Bottlebrush Creek
Page 29
It’s been a pleasure working with my publisher Annette Barlow again, and her fantastic A&U team including Jenn, Samantha, Yvette, Aziza and Emma, cover designer extraordinaire Nada Backovic, and the clever marketing and publicity team. It tickles me pink to see the story in my head come to life in the hands of such a professional and polished team.
I’ve been lucky to find a vibrant writing community in Romance Writers of Australia, particularly Kaneana, Jayne, Suzie, Fiona, Alli, Rachael, Victoria and Cathryn. An extra special shout-out for early readers Amber and Lindy Sloan, Pamela Linnell, Karen Nancarrow and Julie Linnell. Your faith in Angie and Rob’s story is much appreciated.
Support from family, friends and neighbours has been incredibly humbling. Thanks for cheering me on, sharing my excitement, travelling to launches, buying books, urging friends/ parents/siblings/children/colleagues to buy books, quizzing me on book-related progress, writing reviews, taking my books on holidays and helping steer my author dream in the right direction. I am eternally grateful!
Thanks to the librarians and booksellers who stock and recommend my novel, throw open their doors after hours in the middle of winter for book launches and make me feel like a real author by asking me to sign copies. Cheers to the book reviewers, bloggers, journalists, podcasters and Insta-friends flying the Wildflower Ridge and Bottlebrush Creek flags. The McIntyre family and I are thrilled to have you in our cheer squad.
My three bookworms, Charlie, Amelia and Elizabeth—thanks for keeping me accountable with encouraging notes, beautiful drawings that were way too pretty to be made into book covers, and minimal complaints about being dragged across the countryside for so many book talks.
Jason—thanks for every road trip spent nutting out plot holes, in-depth discussions about completely fictional scenarios, your endless supply of Aussie colloquialisms, teaching me that hard yakka is always worth it, and doing the very last read-through with me.
Mum and Dad—all kids want their parents to be proud of them, so thanks for encouraging me every step of the way. Readers—if you bumped into a beaming five-foot lady and a tall bearded chap in a cowboy hat at a bookstore last year, and then walked away with a copy of my book pressed into your hands, you met my proud folks.
I love connecting with readers, so please head over to my website www.mayalinnell.com for book tour details, news and snippets from my writer, baker, green-thumb life. Happy reading!
Much love,
Maya