Fun Facts for “What to Bring to Your Ex-Girlfriend’s Wedding”

Factoid One
Jeannette is the name of one of my ex-girlfriends from high school.

Factoid Two
The village depicted in the book, Tremont, is named after a street in the Bronx, where my father is from. You might recognize that Tremont is also the last name of Max, in my novel “Falling for Jillian Ashley.”

Factoid Three
The first book I’ve written in which a child features prominently in the story.

Factoid Four
The first book I’ve written in which a dog is featured in the story.

Factoid Five
Originally, the book was going to be set in the Midlands of England. That was really a quite arbitrary decision on my part. I didn’t want it to be set in a major city because I wanted to have the creative latitude to invent an entire village without concerning myself with geographic accuracy, and I figured I could bury the village I had in mind somewhere in the Midlands.
However, after a couple of discussions with UK fans, they put the idea in my head of using Cornwall instead. After doing some (admittedly cursory) research into the region, I decided it would suit my needs splendidly.

Factoid Six
In order to get the spelling of certain words correct, I changed the settings in Microsoft Word to expect me to write using UK English, rather than American English.
(I still managed to get some wrong, though!)

Factoid Seven
The address of the Newquay Royal Arms, where Jeannette and Katelynn get married is the actual address of a real hotel in Newquay.

Factoid Eight
Inspiration for this story came from a friend in the UK who told me about how her American girlfriend had left for America to visit family, but never came back. The American then sent my friend a wedding invitation a few months later.

Factoid Nine
Inspiration for Jeannette’s “shoecase” came from…me. I also pack a suitcase full of nothing but shoes when I’m going on a long trip.

Factoid Ten
Originally, I had written that Darcie had eaten a tuna-with-bacon sarnie for lunch at the shop, in Chapter 7.
Wow! Did that get a reaction from my UK beta readers!
Apparently, in England it is not universally acceptable to put bacon on…everything. (Which, why wouldn’t you? It’s bacon!)
However, the UK beta readers acted as if I had described a sandwich made out of bat guano and broken glass.
I resisted their ludicrous attempts to get me to change it to something else because it’s BACON…on tuna! That’s a match made in heaven!
The UK beta readers suggested tuna and sweet corn instead. To which I was like, “What?...Is that even…What?”
In the end, I decided to go with their suggestion because I started imagining the emails I would get from the UK, and I was like, “Yeah…no, I don’t need that kind of aggravation.”

Bonus Factoid
Even though a tuna with bacon sandwich may be considered a sign of the apocalypse in the UK, I've gotten my revenge...
I’ve written that one of the main characters in the next Carlsbad book eats a tuna-with-bacon sandwich, because no one can stop me.