Perfect Opposite (32 page)
Authors: Zoya Tessi
While writing “Perfect Opposite” was a most exciting and fulfilling experience for me, it was a death sentence for people around. I’d like to thank all those who had to put up with me during my MIA period, for understanding and forgiveness when it came to missed meetings, occasional hysterical episodes, and those calls that were interrupted by flashes of inspiration that simply had to be written down right then and there. And thanks most of all to Martin, for constantly replenishing my stash of junk food. I’d probably have starved to death if it hadn’t been for your good grace.
I would like to thank my chief editor
Mariana for all the passion and dedication she poured in publishing “Perfect Opposite”. You are the best and I would’ve been lost without you! I’m sorry for hanging up on you so many times; I hope you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me. Many thanks also go to Yelena and Jonathan for their editorial contributions as we finalized the book.
To my beta
readers : Anna, Christine, Maria, Maya, Philip, Susana, Tamara & Tamara - you have my eternal love! Thank you.
And, above all, thank you Dee for encouraging me to publish “Perfect Opposite”. You’re the best sister in the whole world.
A teenager in an adult’s body. A rebel in the guise of an ordinary citizen. A lady with very unladylike language. A dreamer with a rational mind. A woman born into the wrong era, she still believes that chivalry’s a feat to define the perfect man.
Zoya
spent years doing volunteering work all across Europe, from cleaning school basements in Northern Russia to excavating Stone Age artifacts in Euskadi (the Basque country) and renovating castles from the middle ages in Southern France. She always dreamed of working with ‘Doctors without borders’ somewhere out in Africa, but ended up doing an ‘ordinary job’ in one of the smaller European countries.
Her greatest passion is devouring each and every book that comes within her reach. After years of reading, and after hundreds of books she loved, and more that she didn’t, at one special moment
Zoya wished to read a book that was, from beginning to end, completely to her liking. So, unable to find one, she decided to write it, if only for herself.
Then, one rainy day, her sister found a pile of papers lying forgotten on the floor under a table, and with nothing else to do, took them to her room and started to read. When
Zoya came home that same evening, her sister was waiting in the kitchen, the bundle of papers hidden behind her back.
“You told me I could have anything I wanted for my 18th birthday. Anything, remember?” she said.
“Yeah, but aren’t you a bit early? It’s in six months.”
“Then, you’d better hurry”, her sister smiled mischievously and put the pile of papers
on the table, “because I want this published on that very day. For my birthday, I want to spread the enjoyment I got from reading this.”
To read more about “Perfect Opposite” go to:
www.facebook.com/perfect.opposite