The Uncrowned Queen (65 page)

Judith Curr, executive vice-president and publisher of Atria books, and Jon Attenborough, publisher and managing director of Simon & Schuster, Australia. You have both believed in these books from the beginning. Thank you for your patience, interest, and un-tiring support. I hope the trilogy repays your trust. It has been a privilege and a great pleasure getting to know you both.

Carolyn Caughey, Hodder and Stoughton, London. Many thanks to you, Lucy Hale, and everyone at Hodder also, for your enthusiasm about the Anne trilogy. It's a real thrill that these books are being published in the United Kingdom. I've thoroughly enjoyed the champagne and the lunches “around the corner.”

To Nicola O'Shea, Australian editor of
The Uncrowned Queen;
Kim Swivel, Australian editor of
The Innocent
and
The Exiled
, and to Suzanne O'Neill, U.S. editor of all three books. I've so appreciated working with each one of you. You can have no idea how encouraging it is to have such kind, experienced, and professional people to learn from and work with. It makes my job so much easier. Thanks, too, to Jody Lee and Clare Wallace, who were at Simon & Schuster, Australia, when it all began.

Many thanks also to Julia Collingwood, managing editor; Camilla Dorsch, marketing manager; and Glenda Downing, senior editor, again at Simon & Schuster, Australia. You must constantly be driven mad by distracted authors who just can't resist meddling with the work of experts. Thank you all so much for humoring me and holding my hand when I got anxious (which has been often!).

To Susan and Phaedon Vass. Three books later and I still owe you the most enormous debt for introducing my first book to Judith. I'm blessed to have such lovely friends.

Another friend, and important influence in my early life, is Emeritus Professor Ralph Elliott, AM, world-renowned expert on medieval literature and the kind of teacher that every callow student should meet just once in their lives. Dear Ralph, your brilliant lectures helped me fall in love with medieval England—and sometimes it feels as if I've never left!

Carol Gerrard, Julie Redlich, and the Richard III Society of Australia. I'm enormously grateful for your encouragement and your interest in these books. Your hero is the brother of mine—so we're sisters under the skin. Carol, many thanks, particularly, for agreeing to read
The Exiled
and
The Uncrowned Queen
and for giving me the benefit of your expert knowledge and opinion.

Debbie McInnes (Australia), Angela Stamnes and Justin Loeber (New York), and Lucy Hale (London). The oxygen for books is publicity. Thanks so much for all the work you have done to encourage coverage of my work. I'm very grateful.

To that most cheerful and witty equestrienne (and agent)—Rachel Skinner. You've stuck with this trilogy for years and years and years and I'm just so thankful for your support and friendship.

Finally, I'd like to thank some very important people in my life. My mother, the novelist Eleanor Graeme-Evans; my children, Emma MacKellar, Emma Blaxland, and Julian Blaxland, and Hayden MacKellar, our dear son-in-law (and Emma and Hayden's sons, Rohan and Toby). You must all feel that these books have been going on forever and ever in our joint lives. I hope you enjoy reading
The Uncrowned Queen
.

And Andrew Blaxland. Dear friend, husband, and creative partner in all senses and all enterprises. Thank you, in particular, for putting up with my distracted state when I'm writing. I'm very much afraid there's more to come!

My love to you all.

ABOUT POSIE GRAEME-EVANS

A writer, director, and producer for more than thirty years, Posie is one of Australia's preeminent television creator/producers.
Variety
magazine named her one of “100 Significant Women in Film and Television” in December 2002 for her body of work, the same month and year her first novel,
The Innocent
, was published and the Screen Producers Association of Australia awarded her the inaugural honor of being Australian Independent Producer of the Year. Posie used to say (famously, in Australia) that she wrote her first four books on Sundays, while she produced eight seasons of her self-created, much awarded and long-running hit television drama series
McLeod's Daughters
(among a number of other projects) during the rest of the week. Commencing in 1999, another of her major television credits was as cocreator (and coproducer for the first two seasons) of
Hi-5
, which was nominated for three Daytime Emmys. Posie sold out her interest in 2008, which enabled her to write full-time;
Hi-5
is still running after fourteen seasons. Also in 2002, Posie became Director of Dramafor the Nine Network Australia, and held that position until she resigned in late 2005 to take up a new writing contract with her publisher, Simon & Schuster, and to continue producing
McLeod's
.

Posie is the lyricist on three bestselling albums of “Songs from the Series” of
McLeod's Daughters
and the author of five novels.
The Innocent, The Exiled
, and
The Uncrowned Queen
, the Anne trilogy, set during the period of England's Wars of the Roses, were published internationally to great success between 2002 and 2006. In 2010,
The Dressmaker
, set in Victorian England, was again published internationally to considerable success and acclaim, and in 2012
The Island House
will follow.

A long-standing board member of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, Posie is also a board member of Screen Tasmania. And she is delighted to say that she is a proud member of the Huonville Arts and Heritage committee in Southern Tasmania.

Atria Books/Simon & Schuster Author Page

authors.simonandschuster.com/Posie-Graeme-Evans/17078440

Author Website

www.posiegraemeevans.com

ABOUT ATRIA BOOKS

Atria Books was launched in April 2002 by publisher Judith Curr as a new hardcover and paperback imprint within Simon & Schuster, Inc. The name Atria (the plural of atrium—meaning a central living space open to the air and sky) reflects our goals as publishers: to create an environment that is always open to new ideas and where our authors and their books can flourish. We look for innovative ways to connect writers and readers, integrating the best practices of traditional publishing with the latest innovations in the digital world. We are committed to publishing a wide range of fiction and nonfiction for readers of all tastes and interests.

The first book published under the Atria name, The Right Words at the Right Time by Marlo Thomas, became an instant #1 New York Timesbestseller, and since then Atria has gone on to publish more than 185 New York Times bestsellers. Atria is the publishing home to many major bestselling authors, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jude Deveraux, Vince Flynn, T.D. Jakes, Shirley MacLaine, Kate Morton, Jodi Picoult, Sister Souljah, Brad Thor, Jennifer Weiner, Lauren Weisberger, Zane, and Rhonda Byrne, author of the international bestsellers The
Secret
and
The Power
.

In recent years, the imprint has placed a strategic emphasis on publishing for diverse audiences through the acquisition of the African American–oriented press Strebor Books, the launch of Atria Books Español, and copublishing agreements with Beyond Words Publishers and Cash Money Records. Atria Booksalso publishes literary fiction and topical nonfiction in trade paperback under the Washington Square Press imprint, and popular fiction and nonfiction under the Emily Bestler Books imprint, launched in 2011.

Atria—books that entertain and enlighten.

Facebook.com/AtriaBooks

Twitter.com/AtriaBooks

ASK ATRIA

Ask Atria
is a place where you can ask all your questions about book publishing—ask an editor, a publicist, a publisher, or a marketer!

Visit
vyou.com/AskAtria