The Far End of Happy (28 page)

It wasn’t long after my first husband’s suicide standoff that I knew I’d one day make a story of it, and now that I have, the words “thank you” don’t begin to cover my indebtedness to those who have brought this novel to fruition. My agent, Katie Shea Boutillier, contributed the enthusiastic vision that helped define (and title!) this project. By acquiring it for Sourcebooks, Editorial Director Shana Drehs allowed me the chance to share it. Associate Editor Anna Michels rolled up her sleeves and asked just as much of herself as she did of me as we shaped it into its final form. Eileen Carey designed another dynamic, meaningful cover.

I’d like to extend thanks to
Mason’s Road
, the literary journal of the MFA program at Fairfield University, for publishing “Standoff at Ronnie’s Place,” a memoir essay from which some of this material is taken, and to my editor there, Elizabeth Hilts. Suicide facts came from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website, www.afsp.org.

Jane Hull, Pam Byers, Lisa Leleu, Amy Barnett, Rachel Trauger, and Kathleen Hoy listened to drafts of my memoir material and consistently encouraged me to share the story. Linda Beltz Glaser helped me wrap my head around what it would mean to fictionalize true events. For all manner of end-game support, I must thank my first reader, Janice Gable Bashman, as well as writing pals Tori Bond and Donna Galanti.

It isn’t easy to stand beside someone through the trying events that inspired this novel. To every family member, friend, neighbor, and stranger who reached out to us, my deepest thanks. For their exceptional support during and immediately after the events in this story, I want to recognize Ellen Gallow, Scott Graham, Dr. Peter Klugman, Jennifer Zelenak, Stephen Brassard, Phyllis Graham, Lois Martin, and Bally Mennonite Church, to whom I was a stranger; sadly, John Graham, Robert Graham, and Anita Freedson did not live to see publication. To my surprise angel, Dierdre Smith Dabney: I wish you could have lived long enough to realize how very much your role in this story meant to me. I only hope you knew.

To my husband, David Craft: not every man would hold up as well while his wife spent a year with her former husband. For all the ways you are remarkable, not the least of which was proofreading at the rate of one hundred pages per day as my deadline loomed, you have my love.

Jackson and Marty: thank you for your generous permission to build this novel from aspects of our shared experience. You are courageous, exceptional men.

And lastly, to Ron: I hope you found peace. I finally found mine, in allowing someone named Ronnie to walk away from this standoff with hope in her heart.

Author photo by Jackson Williams

Kathryn Craft is the author of
The
Art
of
Falling.
Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania literary scene, she loves any event that brings together readers, books, food, and drink, and mentors other writers through workshops and writing retreats. A former dance critic, she has a bachelor’s in biology education and a master’s in health and physical education from Miami University in Ohio. She lives with her husband in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and spends her summers lakeside in northern New York State. You can contact her through her website,
www.kathryncraft.com
.