Nelson DeMille - The Cuban Affair

Social media has become a mixed blessing for authors. I love that I can reach out to my readers, and vice versa, but the nuances of social media sometimes present a challenge. The solution is to hire someone who’s less than half your age, and I did that when I engaged the services of Katy Greene, CEO and founder of Greene Digital Marketing. Thanks, Katy, for all your help, advice, professionalism, patience, and creativity. I have seen the future, and it is you.

And many thanks to my daughter, Lauren, and my son Alex, who are the perennial early readers of my manuscripts and who are repaying me for all the homework I helped them with. And thanks to my son James (age eleven), who is coauthoring his next funny novel with me.

The last shall be first, and that’s my wife, Sandy Dillingham. It’s not easy living with a writer (Cosmos help) but Sandy, a former book publicist, understands how to deal with authors — be patient but firm, compliment their writing, but be honest, and ignore their moods. Love you.

The following people or their families have made generous contributions in charity auctions in return for having their name used as a character in this novel:

Alexandra Mancusi— Cancer Center for Kids at Winthrop-University Hospital; Scott Mero— FACES (Finding a Cure for Epilepsy & Seizures), NYU Langone Medical Center; Dave Katz— Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights; Ragnar Knutsen— Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Ashleigh Arote— Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation; Professor Barry Nalebuff— Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights.

I hope they all enjoy their fictitious alter egos and that they continue their good work for worthy causes.