There Will Be Killing (31 page)
No one could have a finer or more gifted and giving co-author than Olivia Rupprecht, my writing partner.
With gratitude to our publisher, Lou Aronica, whose immediate belief and enthusiasm for this story meant everything.
My thanks to early readers and dear friends Nuala Vermeiren, Anne Algard, Sonja Kamber, Steven Smith, Berger Hareide, Nancy Gold, Nick Torokvei, and my brother Joseph Hart. Nora Tamada's and Glenna McReynold's early editorial feedback proved invaluable; Olivia and I are indebted to you both, as well as to Scott Rupprecht for going the distance. Much gratitude also to Michele Matrisciani and her father Dan, a Mekong Delta Vet whom I value for his endorsement of the authenticity and reality of the book.
My respect and gratitude to master calligrapher, artist, and teacher John Nip. And to Gerry Lopez for her art expertise, a special thanks.
I would like to especially mention the late P.J. Torokvei who loved the original story and with whom I wrote the screenplay from which this novel evolved. She provided support, dear friendship, encouragement, and SpiritBearArtFarm, the best sanctuary in the world for writing this story.
Love and gratitude to my children Kelly, Nick, and Caitlin.
A simple thank you is not enough for Andrea Jane who has been through the dark nights and brought me back and always believed.
Finally to the brave and dedicated women and the men of the 98th (KO), the Red Cross, and the mission hospitals in 1969â70 for all you did and all you gave.
â John Hart
JOHN L. HART, Ph.D. has been a practicing psychotherapist for more than forty years, starting in Vietnam where he was a psychology specialist, then studying with James Hillman and receiving his doctorate from the University of Southern California. John is an internationally respected lecturer, has been a consultant to the nation of Norway for their Fathering Project, and maintained a private practice in Los Angeles for twenty years. He is the author of
Becoming a Father
from HCI Books, co-author of
Modern Eclectic Therapy
(Springer), and was mentored by the renowned poets Robert Bly and William Stafford. John's poetry has appeared in many literary journals and magazines such as
Verve
and
Rivertalk
. He has co-authored three screenplays with veteran screenwriter P.J. Torokvei whose credits include
Caddyshack II, Guarding Tess, Back to School, Real Genius
, and many more. In addition to his professional achievements, John won the small college World Series and is in three Oregon sport halls of fame. His photography is featured in Sooke Regional Museum and his Chinese brush paintings, which appear in
There Will Be Killing
, can be found in Hawaiian art galleries. John divides his time between Hawaii and Vancouver Island, B.C., where he is Executive Director of Spirit Bear Art Farm and adjunct professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
OLIVIA RUPPRECHT (aka Mallory Rush) is an award-winning, best-selling author who began her career as a novelist with Bantam Books in 1989. After seventeen published novels with extensive foreign translations from Bantam, Harlequin, and Doubleday, Olivia has gone on to manage fiction and nonfiction projects for major publishers as a copywriter, ghostwriter, book doctor, and developmental editor. She has served as editor for
NINK
, the official newsletter of the international authors' organization Novelists, Inc., and in 2009 assumed the position of Series Developer for the groundbreaking reality-based novel series from HCI Books, True Vows. Olivia's moveable feast of a desk is presently near Madison, Wisconsin.
