Wish Come True (The Blogger Diaries Trilogy Book 3) (38 page)

These are all questions I've asked myself since I left Texas a year and a half ago, since I left the man I know I'm supposed to share my life with. No, I didn't leave him. He told me to go. He told me there was no reason for me to stay since my semester of school ended. That's when happy, perky, shameless Kayla snapped
.

The End of Our Beginning

A Note from the Author

The Blogger Diaries Trilogy was truly based on my real life story with my husband Jason. While books one and two were completely accurate, I took creative liberties with book three, and to be fair, I thought I’d spill the beans here.

About a month before I found out I was pregnant with Avary, and then moved back to Texas, Jason’s mom, Barbara, discovered she had stage 4 lung cancer. She had never smoked, and was a health freak—except when it came to chocolate—so it came as a devastating shock. When we found out I was pregnant, it’s like it took her hard head and turned it into steel. If she was going to fight for her life before, then she became the Mohammad Ali of cancer patients when she learned she had a grandbaby on the way.
 

Doctors gave her six months to live, which meant she wasn’t even supposed to make it to the end of my pregnancy. She surpassed those odds and got to see Avary be born. Not only that, but the reason we decided to have the wedding only four months after Jason proposed was so she could possibly see her son get married. That little woman blew those odds out of the water once more by taking their six months and stretching it to four years, all because, in her words, she had her two granddaughters to live for. My only wish is that she could’ve seen me finally find my place in the universe, in this crazy book world, but I know she’s watching—and critiquing—my every move from above. Miss you, Momma.

Next, I decided to write who we WISH could have been at our ceremony, our best friend Logan.
 
In reality, Logie was deployed to Afghanistan at the time of our wedding. In our wedding program, we listed him as the best man, but had a childhood friend of Jason’s stand in for him. Thankfully, he came back safe and sound.

I’ve gotten many reactions to my story, from people absolutely loving it, identifying with it, all the way to people calling me crazy (and other, more colorful names) for putting my life so nakedly out there. I’ve gotten a few questions from readers and friends over and over, so I thought I’d answer them here.

“What does your family think?”

My family is nothing but proud. They think it’s amazing that I not only wrote a whole book, but an entire series. I come from a very open and supportive family, so I’m lucky in that respect. Every member I wrote about in the trilogy is exactly the way they are in real life.
 

“What about your kids?”

I have a cleaned up version of my stories to one day give my kids when they are older, so they can read about their Mom and Dad’s tale.
 

“What if something happens to your marriage?”

There are all sorts of acronyms in the book world that I’ve learned over the years: MM, MFM, FF, BDSM, PNR…HEA being my favorite, for Happily Ever After. My friend Sierra Cartwright introduced me to one I’d never heard of, HFN, or Happy For Now. At the time these stories were written, all the feelings put into them were genuinely true. But from past experiences (the ones you read in books one and two) I know shit happens. I’ve learned from those past relationships and am no longer that naïve twenty-year-old, and much more the realist. If something ever happens to my marriage, it doesn’t change our beginning. So maybe my trilogy isn’t an HEA, but it’s definitely an HFN.
 

“Will you write fiction after your trilogy is complete?”

Yes! I already have some stories floating around in my head, and one that I’ve already got plotted out. I just have no idea how long it’s going to take to write it, since I’ve never had to
make up
a story before!
 

My acknowledgements seem to always be as long as my books, so I’m going to try to calm my tits a little bit this time!

I made a very special friend when I first started writing
Wish Come True
. It began with someone tagging me in a brilliant painting, one of Belle getting tatted-up by Beast while reading and sitting on a pile of books. I immediately messaged the artist, Joel Santana, aka themaddhattr, and asked how I could order a print and told him I would be pimping him on my book blog, since I have a minor obsession with Belle—says the girl who now has a huge tattoo of the princess that covers her whole forearm. He was tremendously appreciative, and it blew me away that someone with such incredible talent was so humble. We ended up having a ton in common with our love of comic book and Disney characters, and musical inspiration, and started sending each other links to the songs he would paint to, and I would write to. Thanks to him, this book was written with Blackmill’s “Evil Beauty” blasting through my headphones, which seemed to make the words pour out of me. Follow him on Instagram at @themaddhattr. You won’t be disappointed!

This was the first time I wrote with a buddy. TK Rapp met me every day at our Dunn Bros Coffee and busted out words for her book while I plucked away at mine. Just having her presence across the booth from me was a blessing, not to mention her laminated writing cheat sheets.

Franci Neill, my PA extraordinaire…where do I even begin? She’s the human version of my Adderall. She keeps my head on straight when I need it to be, and takes care of my author page so I can concentrate on writing and editing. I don’t know what I would do without her. Thanks to her, I even got included in the ‘They Literary Lived Happily Ever After Volume 2’ t-shirt campaign! She’s a miracle worker, and an angel.

Heather Lane, as always, I couldn’t survive without our venting talks. They might not be as frequent as they used to be, since she’s a big-time trailer magician and I’m always either writing or editing (idle hands are bad), but it’s a comfort just knowing she is there whenever I need to rant. She never fails to make me laugh my ass off when I need it.

Becky Johnson. God. Y’all have no idea how excited I was to write the epilogue, when I could finally tell you about my godsend, my amazing boss and editor. A dream came true last October, when she flew in from Australia for my author signing and I got to squeeze her in person. There’s a video on my page of us meeting in real life, and those tears are real. Shit, I’m tearing up right now just remembering the experience. Love you, Becky!

JC Cliff is not only an incredible writer, but she’s an incredible person too. I’ve been lucky enough to be her editor since her first book, and she’s formatted each one of mine. There has never been another person I’ve met who is so selfless, always willing to help me, no matter how hard it is, no matter how much of an inconvenience it might be, and no matter how much effort it’s going to take to make me and her blonde ass understand what the hell is going on. We figure this shit out together. Love you to the moon and back.

Lainey Reese makes me feel like I’m the greatest writer on the entire planet. Now, I know it’s important to have critical people on your team to make you better at whatever you do, but it’s also really fucking awesome when one of YOUR favorite authors truly admires your work. When she’s done sending her messages after reading my stories, I feel all my hard work is worth the effort.

Rebecca Allman works with me at Hot Tree Editing. She was a final beta reader on the last book, and unknowingly read book 2 without having read book 1. It was thanks to this booboo that I put the giant warning in the front of books 2 and 3. But even not knowing the full story, her feedback was incredibly helpful, and I ran to her, asking if she’d like to read the first one so she could learn what was really going on. From there sparked a friendship I now couldn’t live without. She’s my Aussie bestie, and the nurse from this story is named for her. She is the most hilarious person on Earth, and you can thank her for the wordage “cunty asshole” in
Wish Come True
, which my best friend Logan and I use on a daily basis now after a story Rebecca told us about a magpie that clearly had a death wish.
 

Speaking of Logan, I have to thank him the most, more than anyone else, for this book getting written. For the past several months, Jason has been working out of town in Corpus Christi, only getting to come home every few weekends. Not wanting his girls to be left alone—and not wanting me to absolutely lose my shit trying to do everything on my own
plus
write a book—he recruited Logan to be man of the house, in exchange for home-cooked meals, laundry service…and apparently a nurse after he had surgery. Which I’d do all over again in a heartbeat for all he does for us around the house…even though he was a giant— yeah. Thank you for all you do for me and the girls. You’re the only reason these last six month have been bearable.
 

Erin Noelle, my most trusted author friend, my Twinnie. There’s nothing I can’t tell or ask her without getting complete honesty and great advice back. We may look alike, but her brain works
way
better than mine sometimes. There’s something to be said about the wisdom she’s gained in the six years she’s been alive longer than me. We’ll be friends forever…because she knows too much. After reading this book, she gave me straightforward feedback that not only made me feel good about this piece of work, but also my writing ability itself, and I’ll be forever grateful.
 

Thank you to my beta girls, Kolleen, Stacia, Brittany, Melody, Andi, Franci, Tina, Rhonda, Theresa, and Jamie. And thanks to everyone in my private reader group KD-Rob’s Mob for all the hilarious posts and support!

           
Finally, Jason, thank you for showing me what a real-life romance could feel like. Thank you for inspiring a hero worthy of his own trilogy. And thank you for encouraging me and helping me make my dream of being an author come true.