Thomas Trofimuk - Waiting for Columbus

Thanks to Donya Peroff, whom I have never met, but whose edits on a previous manuscript taught me so much about writing, and to Marc Côté, who made that happen.

Thanks also to John and Anna, at Miette Hot Springs Resort (Anna, for your exquisite Greek coffee). For me, there is no better place on this planet to write.

To Cindy-Lou, who holds the kite string while I flitter about the sky. In your most frail gestures are things which enclose me, still.

And to Marie Mackenzie for making me pinkie swear, a lot.

While this is not a historical novel, much of what goes on in this book is based on what we know, or what we think we know, about Christopher Columbus.

Books and academic papers on Christopher Columbus, or with references to Columbus, that I read over the past five years and that may have influenced this novel include The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy, by John Noble Wilford; A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age, by William Manchester; and “The Hospital of Innocents: Humane Treatment of the Mentally Ill in Spain, 1409-1512,” by Emilio J. Dominguez, in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. I also was probably influenced, to a small extent, by watching Ridley Scott’s movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise. References to saints all came from www.holyspiritinteractive.net.

I owe a debt of gratitude to The Tao of Steve for Father Paulo’s rant on women.