it had lived before.RebeccaDAPHNE DU MAURIER Mars is heaven. lance BRADBURY