Lots of people go into the making of writers and books, and I'd like to thank a few of them here who've been part of daddylabyrinth. My nuclear family is integral to this book: my wife Jennifer and my sons Lucas and Landon. Without them I never would have had to enter the labyrinth of fatherhood to face reality at all, and could have gone through the rest of my life stumbling blindly against my own fears. My brother Tom and uncle George, de facto Wingate family historians, also deserve thanks for keeping memories alive. 

This project was conceived in the summer of 2012 at the Electronic Literature Organization conference in Morgantown, West Virginia, which was my first exposure to what the digital world offered storytellers. I remember walking out of a presentation on Scalar by Erik Loyer and feeling like I'd just discovered the tool that would bring my creative life in a new direction. The sense of freedom was bewildering and complete. I owe Erik a huge thank you for his patience and his brilliance. Any authoring tool he develops, I'll write in––no questions asked. 

Among the ELO community, which has been very supportive of this newbie convert to the digital, two people stand out as being exceptional friendly and welcoming: Dene Grigar and Alan Bigelow. Their availability and their willingness to answer myriad questions and get me oriented in this new world helped keep me going when I could have thrown up my hands and said this was too hard.

I'd also like to thank two curators who selected daddylabyrinth for inclusion in exhibitions that included much fine work by media artists I'm proud to be among. Kathy Inman Berens curated the ELO 2014 media show in Milwaukee, where this project had its first public showing as a work-in-progress. Jing Ying Chiang curated the exhibition of the 7th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, held at the ArtScience Museum of Singapore, where daddylabyrinth premiered in its full form. I'm grateful that they found my work worthy of inclusion in their shows. Without such outstanding curators, work like this disappears into history.  

And thanks to you, dear reader, for poking around in this labyrinth with me. Now get lost!