The Devil's Casino_ Friendship, Betrayal - Vicky Ward [122]
Howorth, David Foxley, John Connolly, Jeannie Rhodes, Susan White, Katherine Bang,
Jeannie Rhodes, Michael Wolff, David Margolick, Louise Grunwald, Nina Munk,
SaraJane Hoare, Francesca Stanfil, Beth Kseniak, Sara Switzer, Lizzie Hurlbut, Robert
Walsh, Michelle Ciarrocca, Brian Gallagher, and Michael Hogan, thank you for your
support in the past year. Also to the rest of the staff and contributors: So many of you
have helped me in different ways over nine years. You are quite simply the best at what
you do. Thank you all. John Banta, thank you especially for your good advice. Without it,
I would never have found my lifeline for this book: Barry Harbaugh.
Barry, we both know it would take another book to describe the journey we took
together. (In all seriousness, a sitcom writer actually would have some good material if
they knew the real story. I think we might even be able to push Gossip Girl aside!)
Only you and I know how hard you worked, putting in time you didn't have with
remarkable good humor and tremendous skill. I look forward to reading your first book. I
know it will be awesome, just like you.
Thank you also for leading me to the most diligent and inspiring fact-checking team a
writer could have: Ryan Bradley, a wordsmith sans pareil who also put himself out
greatly during the holidays; Maureen "Moe" Tkacik--whom CNBC should hire right
now! Cailey Hall, Stacey Breaks--and two other people who need singling out.
First is Bob Roe, editor extraordinaire. No one moves as fast and well as you!
Second is Emma Givens, my assistant. Emma is one of those assistants to whom the term
has no narrow meaning. She is my friend, my organizer--not just my fact-checker, but my
life-checker. Thanks to Emma, there was food on my family's table on December 25.
This author had a deadline of December 27 and had forgotten all about grocery stores
closing.
Then the John Wiley & Sons team: Pamela van Giessen, Emilie Herman, and Mary
Daniello, the editors from hell (oh, those deadlines) but also heaven. Emilie: thank you
for surviving the crash through the holidays. We made it! Thank you to the others in
marketing and publicity: Jocelyn Cordova-Wagner, Sharon Polese, Nancy Rothschild,
Deborah Guichelaar, Lucas Wilk, Julie Attrill, Louise Holden, and Emma Knott. As I
write this I am only starting to work with some of you and already you are making your
presence felt wonderfully.
As for my agent, Andy McNicol at William Morris Endeavor, you rock. And a huge
thank you to the very clever Elizabeth Wiatt, for insisting I see her husband Jim when I
was in Los Angeles two years ago, and for leading me to WME, Andy, and an incredible
team.
Also, thanks to my superb publicists in America: Sandi Mendelson and David Kass; in
Toronto: Jennifer Bassett and Candice Best; and in the United Kingdom: Dotti Irving,
Mark Hutchinson, and Hannah Blake. Thanks to Julian Niccolini, Alex von Bidder,
Rachel Bellon, Bitsy Williams, Nikki Burg, and Tori Howarth for helping me to launch
the book.
Ken Auletta: thank you for cheering me on every time we met. You have no idea how
much it buoyed me up and how excited I was that you would blurb it. I am honored to
follow in your footsteps. You set the bar very high. You always do.
Arianna Huffington, Amanda Foreman, and Simon Sebag Montefiore: thank you for also
reading galleys, blurbing the book, encouraging me, and making me feel sure I was
writing a book people would want to read; and thank you also for critiquing.
Then there are the thanks to personal friends who were there for me in a variety of ways-on both sides of the Atlantic. Particularly encouraging and helpful for part or all of the
way through were: Dan Abrams, Celerie Kemble, Boykin Curry, Len and Emily
Blavatnik, Reg Barton, Frances Osborne, Paola Windsor (who lived part of it!), Catherine
Ostler, Pamela Gross and Jimmy Finkelstein, Santa Sebag Montefiore, Andrew Roberts
and Susan Gilcrhist, Vivi Nevo, Nick Brown, Sarah Murdoch, Dan Peres and Sarah
Wynter, Carolina