Acknowledge that!

Patty here…

First of all, I'd like to congratulate our Jacqueline. Her novel MESSENGER OF TRUTH was number 12 on the Los Angeles Times Bestsellers list on Sunday. Yeah!

I spent the weekend in Chicago. While I was there I took in the King Tutankhamun exhibit at the Field Museum of National History. Back in the seventies, I saw another Tut exhibit that was touring the U.S., featuring hype grander than the Valley of the Kings.

Back then Tut-abelia was everywhere. Of course, there were current buying opportunities in the Field’s museum gift shop. How about chocolate wedges in a Tut tin, or a winged scarab mirror, an ancient Egyptian dog collar, a Tut blowup doll (hmmm), or a limited edition Limoges coffin with mummy box for $299.00. That was hard to pass up. Remember all that reproduction pharoah’s jewelry that was for sale back then? Well, it's back. But my favorite item was the death mask tissue box. You pull the tissue out through the nose. It’s one of those things you buy on impulse because it makes you laugh (or groan), but once home, you slap your palm to your forehead and say, “What was I thinking?”

On Saturday night after the exhibit, I attended a cocktail party in Winnetka. I was standing outside enjoying a balmy Midwestern evening surrounded by a group of accomplished and interesting men—a urologist from New York City, an environmental lawyer from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a former ambassador to the Philippines. They were all indulging me by brainstorming plot ideas for my fourth novel. It was amusing party conversation but, you never know, I might be able to work in a scene that includes a cystoscopy, Imelda Marcos’s dancing ability, and the endangered habitat of the stephanotis floribunda vine. If so, I’d want to thank them.

I’m getting ready to write the acknowledgement page for my third novel SHORT CHANGE, which will be on bookstore shelves July 2007, and I’m wondering whom to include. So many people helped and supported me that if I thanked them all, the acknowledgement section would be longer than the book.

I used to think that everyone would love to have his or her contribution recorded for posterity. I remember when Elizabeth George acknowledged all the students in her writing group in her novel DECEPTION ON HIS MIND. That was in 1997, long before I was published, and I was thrilled to see my name in print. Something happened recently that made me think that everybody might not feel the same way.

I was writing a scene in SHORT CHANGE in which Tucker had to interview a probation officer. Of course, I could have made the whole thing up, but I wanted the information to be authentic, so I called the Los Angeles County Probation Department and after being put on hold, transferred, and given alternate numbers to call, I was finally connected to a probation officer. I sketched out the scene I’d planned and he told me no way, no how would that ever happen. I proposed a few more scenarios, but his answer remained the same.

“Is it because it’s illegal for you to give out that information?” I said.

“No. It’s unprofessional.”

At first I was discouraged, because I thought I’d have to change the way Tucker got what she needed. Then I realized that my probation officer had inadvertently created a perfect character in the exact scene I needed, Tucker trying to coax information out of somebody who didn’t want to tell her anything. It was full of conflict and since the guy was a good sport, it also held a fair amount of humor. At the end of the conversation I asked him if I could acknowledge the contribution by mentioning his name in my book. He chuckled and said, “No way, no how.” The experience left me wondering if authors need permission to thank their sources.