a project that’s sat in their bottom drawer or on their laptop for a long time, waiting for the right moment for the problems to unwind themselves, and for it to be completed and published. This book is mine – a story idea I had in 2015, that became a short, category length romance that eventually morphed into a full-length, single title novel. Through several iterations, multiple hero names (Brandon, Dylan, and now Finn!) and a lot of rewrites, I finally managed to get this baby into ebook and print!
The first person I’d like to thank is my sister, Doctor Deb. She inspired me to write about a brilliant scientist heroine, because she is one in real life! While I have a degree in Communicating and Publicity Stuff and Phaffing About With Words, she has a PhD in Science Stuff and has been working to improve treatments for several diseases for years. She also inspired the location in this book (though I was oblivious at the time) when I visited her in Del Mar near San Diego, California in 2005. Deb, I hope you’re not too harsh in your critique of the sciencey talk in this book. It’s fiction, and a romance novel after all. Establishing a believable Happy Ever After was the most important objective of this experiment.
I'd like to acknowledge a fabulous team of professionals who helped me bring this book to life including:
Cover designer - Kylie Sek from Cover Culture, whose custom illustrated cover and character designs are just amazing!
Copyeditor - Liz Dempsey, The Error Eliminator, who absolutely eliminated so many errors, I’m a little embarrassed I thought my draft was finished . . . I've never met a story timeline I couldn't break. Thanks for not letting me destroy the space-time continuum.
Beta reader - Kelsey from AJ Collins Editing. I won this beta reading service in an auction to raise money for charities after the 2020 bushfires in Australia. Kelsey offered some wonderful, constructive comments on the draft of the longer novel.
Special thanks to my writer friends in the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild who helped with brainstorming ideas for this book years ago, including Michelle Somers, PJ Vye, Andra Ashe, Savannah Blaize, Lauren Harbor, Katerina Simms and probably more. My memory of a long ago writing retreat is hazy due to excess consumption of Cosmos, but I know you all gave me some great feedback.
My gratitude also goes to the online writers group I was a member of when I started writing this draft, back in about 2015. The brilliant international writers in that group gave me so much encouragement and advice, so thank you. We all met on the old Harlequin romance writing discussion boards, had some fun, and in short, you all rock.
I’d also like to thank the anonymous judges from the Lone Star Awards, Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America, for the finalist placing I received in that contest in 2015. The shorter version of this manuscript was something you enjoyed reading, and the longer version I drafted was better because of your feedback.
A huge thank you to Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria, who chose me to receive an arts grant at the end of 2021. This money has helped me get this work (almost) over the finish line, and hire the wonderful professionals listed above. Covid-19 and other illnesses delayed it a little more than I had planned, but now it’s published and I’m so happy I could demolish a cupcake or ten.
I may not have published this book the way I thought I would, or when I thought I would, but who knows what can happen when you dream a little dream?