A word for those who helped me

A number of people have helped me bring this book to life and I want to thank them by mentioning their names here. At the outset, my sons put in creative ideas that got me under way, so thanks Gary and David. Special thanks to my patient and sparkling wife, Basia, who gave me great encouragement. Many thanks to my daughter, Luise Habrowski-Steinkellner, and friends Dr David Bradford, Steve Foehringer, Bethanne Cellars, Joyce Cellars, Gerhard Nagl, Sophie Newton and Roger Blackburn, who so readily agreed to read my drafts and give me valuable comments. Thanks also to Dr Silvia Hansjakob and Duncan Salter for, respectively, the French and Latin versions of the Covenant text.

A line of credit to Tony Sacre, who edited The Collineau Covenant. Tony made tremendously helpful comments for concentrating my focus on the plot and removing irrelevancies, which gave pace to the story. He has a remarkable facility for ideas and I drew upon this source to enhance particular chapters. When you have Tony as your editor, you get a “fun” subsidy: in all our interactions, The Collineau Covenant was named “The Vatican Rag” (with apologies to Tom Lehrer).

And absolutely not to be forgotten, special thanks to my agent, the late Dr Paul M. Muller for seeing in The Collineau Covenant the promise of a good story. Here is a tribute to Paul derived from what was given on the now defunct Aarau website.

The Aarau Literary Agency was Paul’s last big endeavor after a lifetime of diverse achievements, most notably, winning the Magellanic Premium in 1971 for his role in the discovery of lunar mascons. Paul had a wealth of knowledge in both science and art and he enthusiastically shared his knowledge through mentoring–free of charge–anybody who approached the Aarau Literary Agency with a book submission. His love of teaching will live on through all who worked with him.

As Paul was the driving force, the Aarau Literary Agency has shut its doors permanently.