Debra, my beautiful wife (Debra Meadow Art), did the cool artwork. Those are periwinkles, or caddis flies in their larval stages. They live in streams; they gather tiny pebbles and, using silk-like secretions from their bodies, they bind the pebbles into tiny “tubes” that protect them from preying fish and crawdads. Some of the “pebbles” here depict photos and snippets of documents from the Dage family. For example, on the left of the cover is a photo of my youthful mother, Helen. The Eddy Trout Series of novels is about Eddy’s family’s tragic history, and how his discovery of it changes him.