The Girl with a Clock for a Heart: A Novel (23 page)

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Authors: Peter Swanson

BOOK: The Girl with a Clock for a Heart: A Novel

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This book wouldn’t exist without my agent, Nat Sobel, who read a story about a couple of college freshmen and wondered what would happen if they met twenty years later. He coached me all the way to the finish line. Every time I thought I’d done something perfect, Nat would let me know that it could be a whole lot better. He was right every time.

A heartfelt thanks also goes to Joe DeMarco, who first published
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
in novella form in Mysterical-E. Very few literary journals, and even fewer online journals, are interested in stories over ten thousand words. Not only did Joe read the long story I sent him, he gave it a home. And thank you to
Spinetingler Magazine
for nominating my story for Best Short Story on the Web.

Thank you to David Highfill, my editor at William Morrow. David’s intelligence and enthusiasm made the editing process so much less painful than I thought it would be. Angus Cargill, my editor at Faber and Faber, offered astute suggestions, all of which improved the book. And thanks to the entire Sobel Weber team—Judith, Adia, Julie, and Kirsten—whose professionalism was only exceeded by their kindness.

Myriam Steinback is the rarest of combinations—a great boss and a close friend. Over the sixteen years that we have worked together in teacher training, she has accommodated my schedule to allow me time to write, and has offered constant encouragement, both for the work I do as a project manager, and the writing that I do in my spare time. Thank you.

And a final heart-shaped thank-you to Charlene, my first reader, biggest fan, and toughest critic. Thank you for letting me shut the office door as often as I do.

About the Author

PETER SWANSON
has degrees in creative writing, education, and literature from Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College. His stories and poems have appeared in the
Atlantic,
Mysterical-E, Vocabula Review, and
Yankee Magazine
. He lives with his wife in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he is at work on his second novel.

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Credits

Cover photograph © by Mauritius Images GmbH/Alamy

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE GIRL WITH A CLOCK FOR A HEART
. Copyright © 2014 by Peter Swanson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-226749-8 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-06-232527-3 (international edition)

EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2014 ISBN 9780062267511

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