Seven Year Switch
Page 21
SERENDIPITY. When you stay open to surprises, they often turn out to be even better than the things you planned. Throw your routine out the window and let spontaneity change your life.
SYNCHRONICITY. It’s like that saying about luck being the place where preparation meets opportunity. Open your eyes and ears—then catch the next wave that’s meant for you!
STRENGTH. Life is tough. Decide to be tougher. If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters (204 if you’re in Japan!).
SISTERHOOD. Connect, network, smile. Build a structure of support, step by step. Do something nice for someone—remember, karma is a boomerang!
SATISFACTION. Of course you can get some (no matter what the Rolling Stones said). Call it satisfaction, fulfillment, gratification, but there’s nothing like the feeling of setting a goal and achieving it. So make yours a good one!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, a zillion thanks to you, my readers. Whenever you take time out of your busy lives to read one of my novels, send it to your sister on her birthday, tell a friend you liked it (and make her buy her own copy!) you breathe life into my next book. On this most basic, sustaining level, without you I wouldn’t be having the best midlife career switch ever, and I appreciate your support, especially in this crazy world and tough economy, more than I can say.
But wait, there’s more. I think reader response is so important that it sometimes feels as if I don’t completely know what I’ve written until you tell me what you’ve read. Your messages and reviews lift me up and keep me on track. You get it, you really get it! Thank you.
Many, many thanks to my fabulous bookseller, librarian, journalist, and blogger friends and supporters—I appreciate you truly, madly, deeply.
While I was writing this novel, a small group of women generously shared buried pieces of their past with me. Your stories helped me find the heart of this book, and I’m so thankful for them. And, as promised, your secrets are my secrets!
Thank you to the kind people of San José and Tamarindo for help along the way, as well as to Charlotte Phinney, Maria Sanchez, and Anna Holmes. Thanks to Ken Harvey for another caring, insightful read.
Heartfelt thanks to Tammy Orrell for never missing one of my book events within a hundred miles’ drive. It was an honor to be your favorite author. Rest in peace, Tammy, and thank you, Jessica, for letting me know.
I thank my lucky stars for the wonderful women (and a few good men) at Hyperion/Voice. When you shine your collective brilliance on my books, you light up my world. Thanks for focusing so much attention on this grateful woman’s voice. Thanks, thanks, and more thanks to my wonderful editor, Brenda Copeland, her terrific assistant, Kate Griffin, and to the rest of the talented Hyperionites: Ellen Archer, Barbara Jones, Mindy Stockfield, Sarah Rucker, Marie Coolman, Allison McGeehon, Katherine Tasheff, Maha Khalil, Mike Rotondo, Joan Lee, Claire McKean, Laura Klynstra, Lindsay Mergens, Shelley Perron, Shubhani Sarkar, and Karen Minster. Thank you to the HarperCollins sales force for your support—with an extra shout-out to Donna Waitkus and a special thanks to Andrea Rosen and her team for inspiring a scene in this book at our meeting!
Lisa Bankoff’s support is always above and beyond, and I’m more thankful with each and every book. A huge thank you to ICM’s unflappable agent-to-be Elizabeth Perrella, to the wonderful Josie Freedman, and to magazine maven Alison Schwartz. Many thanks to Helen Manders and Curtis Brown Group for their foreign rights enthusiasm.
Mega thanks and much love to Jake, Kaden, and Garet for stepping up whenever I need it. You’re simply the best.
ALSO BY
CLAIRE COOK
The Wildwater Walking Club
Summer Blowout
Life’s a Beach
Multiple Choice
Must Love Dogs
Ready to Fall
Copyright
SEVEN YEAR SWITCH. Copyright © 2010 Claire Cook. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 Hyperion e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cook, Claire
Seven year switch / Claire Cook.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4013-4116-9
1. Single mothers—Fiction. 2. Self-realization in women—Fiction. 3. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.O55317S48 2010
813'.54—dc22
2009045959
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition © May 2010 ISBN: 978-1-4013-9595-7
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