Although there are no direct Joni mentions in this novel, Debra Shea reports that The Circle Game was playing in her head when she read the following paragraph. Hmm. Seems like a certain writer may also be familiar with that tune!

Life wasn't a continuum of events, although it wore the guise of exactly that. Instead, it was actually a carousel. In infancy, one mounted a galloping pony and started out on a journey during which one assumed that the circumstances would change as the expedition continued. But the truth of life is that it was an endless repetition of what one had already experienced . . . round and round and up and down on that pony. And unless one dealt with whatever challenges one was meant to deal with along the route, those challenges appeared again and again in one form or another till the end of one's days. If he hadn't subscribed to that notion before, J.W. Pritchley was a believer now.

(Contributed by Debra Shea)