Things moved quickly after the reunion with my Dad.

He was excited about me making an album, and the offers we received from record companies through Vidas Management were, all legalese aside, very generous.

We decided that there was value in me completing my final year of high school as “normally” as possible before throwing myself wholly into my music career.

Throughout the summer, I took trips to Nashville and Los Angeles to meet with producers, session musicians, and songwriters as we assembled the album.

Ian Ion produced a duet with me and Travis Zane which came out before my album, as part of a soundtrack. The record company considered it like a cameo of a character in a movie or television show, a teaser, to get people excited about the upcoming album from “Lia Melody,” as they’d rechristened me.

The song peaked at #2 in America and reached #1 in six countries in Europe.

The avalanche of insta-fame was overwhelming, but usually in the best possible way.

At home, I was still “just Lia,” and around town most people treated me like they always had, although people I’d never been friends with before were now desperate to get close to me.

Before Spring Break, the first single from my album, completed on a late December weekend in Nashville with Ian, dropped.

Nothing Like You was an up-tempo song about briefly meeting the man of my dreams. Then meeting a succession of guys, none of whom could measure up to the first guy. In the end, of course, I reunite with the original.

We flew to Vancouver over a long weekend to shoot the music video. Robert and Shelby went with me, as my bodyguard and personal assistant/moral support.

The guys they picked to co-star with me in the video didn’t even look real, they were so hot. Shelby was sorely disappointed to discover two of them kissing behind a trailer between takes. Super nice guys, and I loved what they did for the video, but all of them turned out to be gay. Poor Shelby.

Nothing Like You peaked at #4, and anticipation built for my album. The video turned out to be nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards, although it didn’t win any.

At first, I tried to keep up with the YouTube comments, but as the views went into the millions, it became impossible. My biggest fans were girls, and many of them expressed envy over my voice and my looks. Guys weren’t always so kind. The negative comments that weren’t straight-up disgusting sexual stuff inevitably had to do with “how hot Lia Melody would be if she lost some weight.”

I hated to assign even a scintilla of my self-worth to my appearance, and guys’, especially strangers’, opinions, but it did feel good to see that an overwhelming number of guys found my curves and green eyes appealing.

As a kickoff to summer, my album and second single dropped.

I started getting invites to appear on radio and television, to perform at award shows, and rumblings of a tour began.

Travis Zane asked me to join him in Europe as he hit fourteen cities in eighteen days from July through August, and I accepted. That’s another book, entirely.

I did a college campus tour to support my album, and it was amazing.

The record peaked at #3, and spent months on the charts. I didn’t get a #1 out of it, but four songs reached the top ten. Ashleigh and everybody at Vidas were thrilled.

I tried everything I could think of to get my dad to retire, or to let me buy him a bigger house, but he refused. He was my biggest fan, but he liked his life the way it was, with his simple, small-town routine.

He did relent when I offered to buy him a new truck. A black Ford F-250 Super Duty with every bell and whistle imaginable. He washes and polishes it so much I don’t know how it has any paint left on it at all.

So, that’s my life.

My first #1 was a song I did with MYB for a Disney movie soundtrack.

My second album came out last year, and debuted at #1. Two singles went to #1. I went from opening for Travis Zane to headlining. I toured Europe, and I’ve done shows in Australia, Japan, and Brazil.

I’m not Taylor Swift or Beyonce, but they’d better watch their backs.

I’m coming.