Cruising Attitude

by Heather Poole

  Acknowledgments

  I’d like to thank . . .

  THE HUSBAND who walked on board my flight and sat on my side of the cabin and then actually stuck around after realizing what he’d gotten himself into. Without him none of this would be worth it.

  MY FAMILY. Love and support is everything in life. I’m more than blessed. Of course a special shout-out goes to MY MOTHER. Without her this book wouldn’t exist, and something tells me a book about marketing/sales/psychology wouldn’t have been half as much fun.

  MY IN-LAWS, who eagerly lent a helping hand during many long and tortuous reserve months. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, they were right. Thank goodness we’re all part of the same village.

  JANETT AGUILAR, CHRISTOPHER BAILEY, SHERLY CADET, DIEDRE CHRISTENSEN, JOHN GONZALES, BETH HENRY, VICKI HOWELL, FLORENCE HUE, IVORY KING, GRETA KOVAC, STEPHEN KRAUSS, MELANIE MCCARTHY, SEAN MORAN, KRISTEN NAVARRO, NICHOLAS ORTIZ, LENA SKINNER, DUSTY MIRLY STEEDMAN, KIM TOLIDO, and ANH NGA WITTEN are just a few of the many flight attendants who have inspired me over the years with funny stories and words of wisdom. Many thanks are owed to them for sharing their thoughts as well as snippets of their lives with the rest of the world. As for my go-to guy for all things pilot, BOB NADELBERG, thank you for always answering my questions quickly regardless of how trivial they may seem.

  CADY COMBS, who witnessed many of the events in this book and still encouraged me to write about them, even when she probably shouldn’t have. You’re the best friend a girl could ever ask for!

  MARGO CANDELA, PAULA GILL, and ANNE VAN. I have no idea why they answered a desperate pregnant woman’s online plea to create a women’s writing group in Los Angeles, but I’m certainly glad they did for they pulled me through a difficult phase in my writing life without once complaining about reading Skydoll one more time. On that note, think you can read it again?

  Last but definitely not least, a debt of gratitude is owed to STEPHANIE MEYERS, editor extraordinaire at HarperCollins. I truly consider myself the luckiest writer in the world to have had her by my side over the past two years, supporting me every step of the way.

  About the Author

  HEATHER POOLE lives in Los Angeles and still commutes to New York.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Credits

  Cover design by Robin Bilardello

  Cover photographs © Sean Locke/Getty Image

  Dr_Flash/Shutterstock Images

  Copyright

  I have changed the name of some individuals, and in some instances also modified or changed their identifying features, to preserve their anonymity. In some cases, composite characters have been created or timelines have been compressed, in order to further preserve privacy and to maintain narrative flow. The goal was to maintain people’s privacy without damaging the integity of the story, as well as to capture certain qualities in people that I felt best defined what life as a flight attendant is really like

  CRUISING ATTITUDE. Copyright © 2012 by Heather Poole. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-0-06-198646-8

  EPub Edition © February 2012 ISBN: 9780062098849

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