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The Cloud Chamber

Joyce Maynard
Chapters (35)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Author’s Note
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty

Cover

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The Cloud Chamber

Also for young readers by
JOYCE MAYNARD

The Usual Rules

Title Page

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Dedication

For Ken

Acknowledgments

Setting this novel in a part of the country that was new and unfamiliar to me required the help of many generous people who grew up on farms and ranches in Montana and the West. In am indebted to Ken and Elizabeth Love, Donna Hildreth, Janie Cardinalli, Larry and Joy Ganault, and Phil and Sandra Shrug for the time and care they gave in helping me to understand what it means to be a rancher (never more difficult that it has been during these last six years of Montana drought). My experiences, talking with ranchers, have left me with the deepest respect and—more than that—admiration for the women, men, and children who spend their lives raising the crops that feed us all. I am grateful for a lovely novel, Winter Wheat, by Mildred Walker, first published in 1942, and the rich portrait it provided of life on a Montana ranch.

My understanding of astrophysics and of the workings of cloud chambers was enriched through the patient assistance of Dr. Ellen Zweibel, professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; John Erikson, of Lawrence Laboratories in Berkeley, California; and Dr. Andrew Foland, professor of physics at Harvard University. For any young person seeking more information on cloud chambers, or for one with an interest in building a cloud chamber, I want to recommend Andy Foland’s highly informative and entertaining Web page: http://www.Lns.cornell.edu/~adf4/cloud.html. You’ll find everything you need there to build a cloud chamber, and you’ll have a much easier time of it than the characters in this novel, I can promise.

I want to thank Anne Mouen Stahl of Rosehill Farm in South Lyon, Michigan, for her assistance concerning the behavior of ponies and horses. Pitching advice for the screwball (a pitch, not a person; and don’t try one at home) came by way of my friend Steven Laska, but I offer no guarantees where replicating that one is concerned. Jaime Stathis, Betty Horvath, Lyla Fox, Hannah Rudson, and Bonnie Sklar were my first readers—always the most crucial ones—and I like to think my story was enriched by all of them. Bridgett Johnson, director of the Lewistown Public Library in Lewistown, Montana, provided a native Montanan’s eye on my manuscript—invaluable for a writer born and raised in New Hampshire. Particular appreciation goes to Cindy Nixon for the too-seldom-acknowledged contribution of a great copy editor.

A gift in my life has been the counsel, inspiration, and lifelong friendship of the man I call my brother of choice, Graf Mouen. I cannot imagine my days without his voice at the other end of the phone.