Watching Over You (34 page)

Acknowledgments

My dream has always been to have a traditional deal with a publisher. So I’m often asked what it was like to go from self-publishing and being in complete control of everything to now having a team of people behind me. I can tell you it has been amazing. So these thanks have to be about everyone who is in Team Mel right now.

Firstly, thanks must go to Maddy Milburn, who never ceases to fill me with confidence when I have none left. Who gets my writing for what it is, who encourages me at every opportunity, guides me and above all treats me as an equal. I’m not often lost for words but, well, thank you so much.

Thank you to Emilie Marneur for her friendship, wisdom and patience. Also to the gang at Amazon Publishing, to Sana and Ben, the Thomas & Mercer design team, Paul for his patience and skills creating the interior.

My editor, Charlotte Herscher who added something to my words that I never thought was possible. I’ve learned so much from you and it was a wonderful process to go through. Also my copy editor, Jennifer, who added even more sparkle and glitter.

My biggest confidantes, Talli Roland, Alison Niebieszczanski and my new recruit, Sharon Sant. Ladies, you keep my rocky world steady! For the many authors and writers I now have the pleasure of calling friends. Thank you for all your support.

For all my readers, many of whom I now call friends too. Thank you for the emails and messages and continued support. I love that you enjoy my smutty grit-lit just as much as I love to write it. Also a special mention to Tracy Shayler who sent me my first reader email and made me cry because she liked my writing so much.

Thank you to David Jackson, Matt Hilton, Emlyn Rees, Will Carver, Mandasue Heller, Niamh O Connor and David Mark for offering to give me quotes when they had read
Taunting the Dead
. You’ll never know how much that meant.

Finally, to Chris. What can I say, fella. You are the man and always will be. I know you have so much to put up with and I thank you for your patience and support too. I got there!

About the Author

Mel Sherratt has been a self-described “meddler of words” ever since she can remember. After winning her first writing competition at the age of 11, she has rarely been without a pen in her hand or her nose in a book.

Since successfully self-publishing
Taunting the Dead
and seeing it soar to the rank of number one best-selling police procedural in the Amazon Kindle store in 2012, Mel has gone on to publish three more books in the critically acclaimed
The Estate
Series.

Mel has written feature articles for
The Guardian
, the Writers and Artists website, and
Writers Forum Magazine
, to name just a few, and regularly speaks at conferences, event and talks.

She lives in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with her husband and her terrier, Dexter (named after the TV serial killer, with some help from her Twitter fans), and makes liberal use of her hometown as a backdrop for her writing.

Her website is
www.melsherratt.co.uk
and you can find her on Twitter at
@writermels
.