Something About You (Just Me & You) (42 page)

Acknowledgments

Something About You
was born out of my experience as
a policy analyst. During my (heart attack-inducing) tenure with the House of
Representatives, I met a lot of strong, powerful career women — women like
Sabrina — who found it tough to navigate that whole work-life balance thing,
especially when
life
included romance. So seven or so years ago, I
started tapping away at the first draft. The eclectic characters of Sabrina,
Gage, Molly and Sebastian had some stories to tell. In fact, they were so real
and so vivid in my mind,
Something About You
wrote itself.  I was just
their medium.

But every writer starts out with a dream. Some authors
envision the day when they land that big book deal and hold their
still-warm-from-the-press novel in their hands for the first time. Others dream
about book tours and signings. My aspirations were always a little different.
Sure, I wanted to tell riveting love stories, but even the best ones eventually
fade from collective memory. I wanted to create a legacy through my
writing — and yes, I realize that’s asking a lot indeed. 

If you’ve read my blog (
http://lelainalandis.com/philanthropy/
),
then you know that I’m a big, sappy ball o’ charitable mush. I just can’t help
myself; I’m happiest when I’m paying it forward, and education is a cause that
makes me drool. A portion of the proceeds from the Just You & Me series
will be set aside to create an endowment that funds scholarships for
nontraditional female students. Single moms re-entering the workforce. Women
who had to put their college education on the back burner due to financial
constraints. Career gals who need new skills to shatter that glass ceiling. I
dream of empowering women so they can be their best.

I have so,
so
many people to thank for bringing
Something
About You
to life, it’s hard to know where to start. I would like to extend
my heartfelt gratitude to all of the indie authors who paved the way for
writers like me — Kendall Gray, Jasinda Wilder, Raine Miller, Whitney
Gracia Williams, Colleen Hoover, Jana DeLeon, Gloria Bowman, and Laura Carroll
just to name a few. Without your inspiration, sage advice and (not so gentle)
encouragement,
Something About You
would still be a MS Word file
languishing on my computer.

Thanks to the lovely Deidre Knight for helping me find my
path in publishing and to Kat, Ben, Kristi, Camely, Claire, and Sean Patrick
for putting up with my panic attacks, nail-biting and bizarre neuroses during
the thankless revision process. Another grateful
gracie
to Katie
Ritcheske, my very patient editor, and to The Killon Group for the smashing
cover design. Seriously, I’m not worthy.

Ah, my dear, gentle readers. ’Scuse me for digging up a
childhood neologism, but you are just the
bestest!
Thank you so very
much for taking a chance on
Something About You
. You could have chosen
any romance novel of thousands, and you picked mine. If you have questions,
feedback, comments or just wanna say “Hi, there,” give me a shout through my
website.

Lastly, the biggest thanks goes out to my precious beaux,
along with hugs, kisses and simmer-y, sizzle-y stuff I can’t write about in
these acknowledgments. You are and always will be my “Gage”. 

Love,

Lia