About These Book Dedications ✏️

Something snaps in the marketing mind of an Indie author as she careens through the social media maze and the website, uh, web. She sits at her desk one fine morning and realizes that her efforts at anonymity have been crushed. Personal information is blowing on the wind like leftover party confetti and could land any-ol’-where and how am I going to protect the children?

For heaven’s sake, I only refer to my husband as “Hubby” so that some crazed Jolie Tunnell fan won’t find out his true identity and try to kidnap him on his way to Costco and hold him for ransom.

You didn’t read that here.

Hand frozen half-way to my mouth with a crispy piece of bacon just out of reach, my brain declares that all these years of blogging, referring to “Kid 1” or “Kid 4” were absolutely wasted the minute my books came out with their names right in the front dedication page.

Oh, girl.

It’s not my fault.

The first book was Kid 2’s idea, hands down. The pandemic was ruining our lives and she and I sat in the park by the lake and came up with the time, the place, and the first villain in a casual conversation.

She likely would’ve come after me with a sharp stick if I hadn’t acknowledged her efforts up front.

It was all downhill from there, and in no logical numbered order. What I could never have foreseen was the serendipitous way that each book, as it was birthed, seemed to be a perfect match to another child.

Book 2 matched Kid 3, right down to her button-top boots.

Book 3 was such an obvious fit to Kid 5 that we laughed. Poor kid.

The dedications, for me, are a last minute thought after the book is already edited and I realize the front matter has to be thrown together. And the fact that I was running out of kids had nothing to do with the subject matter and characters I chose as I went along.

They just happened.

So, Book 4, about a storm and train robbers and mountain legends, became the perfect match for my Kid 1 when I realized in afterthought how much it spoke about his heart.

Kid 1 has not—and likely will never—read this book. (My family treats my books the way they treat my blogs. They know I’m talking about them, but they just don’t care enough to look up the details.)

Book 5, as you know, is about a summer wedding in Idyllwild. The last kid standing, the one without a book dedication so far, Kid 4, went and got himself engaged this summer.

This makes my heart happy on many levels, but two amazing things transpired: a Kid 6 stepped up to share his dedication.

And they want to be married in Idyllwild. No. True to form, they knew nothing about my book at the time. And…maybe they still don’t.

*shrug*

But how perfect is that?

Who will get the dedication for Book 6? Now there’s a puzzler. I’m out of Kids.

But the Books are only beginning.