Less Than Forever Is Coming June 19th!

As of May 2015, I've officially been a published author for one year. It's been an exciting and interesting journey so far. I've always wanted to write books and to finally, finally have realized that dream and to have people like, actual read, like and care about the books I've written is... I dunno if I'm smart enough to come up with a proper adjective. It's pretty freakin' cool though.

So, to honor my one year as a published author ("honor" might be a strong word, actually). Okay, to celebrate or even just acknowledge my one year in publishing, I'm gonna share a few inside notes to each of my books so far. You may or may not find these interesting... fair warning.

• Happiness in Jersey was written before I published Better Than Okay. That isn't exactly news because it's mentioned in the Author's Note in the back of the book. But the original title for the book was What About Love? I'm glad I didn't go with it because HIJ is more interesting to me-- you might not know what it's about when you first pick it up, which is cool to me. Also, Devin's name was originally "Jaden" for the first four or five chapters of the book. But one day, as I reading, it struck me that "Jaden" and "Willow" were Jersey's two closest friends. And seeing as how I'm not a Will Smith stan, I decided that may not have been the best way to go. So "Jaden" was changed to "Devin" which suits him much better, I'd say.

• Better Than Okay was originally another book. Way back in the day, in a galaxy far, far away known as "Jacinta's Heart is Broken Because She is Young and Dumb," I wrote a book that was sort of based on my real life experiences with a guy I fancied myself in love with. Anyhoo, that book sucked monkey balls (as Alexis would say), and I'm so glad publishing options weren't what they are now because that would've been a terrible way to kick off my days as a published author. So, when I decided to get serious and write a book, I kept my same characters (Brian, Destiny, Dorian and Raven) and completely re-wrote it. For the record, Better Than Okay has none of my real-life experiences but I guess in a way, Destiny is sort of very, very, very loosely based on me seeing as how her origin came about? Maybe. But not really, because as I wrote BTOK and developed her character she definitely took on a life and personality that is all her own.

• More Than Always was originally another partially written book. So, after I wrote the original sucky BTOK I knew that I wanted to tell Brian's story and started working on his book. The Brian of old was a bit of a whore and I'm so very, very glad that I re-wrote his character.

I'm excited about my fourth release, Less Than Forever, which is coming June 19, 2015.

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