Untamed (30 page)
First thanks go – will always go – to my husband Ken. He gave me three years of time to write, just because he thought I should have a chance at a life I love. He also kicked my butt, every time I lost sight of my goals. Thank you for believing in me, even though you’re sceptical of the number of hot dukes kicking about 19th-century England, and despite the lack of laser guns.
S.U. Pacat read this book in its earliest draft when EVERYONE SPOKE IN ALL-CAPS – and didn’t laugh at me. She read every incarnation of its crazy-varied life and never stopped telling me how much she loved it and how amazing she thought it was going to be. Thank you for being so incredibly generous with your time and ideas, and for putting your structure super-powers at my disposal. And also for being a model of motivation and focus, when I run out of both.
Thanks to my editors Sarah and Carol. This is a risky book in many ways, and I’ll never get over finding two editors at the one publishing house who both adore it like you do! Thank you for loving it and championing it. Particular thanks to Sarah for taking me through my first ever edits and making the book so much better in the process.
Thank you to my agent Kim Lionetti for seeing something in me and taking a chance on it. Also for your contract-negotiation ninja skills.
Thanks to Valerie Parv for mentoring me for a whole year. You encouraged me to take a scary new direction with the book and gave me the confidence to turn it into something well beyond what I’d imagined it could be. Thanks to my sister Rose for attempting to turn me into an organised human being.
Thank you to all my twitter pals for the company, encouragement, virtual chocolate brownies and historical-research help. Particular thanks to Ruthie Knox who is just about the most generous person on the planet. Thanks for answering my endless questions, and for telling me to get rid of the first few chapters of the book, when I thought I’d finished. (Ha.)
Thank you Catherine McLean for being my first fresh-eyed beta-reader and putting up with my slight hysterics at putting it into reader hands. Thank you to all my friends who read it. Many thanks go to Toni Jordan, who took me aside after our first class together, looked me in the eye and said, “You know this is good, right?” You came along just when I had lost confidence, and your encouragement made a world of difference to me.
Lastly thank to my fabulous writers group, even though we drink wine more often than we workshop. I love sharing this journey with you guys. And thank you to the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild, who encouraged me to enter the Valerie Parv Award, and rewarded all my achievements with chocolate.
Anna Cowan has been writing since she was eight years old and her heroine thought the likeliest place to buy a horse was the pet shop. She lives in Melbourne with her Scottish husband. They were married on the shores of Loch Lomond, which was just as romantic as it sounds.
Anna’s favourite characters are the kind who seduce her intellect and cut themselves right to the bone emotionally. Now that her cross-dressing Duke and the incomparable Katherine are out in the world, she’s turning her mind to her next heroine: a murderous debt-collector . . .
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First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2013
Text copyright Anna Cowan 2013
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Cover design by Laura Thomas © Penguin Group (Australia)
Cover photographs: Woman by Richard Jenkins Photography, Sky: STILLFX/Shutterstock, Ground: Matt Gibson, Shutterstock
eISBN: 978-0-85797-140-1
