Arrhythmia (30 page)

Acknowledgments

I want to emphasize that the town of Wollbach, the hospital, and its employees are all fictitious. Any similarities to my place of work are purely coincidental. If there should still be any features that overlap with those of a living person, they are merely in the eye of the beholder. (Should anyone recognize himself in the character of Desiderio, I ask that he immediately send his résumé and application to the HR department of our hospital.)

I would now like to express a few kind words: the first acknowledgment goes to my husband because of the heroic way he deals with my writer’s frustrations. He has accepted the fact that he should avoid speaking to me while I am typing. This is probably due more to a sense of self-preservation than to an understanding of my passion, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I also find it really sweet that he reads everything I write from beginning to end and even finds it awesome even though he basically detests reading books in which every other page does not contain a pretty picture. (Yes, he really does read them. I initially asked the odd question about my text here and there because I am suspicious by nature. He was actually able to answer them, which genuinely impressed me. And yes, he has his hands full with me.)

Thanks, too, to Mama, who always finds everything I do wonderful. (Just like my Pa, who will probably never read any of my books but still finds them terrific.)

Thank you to Melly, favorite evaluator number one, who is not afraid to tell me if something isn’t so great (although she seems to focus mainly on the correct order of the days of the week . . .) and who was a great help to me in the development of this story even when she often had to wait for days for the next chapter. Favorite evaluator number two is Caro, who had to “smoke a cigarette” after a certain point in the novel—thanks for that!

Secondarily, a little apology to those among my friends who stopped by for coffee during one of my writing spurts and got a taste of my wrath because of it. (Someday I will build a bunker into which I can retreat with my laptop in order to avoid greater escalations. Promise!)

My heartfelt thanks to all my coworkers, who regularly make me blush with their praise and occasionally make me panic because I still have no clue how to write a professional dedication. Thank you, Helga, who took such pains as an evaluator and who makes a great editor. A huge thank you to Simone and Tina, who have a photograph of Desiderio in their desk drawer (and what a photograph it is!), which they will let us look at any time we need a break from the stress and chaos. You two are brilliant!

A giant thank-you to Franz Edlmayr, who “discovered” me and whose initial telephone call I mistook for a prank. I thank myself for not hanging up because I would presumably have ruined my chances of working with Amazon Publishing.

And last but not least, thank you to all my readers who have read these panegyric lines to the end. You are really the most important people on this list, because without you, writing would ultimately make no sense for me.

Johanna Danninger

About the Author

Photo © 2014 C-Martin Danninger

Johanna Danninger was born in Germany’s Lower Bavaria in 1985. She works as an ER nurse and lives in a rural community with her husband.

About the Translator

Christiane Galvani, a German native, was educated in Germany, France, and the UK. She holds a BA in German and French from the University of London and an MA in German from Rice University. Galvani has worked as a translator and an instructor of German and intensive English at the university level for over thirty years. Her previous translations include the thirteenth-century
Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit
(
Flowing Light of the Divinity
) from the Middle High German into modern English and the Regency-era novel
Twice a Rake
, the first book in the Lord Rotheby’s I
nfluence series, from English into German. The proud mother of a grown daughter, Jacqueline, Galvani lives outside of Houston, Texas, with her husband, Paul.