Carey Goldberg has been Boston bureau chief of The New York Times, Moscow correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, and most recently a health-and-science reporter at the Boston Globe. She now writes happily at home.

Beth Jones is a freelance writer and educator who has contributed to The Boston Globe,The New York Times, and numerous academic journals. She plans to climb many more frozen waterfalls.

Pamela Ferdinand is an award-winning freelance journalist and former reporter for the Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Miami Herald. She remains an incorrigible romantic.

Carey and Beth live near Boston with their families; Pamela and her family live outside Chicago. Still close, they continue to believe that with good friends, love, and a little luck, almost anything is possible.