To the sick, twisted, amazeballs women in TFC-Madeline Sheehan, Emmy Montes, Claribel Contreras, Syreeta Jennings, Trevlyn Tuitt, Karina Halle, and Cindy Brown. You ladies have seen me on my worst and best days. You witnessed many times when I wanted to throw in the towel, but your words pushed me forward. Either way, you listened. You gave me an ear to rant to, a shoulder to cry on, and a stage to express my fears. Our fears. I got nothing but love for each of you.
To my blog tour: True Story Book Blog, Angie’s Dreamy Reads, ‘Ssh Mom’s Reading, Fiction and Fashion, Vilma’s Book Blog, Book Boyfriend Reviews, Flirty and Dirty, Books Babes and Cheap Cabernet, Sinfully Sexy, The Little Black Book Blog, Whirlwind Books, Swoon Worthy Books, Three Chicks and Their Books, Bridger Book Bitches, Romantic Book Affairs, Becca the Bibliophile, The Rock Stars of Romance, Mommy’s Reads and Treats, The Boyfriend Bookmark, First Class Books, Book Crush, I Love Indie Books, Sugar and Spice, Ménage a Book Blog, Up all Night Book Blog, Morning After a Good Book, Kindlehooked, TheSubClubBooks, Smitten, A Book Whore’s Obsessions, The Book List Reviews, and Smut Book Club. Thank you all for participating. Your blogs, among every other blog out there, whether people realize it or not, are the veins of our reading community. The blood pumping books out to readers. I said it in my acknowledgements in Collide, and I’ll say it again. Each blog amazes me. Simply… amazes me. No matter how chaotic blogger’s lives get, they still put time aside to reach out to their readers and promote books from authors they love. Authors they believe in. Authors they’ve never heard of. Some of you take a chances on unknown authors, and that says a ton. Your reviews, be them bad or good to writers, are passionate. It takes a lot to put your review out there the world, and I admire you ladies for doing so each and every day. In the grand scheme of things, blogs are overlooked. Just know most authors realize how much time and dedication goes into running one. I thank you, all listed here—and not listed here—for getting the word out about Collide and Pulse.
Last, and so not even close to the least… my readers. Hot damn, you loved my characters! What??? Let me say that again… what? Shocked doesn’t even begin to skim the surface here. Not. One. Bit. I’ve mentioned a ton of wonderful ladies above, and let me just say, on days I wanted to pull out of this ride and promptly get a refund, slip off the rollercoaster and go home, not only did they stop me, but so did you. Thousands upon thousands of emails kept me writing. Thousands upon thousands of comments on my author wall, posts, and online delivered to me what I needed the most: the drive to push on. The courage to move forward on this glorious, scary, humbling, and blessed ride that was set forth in my life. Thank you for loving my characters as much as I do. Thank you for believing in me as a writer. Thank you for telling your mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, nieces, and friends about Collide. Though I left your mouths agape at the end of Collide, thank you cheering for me while I wrote Pulse. Not kidding when I say this, but you all have mentioned fan-girling when you’ve spoken to me, well, there’s not a time I haven’t fan-girled over you. No joke. I hope I’ve done well by you all. I hope I continue to do well. Just know, I’ll always try.
Turn the page for a sneak preview of Fear of Falling
by S.L. Jennings coming July 2013
Shit happens.
I never really understood that saying. Yeah, there were certain situations in life that were shitty, but they were just that; they were life. So it really wasn’t the shit in life that was, well, so shitty. It was life itself.
Life happens. That was much more appropriate.
Unfortunately, many of us found that out earlier than some. We found out just how awful life could really be. We found out that monsters were, indeed, real. They walked among us. They looked just like you and me. They came in the form of the people that we loved and trusted the most. The people whose only job was to love and protect us.
Funny thing about life is that it never turns out the way you want it to. It’s never fair. It’s harsh and brutal. It kicks you when you’re down. It makes you wish you could give up and part with it just to have a semblance of peace.
I almost felt that peace unintentionally. And if I had known exactly what I was fighting against, I would have succumbed to it. I would have traded my young, shitty life for the peace that came with death.
I should have. I would have been free.
I needed a drink. A strong one.
One that could possibly knock me on my ass and make me forget what I had done just 20 minutes ago. This was always the hard part. The guilt, the self-loathing. Sometimes it strangled me. I hated what I did. I hated the pain I inflicted but it was part of the process, part of what came with being me.
I hurt people, and it wasn’t something I was proud of.