Don't Tell Eve (32 page)
Authors: Airlie Lawson
One morning, not so long ago, a flamboyantly dressed Todd went on his morning walk to the end of the drive to collect the mail. When he got home, instead of opening his letters immediately, he went to the kitchen and put the Atomic on the stove. That done, he opened the tin that Alex had filled earlier in the week, took out an Anzac biscuit, wandered over to his desk, picked up his pearl-handled letter opener and slit open the envelope on the top of the pile. Before reading the contents, he made himself a flat white and sat down. The letter was from the accounts department at Zest and enclosed was a cheque featuring a very satisfying row of zeros. It was payment for the sale of the foreign rights of his book to MaxMedia. Along with the cheque there was a short note from the CEO herself.
Todd,
I never doubted your ability – you just needed an appropriate incentive. Life is all about rising to challenges, after all! Congratulations on an extraordinary piece of work. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how you can top it.
PS I destroyed that picture a long time ago.
The book in question was a management book, with a cover that featured a femme fatale observed by a man in a trench coat.
THE END
Reverse Garbage
does exist and is by sculptor Alexander Seton. The Beached Whale is not, as some have suggested, located in Whale Beach. Trauma Teddy patterns, in Australia at least, are available from local Red Cross branches.
First, I would like to thank all at Random House Australia, in particular my publisher, the wonderful Meredith Curnow, and my sensitive, insightful editors, Roberta Ivers and Catherine Hill. I couldn’t have hoped for a more professional, supportive, inspiring and – hmm – brave team. I’d also like to thank my agent, Sophie Hamley, who read the manuscript and loved it immediately at a time when I was completely over it, had lost all confidence in it and was thinking it deserved to hide in the bottom drawer. (Not that I told her this.)
I’m also hugely grateful to my friends, both in the publishing world and outside, who had many useful and often entertaining thoughts and suggestions about the novel.
And I owe a particular debt to the Dixons, who let me stay for several months in their cottage, allowing me time and a gorgeous, peaceful environment in which to finish the second draft, when the book went from sketchy idea to actual manuscript.
Finally, I couldn’t have done without the support of my family who, throughout the gestation period, fed me often, housed me occasionally and endured without complaint my constantly changing opinions of, and ideas about, Eve – and her friends.
