“Of course,” he said. He rose and went to the corner to pick up the dusty bag. It was heavy from the weight of textbooks and paper, and he felt its contents shift as he lugged it toward her. She was sitting upright, waiting with flushed cheeks and outstretched arms.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply grateful to the many people who helped me write and publish Living Proof. First, I owe tremendous thanks to my agent, Erica Silverman, for spotting promise in my project and becoming such a trusted partner; your hard work, wisdom, and positive spirit have made this publication possible. I am also very much indebted to my passionate editor, Bob Gleason, and the wonderful team at Tor, including Tom Doherty, Linda Quinton, Whitney Ross, Katharine Critchlow, Justin Golenbock, Patty Garcia, Aisha Cloud, Aubrey Lynch, Steph Flanders, Irene Gallo, Lisa Honerkamp, and Eric C. Meyer. Huge thanks also to M. J. Rose, John Brady, and Arnold Dolin.
Alex Steele and Matt de la Pena at Gotham Writers Workshop provided top-rate instruction in novel writing. Lisa VanDamme of VanDamme Academy encouraged my love of literature from a young age and taught me the technical tools I needed to become a writer, for which I will always be grateful.
For the medical and scientific elements, I am thankful to Dr. Jacqueline Berenson and Dr. Trace Jordan, and to Dr. Charles Ribak, who was kind enough to give me a tour of UC-Irvine’s stem cell laboratory. I also consulted United States Patent 7285415 of Dr. Gabriel Nistor and Dr. Hans Kierstead, world leaders in stem cell research, whose work focuses on regenerating damaged spinal cords.
While tackling this project, I could not have had a more supportive network of friends and family—thank you, always, for your enthusiasm. Special thanks to Shea O’Rourke, Chris Shiota, and Ben Pomerantz.
My most profound appreciation is to my father, Leonard Peikoff, who encouraged me at age twenty-two to spend a year writing a novel, knowing it was my dream. Thank you for lending your support and guidance in so many ways and for not letting me quit early on. Equal thanks goes to my mother, Cynthia Peikoff, for your brilliant feedback and your unwavering belief in me.
Last, but certainly not least, thank you to Matt Beilis for enabling me to write about true love without doing any research.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
LIVING PROOF
Copyright © 2012 by Kira Peikoff
All rights reserved.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peikoff, Kira.
Living proof / Kira Peikoff.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
e-ISBN 9781429923590
1. Obstetricians—Fiction. 2. Gynecologists—Fiction. 3. Multiple sclerosis—Patients—Fiction. 4. Stem cells—Transplantation—Fiction. 5. Government investigators—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3616.E3535L58 2012
813'.6—dc22
2011025190
First Edition: February 2012
