Credit where due: My husband

My husband, Jim Bates, wrote two of the fake stories that begin most of the chapters. He’s really one of the smartest people I know, and when I needed a fake papal encyclical, he whipped up the Encyclical of Pope John Paul II on developments involving communication with the dead that starts Chapter Four. I think he combined an existing encyclical and his high school Latin to produce it.

I also asked him for a news release about a dead author writing another book and he instantly thought of John Kennedy Toole and his sequel to A Confederacy of Dunces. You’ll find the release he wrote at the beginning of Chapter Nine. I can just imagine the bidding war that would actually accompany A Parcel of Rogues, and I’m just glad LSU Press won out.