Stolen Honey (35 page)

Dedication

To the Abenaki Nation, the original Vermonters

Acknowledgments

Many people have helped bring this novel to fruition. I want to thank my son-in-law, Marc Lapin, ethnobotanist, for his special help with deadly nightshade and a hundred other details of nature; my daughter, Catharine Wright, for a critical reading of the work in manuscript; Greg Sharrow, folklorist at Vermont Folk Life Center, who led me into the world of the Abenaki; Mali Keating, Abenaki activist, who kindly granted me an interview; Cheryl Heath, who allowed me to watch her family video at the Folk Life Center; Jeanne Brink, basketmaker and Abenaki language expert; White Wolf Woman and Chaloner Schley; Cee at Computer Alternatives; and the helpful people at the Chimney Point Museum and at the Abenaki Tribal Headquarters in Swan-ton. I’d also like to thank Bill Mraz, who let me enter his world of bees, and Julie Becker, who lent me her taped interview with bee-master Charlie Mraz; my agent, Alison Picard; former editor, Jerry Gross; my copy editor, Dave Cole; and my assistant editor, Julie Sullivan, who all gave helpful suggestions; and of course, Ruth Cavin, my editor sine qua non and role model at St. Martin’s Press. And finally, my wonderful extended family, especially my late husband and former agent, Dennie Hannan, who encouraged me, in the midst of his chemotherapy treatments, to write.

The following books were especially helpful:
A Book of Bees,
by Sue Hubbell;
The New Complete Guide to Beekeeping,
by Roger A. Morse;
Health and the Honeybee,
by Charles Mraz;
Breeding Better Vermonters,
by Nancy L. Gallagher;
Vermonters at Their Craft,
by Catharine Wright and Nancy Means Wright;
Aunt Sarah, Woman of the Dawnland,
by Trudy Ann Parker;
Many Cultures, One People,
edited by Gregory Sharrow;
The Original Vermonters,
by William A. Haviland and Marjory W. Power;
North Country’ Captives,
compiled by Colin G. Calloway; and the essay “After Two Centuries the Vermont Abenaki Are Visible Again,” by editor Tom Slayton in
Vermont Life 36
(Spring 1982).

Copyright © 2002 by Nancy Means Wright

Originally published by St. Martin's Minotaur

Electronically published in 2010 by Belgrave House

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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.