This is probably going to end up being a pretty lengthy confession/love letter/explanation. I literally feel like I’m going to vomit at the thought of sending all of this information out into the world, but, it’s time.

Let’s start with the history of Charleigh Rose. Back in the beginning of 2016, one of my close author friends asked me if I wanted to write short, steamy stories under a pen name. Those novellas were completely different from her brand, and I wasn’t necessarily wanting to put my real name on anything, either (more on that, later).

I had already been writing a story for a couple of years, by that point (Dare’s story, actually), but had never published anything. I thought it would be a fun way to sort of get my feet wet, so to speak. So, then came the Savages. I loved writing those books, and learning the ropes of self-publishing and all that jazz, but ultimately, I knew it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go in.

Enter Misbehaved, a full-length, New Adult novel. My first taste of being a “real” author. That’s not a dig at erotica authors, by the way. That was just my own self-deprecating thinking. I love me some erotica. Anyway, after Misbehaved, I knew I couldn’t go back to that novella life. I had the idea for Bad Habit, and asked Charleigh when she wanted to start. Her career sort of blew up after we published our first novella, and she wasn’t able to start on it for a while, so I asked her what she thought of me taking this one on by myself. She was all about it, and CR became mine.

If you’re wanting a juicy story, you won’t find it here. Seriously, she encouraged me, every step of the way. She was so supportive, and super involved. Because that’s what real friends do. A lot of times, when friends work together, it ruins the friendship, or at the very least, taints it. That’s not the case, here, and I could not be more grateful. It was just the natural progression of things. Plain and simple, without C, this would have never happened. And I don’t just mean Bad Habit, I mean, I never would’ve published at all.

While we’re on the topic of C, please, please don’t try to uncover her identity, or make guesses in public forums. If you want to do it privately, cool. I know people will be curious, so that’s all gravy, but she doesn’t ever plan to fess up, so we have to respect that. Cool? Cool.

Back to me, and why I decided to come out. I was hesitant for a few reasons. I didn’t want to reveal myself until a few months after Bad Habit came out, because there is a stigma attached to readers/bloggers/promoters/whatever who decide to take a stab at writing. And though I would NEVER tell anyone not to try something (seriously, I’m not that much of an asshole. Follow your dreams, peeps!), I have been guilty of the same thing. Like, here we go again. Everyone thinks they’re an author.

I wanted to avoid that drama. I wanted people to give it a chance without having any preconceived notions. I wanted to start fresh as an author. Which brings me to my next reason for staying anonymous. Throughout the years, I’ve made a lot of connections in the book world. Author friends, blogger friends, reader friends. I’m so in love and enmeshed in this community, and I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to use them to get ahead. So, if you’re my friend, and I didn’t tell you, please know it’s not because I didn’t trust you. I just never wanted to come off as taking advantage of my friendships.

But, if you haven’t noticed, I’m a hot ass mess. I’ve slipped up more times than I can count, by posting or commenting from the wrong Facebook or Instagram page, or sharing a screenshot with my real name on it. After C stepped back from Charleigh Rose, I got sloppy. In a way, a weight was lifted, because I didn’t feel so much stress to keep it on the downlow. I didn’t care about myself as much as I cared about keeping her secret. I wasn’t the one with anything to lose.

I started letting people figure it out slowly. Stopped denying it when confronted. It’s what I like to call The Trickle Effect. It’s my lame attempt to lessen any potential drama for this moment. I’m hoping everyone is like, “Yeah, we all knew, already. But OMG, have you read American King, yet?” (Spoiler alert: the answer is no, I have not, but it’s the first fucking thing I’m doing when I publish this book.) But really, I don’t think it’s much of a secret anymore, so I might as well come out on my own terms, before my cover is blown. And if I’m going to suck it up and do it, I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to generate some buzz for this release. So, here goes nothing.

My name is Sunny. Some of you may know me as BossyBookPusher on Instagram, or that annoying chick who never shuts up, and some of you may be scratching your heads wondering who the fuck I am. In that case, this was super anticlimactic, and I’m sorry about the five minutes you lost reading this. That’s five minutes of your life that you’ll never get back.

If you’re still with me, thank you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for supporting me. Thank you to the ones who couldn’t care less about the name behind the books. Thank you to the ones who’ve kept my secret, whether you knew from the beginning, or whether you found out by noticing a freckle on my neck (I’m looking at you, Kennedy Fox). Thank you for taking a chance.

Bad Habit is the very first thing I’ve ever accomplished on my own. I suck at commitment, and I never follow through with anything. But I did it, man. I fucking did it. And for that reason alone, I have no regrets.

Oh, and one more thing. If we’re friends on my personal page, please don’t mention Charleigh Rose, because my dad is on a mission to find my pen name and read everything I’ve written. In which case, I’ll never be able to look him in the eye again. Don’t break up my family. You don’t want that kind of karma in your life.

Love you all,

Xoxo, Charleigh Rose/Sunny