Acknowledgments: First thanks go to Janet Holmes of Macalester College, MN. whose suggestion for an exercise in balladeering provided the original impetus to explore the form. Her critique on my early short sketch for that exercise lead directly to the expanded tale and a full investigation into the death of Emma Good. Special thanks go to Summer Breeze (Motherbird Books, Silver City, NM.) a dear friend and personal editrix, for her patience and many invaluable suggestions during the early drafts of the work. Most of all, thanks go to her for her generous provision of sanctuary to a small band of 'refugees' from howling valleys of their own and, for her vigilant watch from her 'Summer's Hill' lookout for signs of suspicious activity on the western ridge and the Barrows that lie beyond. To my good friend, Terry 'Fitz' Fitzsimmons, who read and commented on a number of drafts and who dutifully reminded me that when I start to sound Elizabethan, I am definitely blowing the wrong trumpet. And another dear friend, Dr. Robert Newport, who helped me nail down some of the science; watched me stalking this beast for over thirty years - picked me up when I stumbled, kept my quiver full of sharpened arrows and shared in many conversations which are inseparably woven into this saga. And, finally, to my family, Diana and Heather, who put up with my antics through the long months of writing and never once wavered in their support for such an imaginary and preposterously self-indulgent journey. red slider, Christmas 1999

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The Ballad of Emma Good	©1999 Red Slider, all rights reserved.