by Jane Renshaw
Needless to say, I am very grateful to anyone who takes the time to leave a review on Amazon for The Sweetest Poison. If you would like to contact me, please do so via my website (www.janerenshaw.co.uk). I would love to hear from you.
Acknowledgements
Where to start?! This book has been through many incarnations, each of which benefitted from encouragement, advice and input from many people – family, friends, authors and agents.
But first and foremost it was my mother Grace who introduced me to the wonderful world of the imagination – through the many books she read so tirelessly to my sister Anne and me and above all through the stories she invented, usually to our own exacting specifications, in which we could be anyone, go anywhere, do anything!
Later my sister and I ‘collaborated’ in creating our own imaginary worlds, often built of Lego, and would spend happy hours immersed in them. I found a similar pleasure much later in writing, which started when some of us in the Edinburgh office of Blackwell Science decided it would be laughably easy to write a Mills & Boon romance novel, make our fortunes, and spend our working days henceforth lounging around in hammocks in the South of France. I was the only one of us to get past the first few pages, but my loving crafted romance Forget Me Not bombed at Mills & Boon. Too late – I was hooked on writing. So, thanks to Annie Wilson and Rachel Leslie for that!
Since I started writing The Sweetest Poison quite a few years ago, everyone in my life has had to put up with me going on and on about ‘my novel’. For humouring and encouraging me, thank you in particular Maria Davie, Annie Wilson, Helen Ure, Maureen Riach, Adam Campbell, Helen Holt, Jocelyn Foster, Ally Bellany, Euan and Jackie Smith, Abi Grist and of course my family – Mum for never doubting it would all work out, Dad for keeping his doubts (mainly) to himself, Auntie Witty, ‘charming’ Uncle Gordon and Auntie Cissie for their intelligent interest, Uncle Donald for all those incisive interrogations, cousins Morag, Ann, Barbara and Catherine, and of course little Rosie, for their unending and often unfounded enthusiasm, and sister Anne for bravely and repeatedly asking, ‘And how’s the writing going?’
Thank you too to author Anita Burgh and all those on the creative writing course at Castle of Park for their generous advice and entertaining company.
More than one agent has devoted their time, energy, expertise and insights to this book. In particular, I must thank Judith Murray for steering me in the right direction and being so encouraging about my writing generally.
Finally, The Sweetest Poison would never have happened without the wild imaginations, unfailing creative energy, humour, kindness, invaluable critical input and wonderful support generally of Lesley McLaren and Lucy Lawrie, my amazing writing friends with whom I’ve found a new kind of Lego to play with. Lucy is the author of very witty, warm, page-turny women’s fiction (her books Tiny Acts of Love and The Last Day I Saw Her have been published to critical acclaim and she has a new one, provisionally titled All Your Missing Pieces, coming out soon...), and Lesley’s engaging, original, exciting crime novels (yet to be published) have been shortlisted for prestigious awards such as the CWA Debut Dagger.
And of course I thank you for reading my book and joining me in the imaginary world of Pitfourie.
What They Found...
Please click on the cover below to download a free short story about Helen’s adventures in Glasgow.