Текст книги "Better When He's Bad"

Автор книги: Jay Crownover

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

Better When He’s Bold . . . Race’s story coming soon . . .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

OH READER, IF I could come to each and every single one of your houses and tell you thank you, give you a big ol’ smooch and squeeze you with all my love, I would. You saved me. You gave me something to strive for, to believe in, and healed my broken heart. The love I have for you is endless and runs very deep. Thank you for sticking with me after Rule and his horrible editing the first time out of the gate. Thank you for letting me try new things and giving me the opportunity to stretch my little writer wings and go crazy. I promise with every word I put on the page I’m not only doing it because I love it, because it’s always something I wanted to do, because it’s a part of me and drives me . . . I do it for you too. I want to give you a great story to say thank you. I want to enthrall you and make you fall in love every single time. I want you to always know that I’ll always do my absolute very best to not only stay true to myself but also to stay true to you. Thank you, reader . . . thank you a million times over.

As always, please feel free to contact me by any of the millions of ways that exist out there in the world. I do love to talk to readers.

Thank you to everyone who made me feel like a one-trick pony or a one-hit wonder. That was good for me and made me learn a lesson and open my eyes. I’ve never been the type of person who allows herself to be pigeonholed or forced into someone else’s box. Rules are made to be broken. I’ve never been scared or worried about doing things my own way, but learning this writing game has had some bumps and I needed a reminder about that. I took some really negative emotions I was working with based on feeling misunderstood in my storytelling and created an amazing place. A place that is dark and twists and turns in so many directions it makes me dizzy, even though I know where it’s going. So thank you for shaking me up and reminding me that the only person I can be creatively accountable to is myself.

Thank you to Amanda Bergeron (world’s greatest and most patient editor . . . ever) and Jessie Edwards, plus the rest of the team at HarperCollins. I never thought I played well with others, but this team and these wonderful ladies really do make this a dream job. I love working with them and I’m honored every day that I get to say I’m published with HarperCollins. It’s a crazy thing. There is no way to describe the way my heart beats faster and my head gets a little fuzzy when I walk into a store and see an actual book on a shelf. If it wasn’t for Amanda, that wouldn’t be possible, so she’ll forever hold a place in the history of my life . . . a superawesome special place.

Thank you to Stacey Donaghy of the Donaghy Literary Group: http://www.donaghyliterary.com/. She makes me laugh. She talks me off the ledge. She verbally kicks my ass when I get all wound up and ridiculous. She always tells me that my hair looks great! She believes in me and tells me I’m brilliant. She is the driving force behind me being able to put books in readers’ hands. I couldn’t ask for better representation and a better creative support system. She told me Bax was great even when I thought . . . ehhh, he’s too much. Like my editor, Stacey will forever hold a special and esteemed place in the journey of my life. I wouldn’t be where I am without her, and she deserves all the praise and admiration I can heap on any one person.

Thank you is never enough to say to my folks. They really are the best and I never, ever could ask for anything more. I’m so happy I get to experience so many amazing opportunities with them. They are the most fun and most supportive parents a gal could ask for. I just love them to the moon and back.

I try and find something to thank my bestie for every single day. She is my therapist, my confidante, my coconspirator, my sounding board, my teacher, my role model, my shopping buddy, my shoulder to cry on . . . she is my true north. She’s just my favorite of all the things and my life is better because she is in it.

Thank you to my book bestie. She’s a riot. She has a good soul. She’s sweet and takes things too personally, which makes her the absolute opposite of me. She’s just a doll and I wouldn’t be able to put any kind of book out in the world without her looking at it first. She gets it. She gets me and more often than not I wish I had listened to her when she suggested I change something and I didn’t do it. She’s really good at making sure I know what my priorities are when it comes to telling a great story and I adore her for it.

I had a wonderful lady named Carolyn Pinard help me get Bax’s story all spit shined and pretty. The difference she made on my manuscript is indescribable. THERE WERE COMMAS! Yes—commas in one of my books . . . who woulda thought? Anyway, check her out if you need any editing or final spot checks before submitting to an agent or a publisher. She’s awesome to work with and she just moved to Colorado, so now she doubles as my drinking buddy as well: [email protected].

The ladies at Literati Author Services—http://literatiauthor services.com/—get a big thanks as well. I like to do things my own way, want things to work how I want them to work, and that means I need a PR and marketing team that can bend and move with me. Karen, Michelle, and Rosette are awesome at it and they are another group who just get it, just get me. They make the business side of my writing life go round so I can focus on getting the words on the page. I can’t say enough good things about them and how easy and pleasant they are to work with.

Thank you blogger nation for making the book world go round. Thank you for introducing new readers to our books. Thank you for leaving thoughtful, heartfelt reviews. Thank you for sharing covers and helping release day be amazing and huge. Thank you for loving books and supporting authors just because you love to read. Thank you for being DIY and having so much passion. Thank you for the criticisms that, when they are done right, make me strive to be better and go farther. Thank you a million and one to those of you who have been there from the very, super-early beginning. Thanks to those of you who have crossed over from blogger and reviewer to friend. Thank you for being fun, and engaging. Thank you for giving me a chance to do my thing, and even if all of you don’t love it, it’s still totally awesome and amazing that I got to do my thing in the first place.

And as always thank you to my furry family: Duce, Pistol, and Charley. I’m always excited to come back home and get slobbery kisses and be covered in love and dog fur. They make my heart happy.

Oh, and thanks to the hottie I drove past on the Harley that one day who had a tattoo on his face that totally made what Bax looked like solidify in my head . . . yum .