Acknowledgments

I must start with the people who mean the world to me, who inspire me to push myself, and who ultimately make everything worthwhile. I’m talking about my daughters, Eri and Bel. Everything I do starts and ends with these two little ladies.

Thanks, of course, must go to the Manning team. I know it extends beyond the people I’m about to name, so if you were involved in any way, thank you! Here are the people I’ve personally dealt with: Right from the beginning, there was Robin de Jongh, who was instrumental in getting the project started and also in shaping the book. And many thanks go to Bert Bates for providing great insight and challenging me to justify my thinking and opinions from an early stage. Those were fun conversations.

Crucial to the momentum and feel of the book were my developmental editors, Toni Arritola and Kristen Watterson, and of course my technical developmental editor, Luis Atencio, and technical proofer, Tony Mullen. I’d also like to extend my thanks to Clive Harber for his important contributions to this book. Thank you all for your sharp eyes, great ideas, and positive feedback.

The next two people really impressed me with their amount of effort and attention to detail. So thank you, Kathy Simpson and Katie Tennant, for the copyediting and proofreading, and for staying on top of everything on increasingly short time frames.