This book was born during an unseasonably severe spring snowstorm in Sequoia National Park. I’ll always be thankful to the ranger who not only kept my snowbound kids delightfully informed and entertained with his passion for preserving our American wilderness, but became the inspiration for Matthew Hart.
My thanks to my family, especially my sister Patricia and brother Dave, and dear friend John Kelly for transplanting themselves to California and giving me an excuse to come out to visit and find another piece of this book there each time.
To lovely Eileen Nauman, my friend and mentor and spirit guide, thanks for encouraging me to become an ever-changing woman, and to have Matthew sing himself out of the black. Mitakuye Oya-sin yourself, kiddo!
Many readers, editors, and fellow writers have helped the story come alive, among them I thank: Juilene Osborne McKnight, Jim Green, Patricia Rogers, Susan Shackelford, Kathleen Dehler, Dolores Oiler, Margie Rhoadhouse, Alex deBritain, Barbara Ward Lazarsky, Jean Gold, Florence Kaye, Rose Eichhorn,
Charlie Rinehimer, Holli Rovitti, Carol Lambert, Vicki McKechnie, Barbara Scalia.
With special appreciation to my agent, Sue Yuen, who took this impossible book on, not because she thought she could help sell it, but because she loved it, and to my editor at Tor, Natalia Aponte, for her patience, keen eye, and skill at helping me make it the best telling of the story I can manage.
For a copy of the Eileen Charbonneau Newsletter please send your name and address to:
Eileen Charbonneau Newsletter
c/o Tor Books
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
This is a work of fiction. ’All the characters and
events portrayed in this novel are either
fictitious or are used fictitiously.
WALTZING IN RAGTIME
Copyright © 1996 by Eileen Charbonneau
All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any
form.
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Forge
®
is a registered trademark of
Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
eISBN 9781466813717
First eBook Edition : February 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Charbonneau, Eileen.
Waltzing in ragtime / by Eileen Charbonneau. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
1. Man-woman relationships — California — San Francisco — Fiction.
2. Women journalists — California — San Francisco — Fiction.
3. Environmentalists — California — Fiction.
4. Park rangers — California — Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3553.H318W35 1996
813’.54 — dc20
96-3148
CIP
First Edition: August 1996