The Professor (36 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Professor
would not have happened without the love, support, and patience of my wonderful wife, Dixie. For eight years she put up with the alarm clock going off at 4:00 a.m. almost every morning, jarring her from sleep and many times waking up one of our three children. She read three different rewrites of the book, patiently wading through each one and offering encouragement and constructive criticism along the way.
The Professor
simply
could not have happened without her, and I am so blessed to have her in my life.

My agent, Liza Fleissig, was my guardian angel on this trip, and her tenacity, enthusiasm, and persistence made my dream come true. A writer could not have a more loyal advocate than Liza.

Thanks to Emlyn Rees and everyone at Exhibit A and Angry Robot Publishing. Emlyn’s ideas and careful editing improved my story, and I will be eternally grateful to Emlyn for giving me and my story a chance.

Thanks to Alan Turkus, Kjersti Egerdahl, Jacque Ben-Zekry, Tiffany Pokorny, and the entire team at Thomas & Mercer for discovering my story and helping me make it better.

I’d also like to send a huge thank you to Julie Schoerke, Marissa Curnutte, and everyone at JKS Communications for spreading the word about
The Professor
and helping the story find wings.

My parents, Randy and Beth Bailey, have taught me, inspired me, and encouraged me in everything I’ve tried to do in life, and they were there for me every step of the way during this process. I am so grateful for them.

My brother, Bo Bailey, was one of my earliest readers, and his constant encouragement has been a blessing.

Thanks to my father-in-law, Dr. Jim Davis, for his insights on urology and bladder cancer and for reading the book and being a lightning rod of positive energy.

I am eternally indebted to my wonderful friends Bill and Melanie Fowler, Rick Onkey, Mark Wittschen, Steve Shames, and Will Powell for reading the book and offering their ideas and encouragement.

Thanks to fellow authors Winston Groom, William Bernhardt, and Brian Haig for blurbing the book when it didn’t even have a publisher.

Thanks to Davidson College, where my dream of being a writer first hatched, and to the University of Alabama School of Law, where so many of the ideas for this book were formed.

I am so blessed to have been born in the great state of Alabama and to have been raised on Alabama football and its legends. Coach Bryant passed away when I was nine years old, but his spirit lives on at the university and throughout the state.

Finally, my children—Jimmy, Bobby, and Allie—are my inspiration and the greatest joy in my life. I thank God for them . . . and for everything.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo © 2012 Dixie Bailey

Robert Bailey was born in Huntsville, Alabama. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Davidson College in North Carolina before going to law school at the University of Alabama, where he made Law Review. For the past thirteen years, Bailey has been a civil defense trial lawyer in his hometown of Huntsville, where he lives with his wife and three children.
The Professor
is his first novel. For more information, please visit
www.robertbaileybooks.com
.