Have You Seen Ally Queen? (24 page)

I turn away for a moment, and let her be. The ocean stretches out before us, away from the house, shining promisingly.

My indebted thanks to Cate Sutherland, Children’s Publisher at Fremantle Press, for her patience and perseverance (which have spanned
years
in this instance), and her gentle editorial guidance.

For her unstinting commitment, thoroughness and care in editing this manuscript, I thank the wonderful Amanda Curtin. Her shady colleague, The Chronology Nazi, must also be thanked—if through gritted teeth.

Thank you to Claire Miller and Clive Newman at Fremantle Press, for their dedicated and strategic work. And to all the Freo Press staff: thank you for your warm welcomes and cheery helpfulness. Grateful thanks to Georgia Richter, who, back in the early days, gave me much needed feedback, ideas and confidence in the manuscript.

A very special thankyou to Tom Hungerford, who so generously encouraged the two runners-up in the 2006 TAG Hungerford Award. I directly attribute the publication of this book to my shortlisting in the 2006 Hungerford Award.

Stew: I hope this finally makes up for the crazy faxes and postcards from Buenos Aires and Santiago. Thank you, for this whole coastal
thing.

To the beautiful Jerry and Pippa: thanks for telling everyone you meet about my next book and for not minding me beavering away on the computer while you were respectively playing with Lego and painting.

To Fiona Dallas, for so generously sharing Melros. And Deebs: you’d have liked this.

Thank you, finally, to my mum, dad and brother, for everything.