Authors: Attica Locke

Pleasantville (38 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

With each book
I feel ever more grateful for the creative support I have in my life. Richard Abate, who is part agent, part counselor, part dreamer like me, championed this book from its very beginning and helped push the story to where it needed to go. How lucky I am to call you a friend. Claire Wachtel was patient and exacting in equal measure, and this book is better for it. Thank you for your faith in me, and your enthusiasm for this book. Rebecca Gray recognized the ambition of this project, and offered keen insights along the way. You are kind, funny, and wiseâand know where to find good Mexican food in London! Hannah Wood, thank you for your hard work and support. And Dawn Davis, thank you for seeing the potential in this book from just a few lines of description, and for being one of my biggest cheerleaders, near and far.

I could not have written this book without reading Sasha Issenberg's
Victory Lab
. Big thanks to Jesse Dickerman for suggesting I read it, and for sitting down with me to talk about campaigning and Texas politics. Additional thanks to Rusty Hardin for answering some very important questions about Texas criminal law. Erik Eriksson answered my questions about the Ship Channel and the Port of Houston, and I dearly appreciate his generosity. And though it seems odd to thank my dad, Gene Locke, for `one of the most painful experiences of my life, I couldn't have written this book without bearing witness to a cantankerous and complicated mayoral race, one that shed light on some very dark corners of our democracy. Thanks also, Daddy, for answering a million trivia questions about Houston's political history and where to get the best barbecue.

To the real Eddie Mae Loston, who passed away as I wrote this book, you were a beautiful part of my childhood and will be remembered forever.

To the folks in Pleasantville who opened their homes to me and shared their personal storiesâTalmadge and Geneva Sharp, Clinton Johns, Evelyn Mouton, James and Carolyn CampbellâI cannot thank you enough.

To my family, thanks, as always, for your big, beautiful love.

To Cheryl Arutt, thank you for Thursdays.

Tembi, thanks for the light, love, and laughter, and for reading this book while your own writing life has been so full. Karl, my dear husband, you are a writer's dream mateâpatient, quick with a joke, willing to do dishes, and full of legal knowledge. I couldn't do any of this without you. My darling Clara, your love is my true muse. You and Zoela, my dear niece, keep me light. Finally, to my brother-in-law Saro, I started this book in your hospital room. And when I finished, you were the first person I told, a whisper in the wind. Thank you, Sa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PHOTO BY JENNY WALTERS

ATTICA LOCKE'S
first novel,
Black Water Rising
, was nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize (now the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction) in the UK. Her second book,
The Cutting Season
, published by Dennis Lehane Books, is a national bestseller. It was named an Honor Book by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, was long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize, and is the 2013 winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Locke was a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Feature Filmmakers Lab. She spent many years as a screenwriter for Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, HBO, and Dreamworks, and is a writer and coproducer on the Fox drama
Empire
.

For more information, visit www.atticalocke.com.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
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.

ALSO BY ATTICA LOCKE

The Cutting Season

Black Water Rising

CREDITS

COVER DESIGN BY GREGG KULICK

COVER PHOTOGRAPH Â© DREAM PICTURES / GETTY IMAGES

COPYRIGHT

PLEASANTVILLE
. Copyright Â© 2015 by Attica Locke. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN: 978-0-06-225940-0

EPub Edition April 2015 ISBN 9780062259356

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