Fun Facts for “Starting Forever in Paradise”

Factoid One
My working title for this book was "Project X."

Factoid Two
Originally, "Project X" was going to be a surprise release, not connected to any other book in the series. In fact, I started dabbling with writing it well before I started "Seven Days to Forever." I originally conceived of it because a lot of fans told me they would love it if I wrote a Megan and Vanessa sequel. However, I had such a hard time figuring out what to write for a Megan/Vanessa sequel. It was only after I started writing "Seven Days to Forever" that I came up with the idea of tying "Project X" to that book, and making it about Megan and Vanessa's wedding.

Factoid Three
Silly me! I finished the rough draft of the manuscript before I realized that I had forgotten to include Vanessa's good friend William in the story! It seemed unlikely that he would miss Vanessa's wedding, but by the time I noticed his absence, it was too late to insert him into the story due to the self-imposed deadline I gave myself for finishing both books. So, I came up with the device of him being in London, performing.

Factoid Four
The second book in the series featuring Megan's sister, Molly.

Factoid Five
Butler service is indeed available at some luxury resorts in Tahiti.

Factoid Six
I wrote this novella at the same time as writing "Seven Days to Forever." Because I wanted to release both books on the same day, I knew I didn't want there to be too much time between finishing one before the other. So, I devised a schedule whereby I worked on the novella two days a week, while working on "Seven Days to Forever" the remainder of the week.

Factoid Seven
Creating the crossover references between the novella and "Seven Days to Forever" was a crucial feature I wanted to be sure to include. In fact, I lost sleep one night worrying about this! It required me to very carefully consider key events in each story, and then how I could reference them in the other story, without duplicating entire passages.

Factoid Eight
Shortest passage of time between the last chapter and the epilogue. Usually, my epilogues start months after the final chapter in a book. This time, the epilogue started only one week after the events of the last chapter.

Factoid Nine
I didn't come up with a title for this book until after I came up with the title for "Seven Days to Forever." Then, I had the idea to title both books similarly, since the stories are connected. Thus, the use of the word "forever" in both titles.

Factoid Ten
A beta reader asked me why Vanessa hadn't packed any ibuprofen that she could give to Megan when Megan started developing that headache. As I was writing that scene, I considered the same issue, but decided to just go with it. However, my answer to that beta reader was, "Because she's Vanessa. She doesn't get headaches."