Pieces of Jade (Pirates of Orea) (44 page)

“Change my destiny? All right. I guess you get your wish, Clay.” I touched my bare neck, where my medallion had once hung. “I’m in.”

There are a lot of people we need to thank for this book. We’ve been working on it off and on for a while, so we’ve had a lot of helpers. If we forget anyone, we sincerely apologize!

Lani
would like to say a huge thank you to:

• Melonie
  Piper, my co-author, for helping create this fun and exciting world, working through creative differences over sushi, and being my partner in crime for most of my life.
  
• My handsome husband for helping me every step of the way, believing in me, and simply being himself.
  
• My two wonderful kids for giving me hugs and kisses every day.
  
• Chersti
  Nieveen for being the world’s greatest editor, superwoman, and cover designer.
  
• Erica Cameron for never being more than a
  Skype session away, helping me deepen the story, and reading every draft of this book.
  
• Amber Argyle for being a reader and spending hours on the phone with me, helping me perfect the plot.
  
• Maddy for loving the story, encouraging me to keep writing and always believing in me.
  
• Morgan
  Shamy for her feedback and enthusiasm for our characters.
  
• Angela Corbett for being an awesome person and beta-reader.
  
• Danielle Ellison for suggesting we change the catalyst for the story and letting me bounce ideas off her head on how to make it possible.
  
• Cherie
  Mendoza for loving a character enough to talk us out of killing them off.
  
• Melanie Jacobson, Wendy Swore,
  Nancy Campbell Allen, Nicole Castromen, Nicole Giles, Kara Free, Ashley Lavering, Kristie Cook, Ashleigh, Vinaya, Andy Hertzenberg, Heather McCubbin, Amber Gest-Troyer, Braden Bell, and all of our other beta readers for their feedback, time, and shared talents and genius to make Pieces of Jade the story it now is.
  
• Danielle for styling our model’s hair exactly how we imagined it.
  
• Lauralynn for creating the beautiful dress our model is wearing on the cover and for helping us discover our beautiful cover model Macie.
  

And lastly
, a thank you to each and every one of our readers, who give Pieces of Jade a chance. I hope you love it even a smidgen as much as we do.

Melonie
would like to thank:

• My beautiful daughter
  Adelyn. Everything I do is for you Boo!
  
• My co-author
  Lani Woodland.
  
• Evan Joseph for being such a big part of this project.
  
• Lauralynn for sewing the perfect dress for our cover.
  
• Danielle for doing the hair for the cover shoot.
  
• My Construction Documents class for providing ample time to work on the first draft.
  
• Every one of our beta
  readers
  
• All our readers for picking up Pieces of Jade.
  

Lani Woodland
has been an avid reader since elementary school, when she first discovered the Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins series. In sixth grade, she began writing plays and recruiting (with force when necessary) her friends to act them out. Most of these early works were inspired by She-Ra, the epitome of girl power to her young self.

She graduated from BYU with a BS in Family Science. Lani has a hard time enjoying any book without at least a little romance in it. She lives in Southern California with her husband, their two children and a large collection of board games. She has worked as a spot-welder, babysitter, janitor, photographer, gymnastics coach, and movie extra. She enjoys bonfires at the beach, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, speed talking, chocolate as a cure-all, and the word "precisely
."

Lani is the author of
THE YARA SILVA TRILOGY, including:
Intrinsical
,
Indelible
, and
Inevitable
. She and Melonie also co-wrote two short stories in
Transcendent: Tales of the Paranormal
.

She loves hearing from readers. You can contact her here:

https://twitter.com/LaniWoodland

https://www.facebook.com/authorlaniwoodland

http://laniwoodland.blogspot.com/

Also by Lani Woodland

Author Bio - Melonie

Melonie Piper
enjoys nerd humor and is a fan of many ‘geeky’ franchises. She can boast having camped out to the watch The Phantom Menace and stalking tvtickets.com to see a taping of the Big Bang Theory. Melonie also collects comic book t-shirts. She loves the beach and wishes she could spend more time in her happy place, AKA Disneyland. She enjoys gourmet chocolate, sushi, and Mexican food. Melonie loves to laugh and thinks naps are a wonderful invention. She has a B.S. in Interior Design and lives in Utah with her daughter.

Melonie
is the co-author of
two short stories in
Transcendent: Tales of the Paranormal
.

You can contact
Melonie here:

http://meloniesmusings.blogspot.com/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4788689.Melonie_Piper

https://twitter.com/MeloniePiper

https://www.facebook.com/melonie.piper