The Lost Husband (33 page)

For my first book, I thanked just about every person I’d ever met. This time around, I’m keeping things simpler. But believe me, I could write a book of thanks.

I need to thank my friends Christian and Lisa Seger out at Blue Heron Farm for letting me come visit them so many times and meet their goats and eat their phenomenal cheese. Their charming country life is very inspiring, and I’m so grateful they’ve been willing to share it with me. I’m also indebted to the lovely Gene Graham for letting me spend time writing at her divine house in the Texas hill country.

I am truly thankful for my fantastic agent, Helen Breitwieser, and so lucky to have her help and guidance. And I am in awe of my editor Jen Smith’s patient and savvy attention to this manuscript through draft after draft.

I am also always grateful to my family: my awesome husband, Gordon, and my amazing mom, Deborah Detering, share the first shout-out for encouraging me, reading drafts, watching the
kids, listening to me worry, and always, always doing everything they can to help me get my writing done. It’s a profound gift to have two such phenomenal people in my life, and not a minute goes by that I don’t know it. Many thanks, also, to my sisters, Shelley Stein and Lizzie Fletcher, who always encourage me, and to my dad, Bill Pannill, an editing ninja who genuinely loves to talk about words and language and grammar. And of course, of course: to my kids, Anna and Thomas, who are the sweetest, cutest, most delightful people I could ever have wished for.

BY KATHERINE CENTER

The Lost Husband

Get Lucky

Everyone Is Beautiful

The Bright Side of Disaster

PHOTO: © KAREN WALROND

K
ATHERINE
C
ENTER
is the author of four novels about love and family:
The Bright Side of Disaster, Everyone Is Beautiful, Get Lucky
, and
The Lost Husband
. Her work has appeared in
Redbook, People, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Real Simple
, the
Dallas Morning News
, and the
Houston Chronicle
, as well as in the anthologies
Because I Love Her, CRUSH
, and
My Parents Were Awesome
. Katherine has degrees from Vassar College and the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. She lives in Texas with her husband and two children.

www.KatherineCenter.com
.