Making Headlines (29 page)

This book has seen so many incarnations over the ten years it has taken to write that to list everybody who deserves thanks for their help along the way would be another book in itself.

To avoid being tedious I'm going to have to stick to mentioning the main players. That means going back to before the book began – to some special teachers. Teachers never get enough thanks in this world and are so crucial in planting those very first seeds of self-belief in future generations of writers.

So THANK YOU:

              
•    Firstly, to my Grade Four teacher, Molly Halliday, who tasked us with writing a weekly ‘composition'. Her enthusiastic notes of encouragement at the bottom of each of my stories made me feel like I was an award-winning novelist at the age of ten.

              
•    To my Year 11 and Year 12 English teacher, Stephen Wedlick, who was as inspirational an educationalist as Robin Williams in
Dead Poets Society
.

              
•    And to my Novel teacher for three years at RMIT, Olga Lorenzo, herself an acclaimed and brilliant writer. I could not have finished this book without her invaluable input and guidance.

OTHER THANKYOUS:

              
•    To all my fellow students at RMIT who gave me valuable feedback during workshopping sessions in class. In particular, to my friends from the Professional Writing and Editing course who became my colleagues in our own writers' group – Ann Bolch, Lisa Bigelow, Kaye Holder and Clare Strahan.

              
•    An extra special thankyou to Ann Bolch, who also worked as the first editor of the completed manuscript and did a superb job.

              
•    As well as the Writer's Group, two of my friends took the time and effort to read early drafts. Thank you Rick Molinksy for your encouragement and support.

              
•    Also a huge thankyou to my dear, wicked, gorgeous, talented, close friend Rochelle Nolan, who is sadly no longer with us. Rochy was
always my biggest supporter and pepped me up whenever I was feeling negative about this project. I wish she could have been here to see the book in its final published form. I miss her every day.

              
•    To my dear friend and stepsister Sian Prior, another superbly talented writer, who inspired me to take up the RMIT PWE course in the first place.

              
•    To my wonderful friend and fellow author Ellie Nielsen, who also not only encouraged me to take up the RMIT course, but inspired me with her own brilliant book
Buying a Piece of Paris
, and then invited me to that very apartment where we shared what was ostensibly a writing sabbatical, but which also involved plenty of champagne in the workshopping of ideas, lively conversation and literary debate.

              
•    To friends who were always there with love and support – to Julie, Brigitte, Ailsa, Andy and Mitch.

              
•    To my work colleagues at Smoothfm – to Jane Elliot for her help on the publicity front and to Mike Perso, for his enthusiastic on-air support.

              
•    To the HarperCollins team for agreeing to publish this work and taking it to the next level from its original draft.

              
•    To my parents and step-parents – Mum and Ken, Dad and Margot – for their never-ending encouragement and support.

              
•    And lastly, to my immediate family – my husband, Alan, and two children, Veronica and Tom. I am very much indebted to you all for putting up with my absences while I was holed up in my office, writing. For understanding that when I disappeared into ‘Book World' I should not be interrupted. To Alan, for his patience and love throughout; to Tom for actually reading the first few chapters and proving to that me he will one day be the best writer in the family; and to Veronica for finding great words to replace the rude ones.

Impulse

An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers

First published in Australia in 2016

by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited

ABN 36 009 913 517

harpercollins.com.au

Copyright © Eastview 2016

The right of Jennifer Hansen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000
.

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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ISBN 978 1 4607 06473 (epub)

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