Acknowledgments I wish to thank my husband, Charlie, whose encouragement and editorial assis- tance helped this book become a real ity. I gratefully acknowledge the advice and support that my editor, Sharon Coatney, gave me throughout this exciting project. I would fi nally like to express my appreciation to production editor, Nicole Azze se nior proj ect man ag er, Jitendra Kumar and copy editor, Lisa McCoy, for their highly professional assistance.