ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book has been one of the most challenging anthologies I’ve had to work on in my career. With ever more work published, and ever more demands on my time, I began to wonder if it would ever be complete. For that reason, I’d like to thank my wife and co-editor Marianne S. Jablon for her heroic work in helping me get this manuscript finished. Without her diligent, careful, and tireless efforts, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year would probably not have made it out this year and certainly would not be as good as it is. I’d also like to thank Gary K. Wolfe for his help in doing an emergency read and edit of the introduction after it was lost in a computer failure just before the book was due to be delivered. Thanks also to everyone at Not If You Were the Last Short Story on Earth, who helped keep me grounded and focussed in my reading during the year, and to all of the book’s contributors, who helped me get this year’s book together at the last. A special thanks, as always, to Liza Groen Trombi and all of my friends and colleagues at Locus, and to Ross E. Lockhart at Night Shade Books, who has been wonderful to work with year after year. And two special sets of thanks. As always, I’d like to thank my agent, the dapper and ever-reliable Howard Morhaim, whose annual parties are a highlight of the year. And finally, my extra, extra special thanks to my wife Marianne and my daughters Jessica and Sophie: every moment spent working on this book was stolen from them.