Welcome to Fred (The Fred Books) (34 page)

I sat down and wrote this book, but that seems minor in comparison to all that others did to make this thing a reality. First there’s Dad, who kept saying for years, “You need to write this stuff down,” and Mom, who said, “
Apogee?
Are you trying to help sell dictionaries on the side?” Then there’s Sueann, who endured all the early incarnations of this work, and Jeannette, who not only did that, but also committed the serendipitous act of foisting it on a friend by the name of Robin Hardy. And Daniel and Sarah, who insisted I tell these stories over and over. And of course Milly, The Woman and the last word on what will work and what must go.

Thanks to Jodi Wheatley for suffering through many hours and regrettable manuscripts in the dark ages to convince me to quit writing junk, Lanny and Eric Hall for being an early fan base, and Don Woodliff for many years of support and inspiring the creation of Jolene over egg drop soup and kung pao chicken in 1989.

More thanks than I can possibly document goes to Robin Hardy, who single-handedly promoted this manuscript over more than a decade until somebody finally relented, an act that never fails to inspire and awe me anytime I think about it. (Go out and buy all her books, right now! Yes, I’m talking to you.) A very large amount of credit goes to Milly and especially Sam Lott, the Texas Outlaw, for pointing out when I’m being lazy and not giving the big scenes the effort they require. Without them, this book would not be half as good as it is today.

Thanks to my editor, Gary Terashita, who gave me an education on what it takes to get a book in the store, and what it takes to get it out of the store, and who tells me what he thinks is the truth even at the risk of inflating my ego. And to Lisa Parnell for a gimlet eye and a light touch.

It only seems fitting to acknowledge my primary sources of information for corroborating details in the past year:
biblegateway.com
,
dictionary.com
,
cdnow.com
,
amazon.com
,
about.com
, and
yahoo.com
, through which I found the more obscure sites. And thanks to everyone out there named Arthur.

Finally, thanks to God, who shows up with the baseball bat when I need it and showed up with the cross when everybody needed it.

— B
RAD
W
HITTINGTON
—

fredtexas.com

BradWhittington.com

Brad Whittington was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on James Taylor's eighth birthday and Jack Kerouac's thirty-fourth birthday and is old enough to know better. He lives in Austin, Texas with The Woman. Previously he has been known to inhabit Hawaii, Ohio, South Carolina, Arizona, and Colorado, annoying people as a janitor, math teacher, field hand, computer programmer, brickyard worker, editor, resident Gentile in a Conservative synagogue, IT director, weed-cutter, and in a number of influential positions in other less notable professions. He is greatly loved and admired by all right-thinking citizens and enjoys a complete absence of cats and dogs at home.