Binds (28 page)
Authors: Rebecca Espinoza
This book is a long time in the making. There are so many people who helped me during the process, but first and foremost, I want to thank Judy Espinoza who constantly told me that I needed to write something. Hopefully, I’ll finish the first story I sent you years ago and gave up on. You’re the reason I didn’t give up on this one.
Thanks to my wonderful and honest beta readers Stacia(the great), Crystal Fripp, Kristen Lopez, Tosha Khoury, Lori Sabin, Judy Espinoza, Ryan Ableman, and Amy Deschaine. Your help was invaluable while writing this book and your support motivated me to keep going on, even when I felt like everything I typed was garbage. A huge thanks and shout out to my favorite girls on Goodread Stacia, Crystal, Amanda, Joan, Carina, Lise, Megan, Nina, Rebecca, Ash Wednesday, Brenna, Nic, Janice, and Sara. I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, but all of my friends over there have been nothing but wonderful in providing me support and encouragement. I love every one of you. Thank you to Happy for inviting me into the BA where there are people as crazy about books as I am.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, probably enough times that you’ll want to tell me to shut up, but Lori Sabin and Tosha Khoury have my undying love for life. Thank you Fairy Godmother Lori for getting my book ready for the ball and thank you Tosha for being excited about it enough to take the time to promote it. Love, love, love you both.
Thank you, Sarah Hansen for designing a beautiful cover. You took my idea and made it better than I ever imagined. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the next one!
A huge shout out and hug goes to every blog that has supported me, posted my book cover, read or reviewed this book, and even those who didn’t. I love book bloggers, their enthusiasm for books and help to authors is the greatest gift imaginable. One gigantic thank you goes to Maryse of Maryse’s Book Blog for being her awesome self and introducing me to wonderful books and authors that I never would have found otherwise. If you haven’t already, please go check out her blog at Maryse.net.
I’ve been lucky enough to befriend several authors who have helped and given me encouragement along the way, but Calia Read, Katja Millay, Karina Halle, Willow Aster, and Tarryn Fisher have gone above and beyond with their words of kindness and reassurance. Tarryn, if you read this, I only hope that you will think I did better than that.
Thank you to our Army family. We’ve made some excellent friends throughout the past 10 years while we’ve been travelling around the country, getting sent wherever the Army tells us to go. I’m so thankful to each and every one of you. So many of you have encouraged me and promoted me to your friends and family. You rock!
And finally, thank you to my family. Mr. E, a pair of Hello Kitty PJs will be on their way to you soon. I bought you and D matching sets. I love you. Thank you for the idea. Rey Rey and Donovan, thank you for putting up with my mental absence while writing this book. You two are the best and most encouraging children ever, can’t wait until you’re old enough to read this so we can talk about it like we have with Harry Potter, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Graveyard Book and all of our other favorites. Sharing books with you is the highlight of my life. Watch out, Rey Four it’s your turn to be the bad guy next! To my husband Rey, thank you for taking the boys with you places and giving me the chance to have alone time while writing this. Thank you for encouraging me and telling me how proud you are of me all of the time, even when I’m being a moody brat. Thank you for all of the sacrifices you make every day so that I may stay home and have the time necessary to hang out with the characters in my head. I’m so happy that I fell in love with your humor that fateful day in Del Taco. I love you. Tang.
Rebecca Espinoza, an Army wife, has lived in 8 different houses and 5 different states in the past 10 years and she can’t wait for the next move. She is skilled in the arts of basket weaving, origami, and bullshitting. She is a book thief and likely to pilfer any she sees lying around in friends’ houses, so keep an eye out if you invite her in. She currently resides in beautiful Wahiawa, Hawaii (Army wives will get this joke) with her two sons and dog, Tosh.0 (her most favorite person in the world…the dog, not the comedian), and her husband pops in from the field, missions, or deployment every now and then to say hello. She tends towards the sarcastic when referring to herself in third person. Rebecca is a Turtle, are you?
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