I have to thank my editor first and foremost. Marion suffered right along with me as I wrote this book. She shared my struggles and my burdens (taking on the burden of doing the impossible in an impossible timeframe). She is a super woman.

I also want to thank Heather, April, and Shan for being the voices of reason.

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A note about OCD

I’d like to thank all the wonderful humans who allowed me to incessantly question them about their experiences with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (treating it and living it). Thank you K., Ta., G., H., To., and D. I have my own experiences with OCD and depression, but I felt it was important to draw upon the experiences of others to inform the character of Shelly Sullivan more fully. Additionally, it is my hope the expertise provided by these shared experiences contributed to an accurate portrayal of how Shelly’s disorder would have been treated (once she finally sought help).

It’s interesting to me how “OCD” is used in conversation to denote “fastidious” or “particular”. If I had a nickel for every time someone offhandedly mentioned during a conversation that they, “were a little OCD about (fill in the blank),” I’d have 876 nickels.

I suppose we do this with many disorders and diseases. Except I’ve never heard someone say, “I’m feeling a little cancerous today.”

I do not presume to instruct or chastise with this observation, but rather to increase awareness. That is all.

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A note about Shelly and Neurocognitively Diverse Characters

One of my BETA readers asked me if I thought Shelly might have too much baggage to be a heroine in a romance novel. My answer was a resounding, “HELL NO.”

All people who sincerely want love (to love and be loved) deserve to be a main character in a romance novel. I firmly believe we are all puzzle pieces, and no matter our shape, color, size, or level of neurocognitive diversity, there is another puzzle piece out there in the world, waiting to click with our own.

As Dr. West says to Beau, “One person’s experience with OCD can be night and day different from another person’s.” I know this to be true. Therefore, it is very important that you, dear reader, do not walk away from this book with the misconception that, through Shelly, I’ve endeavored to write an accurate portrayal of all people with OCD.

I have not.

One character/person can never be—and should never be—fully representative of an entire group of people (unless it’s The Borg; and even then, in later episodes, we see some surprising diversity). I am not the Lorax of OCD, I do not speak for the anxious.

Rather, what I have endeavored to do (and what I struggle to do with all of my characters) is to write a person who is believable as herself. Like all *real* people, she is not one thing. She is artist and mechanic, strong and weak, brave and cowardly, rational and irrational.

But above all, she is Shelly Sullivan. She is herself. And she is worthy of love, both giving it and receiving it.

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A note about Beau:

I loved writing Beau.

I loved writing a character who was considered simple and straightforward, but through his interactions with a multifaceted issue, his own complexity is discovered. We all do this, or have an opportunity to do it, over the course of our lives. We have our ideas of right and wrong, but then are faced with a situation where right and wrong don’t apply.

We can either chose to continue in ignorance, sticking to the yellow brick road of simplicity, or educate ourselves and unlock a spectrum of possibility.

So here’s to people like Beau, and being receptive to the spectrum of possibility.