Dire Means (54 page)
Authors: Geoffrey Neil
Other books by Geoffrey Neil:
Human
Resources
and
Wanton Regard.
Acknowledgements
I want to emphasize that Soft Landing Shelter House resembles none of the wonderful charities that provide aid to homeless people in Santa Monica. I have personal experience with several shelters in the Los Angeles area, including the great downtown Union Rescue Mission. My wife and I have also been involved with Santa Monica’s OPCC (Ocean Park Community Center). Its wide range of services, professionalism and the hands-on altruism of its caring staff is impressive. These organizations employ love instead of fear to help our impoverished citizens, and do so with effectiveness that would dumbfound “Pop”. A portion of each sale of this book will go to support organizations such as these.
Also, Neva Boyston represents the antithesis of any person you’ll find working for shelters, churches or other assistance agencies in Santa Monica. Creating a character who is a corrupt shelter director appealed to me only because the concept was so bizarre.
Christina Dominguez – although I thanked you at the beginning of the book, I plan to thank you repeatedly until I believe that you feel the depth of my gratitude. Your love and support help me do everything.
Richard Neil – Dad, I didn’t expect you to hand me a stack of suggestion notes after reading the first draft. I liked your ideas and integrated many of them (except the 9.7 earthquake at the end—it just didn’t play out). Your approval and the pride you shared with me about my having completed this project give me priceless satisfaction.
Judy Proffer – Thank you for giving me my first opportunity to be published and the first paycheck I ever earned for writing. I appreciate all you’ve done for me.
Dr. Jim Eguchi – your literary feedback, suggestions and encouragement have meant more than you know. Lorna Lynch – you are the “goodest” editor a bloated manuscript could hope to find. Thank you for using your magic to reduce the obesity of this story so dramatically while preserving everything I wanted to say. Any errors in this book are the author’s fault.
Google – thank you. You know what you did.
Acknowledgements continued in random order:
Karen Davidson, Julie Harreld, Kari Pacheco, Sue Meltzer, Becky Dominguez, Mona Romero, Larry Rosen, Jeff Edwards, Michelle Stroup, Marc Goldfinger, Brenda Freiberg, Jackie Rankin, Dawn Iozzo, Marcia Bedney, Kim Dortch, Craig Wilson, Shanna Gray, Stephanie Sterba, Millie Burns and Sue Meltzer.
About the Author
Geoffrey Neil writes noir fiction laced with a social conscience. He graduated from Cal State San Bernardino with a B.A. in Communication and then spent years in an outside-sales-induced haze of professional confusion. Life’s predictable challenges drove him to the keyboard where torrid personal-journal entries, pounded out late at night, led to a therapeutic obsession with writing.
In 2009 he completed his first novel,
Dire Means.
His second novel,
Human Resources
, published in 2012, has been optioned for screen adaptation by Mace Neufeld productions, producers of
Clear and Present Danger
,
Patriot Games
,
The Omen, The Sum of All Fears
and many other titles. Geoffrey Neil’s third novel,
Wanton Regard,
was released in May of 2014.
More information is available at geoffreyneil.com.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Priorities Intact Publishing
8306 Wilshire Blvd., 7076, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
3550 Barron Way, #8B, Reno, NV 89511
Text copyright 2009, by Geoffrey Neil
Cover art by Geoffrey Neil
Edited by Lorna Lynch and Christina Dominguez
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any manner, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
2 1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009937533
ISBN-13: 978-0-615-29249-6
ISBN-10: 0615292496
Table of Contents
