The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart (32 page)
Read The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart Online
Authors: Leanna Renee Hieber
A rustle of applause from the Association.
A tragedy. That’s what we were caught up in, Jonathon and me. I had a leading role in some twisted tragedy. But while I’d leave Shakespeare well enough alone, I’d be damned if I was not going to write a happy ending for us and live into the truth of it. But just as the witches in
Macbeth
proclaim: “Something wicked this way comes.” There’s no avoiding it. But that doesn’t mean I have to submit.
Some are born haunted. Some have haunts thrust upon them. We greet the dawn with full understanding of the shadows at our backs. Together, we find solace and kindle the fires that will keep us warm and hold us firmly in the light.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Leah Hultenschmidt, for your guidance and faith. You’re a North star. Derry Wilkens, what in the world did I ever do before you were in my life?! Thanks to Carrie, whom I met thanks to Sallie the Romance Puppy, and who introduced me to Bunny and Blueberry—who I think steal the show here. Thank you for rescuing those beautiful creatures, teaching me something about them, and allowing me to nose them into this book. Thank you, Stephen, for clever words. Thank you to Diane and Kristin for your brilliant eyes for detail on these books, and to Aubrey and Danielle for calling me names (you know what), doing your jobs really well, and making me laugh
a
lot
along the way. Thank you to the whole Sourcebooks team, every last one of you, from the design to the sales departments. You are magical people who make things look magical and do magical things. Dominique, you visionary you, you are a dynamo of awesome and your support continues to mean the world to me. Thank you Sarah Maclean and Mari Mancusi for always being so helpful and gracious in addition to being rockstar authors. Thank you Saundra Mitchell for the mutual admiration society between our books. Thanks Mala Bhattacharjee for putting me in a magazine, and Morgan Doremus, for putting me on camera. Thank you Nicholas Roman Lewis for dealing with my Drama Queen moments like only you can. Thanks to Marcos, my beloved, for being my strong help in every way. You are my real-life hero, and you’ve taught Jonathon a thing or two. Thanks, Paul Peterson. That whole H. M. A. M. B. thing is now a real thing. Ha! Aren’t we clever?! Thanks Mom, Dad, and Kelissa for being my anchors and harbors. Thanks Aunt Sandy and Jeff for being so devoted, and to my whole extended family for reading and talking up my books. Thanks Marijo—I’ve
really
needed the brain-cell this year. And last but not least, thanks to the Strangely Beautiful fans who came over and supported Magic Most Foul. I hope you liked those two familiar faces waltzing through Bloomsbury as much as I liked seeing them there.
About the Author
Actress, playwright, and author Leanna Renee Hieber aims to be a gateway drug to nineteenth-century classics. She graduated with a BFA in Theatre and a focus in the Victorian Era. Her debut novel,
The
Strangely
Beautiful
Tale
of
Miss
Percy
Parker
, hit Barnes & Noble’s bestseller lists, won two 2010 Prism Awards for Best Fantasy and Best First Book, and is currently in development as a musical theatre production.
Darker
Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul
was named an Indie Next List title by the American Booksellers Association and a Highly Recommended title by Scholastic Book Fairs. Her books have been translated into several languages, and her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies. Look for her new Gaslamp Fantasy series THE ETERNA FILES coming 2013. A proud member of actors unions AEA and SAG-AFTRA, Leanna works often in film and television and does a
whole
lot
of guest speaking dressed in full Gothic Victorian regalia. A perky Goth girl who loves nothing more than a really good ghost story and/or BBC series, Leanna owns far more corsets and bustles than is reasonable. She resides in New York City with her real-life hero and their beloved rescued lab rabbit. Visit her at
www.leannareneehieber.com
and follow her on Twitter @LeannaRenee.
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