The Program [Book Two of The Test]

Author's Note(mainly fun facts)

After this author's note, there's a little something extra for you to read in the next chapter. Enjoy :)

First off, I would like to thank each and every one of you that stuck with this story when you easily could have decided it wasn't worth your time.

Also, a big thanks to everyone who understood my lame attempts at updating from time to time due to awful migraines and other health conditions I didn't share. You all mean the world and more to me because of all of the constant support I receive.

A super duper huge thanks to AlyxMck for making the trailer shown in the media section. I knew ya'll really wanted to see one for 'The Test', and I also thought it would be pretty cool. They brought it to life and I love it so much i'll be smiling about it forever :)

I might get someone to make one for 'The Program' in the future, but it really doesn't matter to me. I'm extremely happy with just the one so whatever...

But anyway, just like in 'The Test', I won't be doing just an author's note. Last year, I answered questions I had received about the book. This year, at the closing of this book, i'll state a few facts about the story that I thought would be fun to mention.

Here goes...

Fun fact #1 - While trying to think of names for all my characters, Jack's name was going to be David.

I really like the name David (blame 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfeld for that) but changed my mind. His character sounded more like a Jack to me.

Fun fact #2 - Lexi's name was originally spelled L-E-X-I-E.

It had the 'IE' at the end but I thought it looked strange next to her best friend's name (Maddie) and next to Annie so I changed it to just an 'I' at the end. And Marcus was going to be an Alex to kinda match Lexi, but I liked Marcus better. Not exactly important to mention, but whatever...

Fun fact #3 - Most of my characters names are named after some of my favorite characters from other books.

While thinking up names for all of my characters, I often times went back to a few books I read and ended up giving those characters names from those books (something that will probably change during the editing process if I ever publish). For instance, Luke's name came from a main character in a book called 'Among The Hidden' which was from a book series I loved when I was in the fifth grade. Thomas Reid came from me reading 'The Maze Runner' and liking the name Thomas. Marcus came from a book called 'When You Reach Me' (not Divergent contrary to popular belief) that I also read in the fifth grade. And both of the names Natalie is given(Natalie and Elody) came from books, Natalie being named after Tris' mom in 'Divergent', and Elody coming from a book called 'Before I Fall'. Dr. Rivers' name (the name Kent) also came from 'Before I Fall'. And Natalie's last name came from a main character's name on a SHOW called 'The 100' and that character would be Clarke. Mary's name came from 'GONE' by Michael Grant (even though the Mary I wrote is literally nothing like the one in that book). But that's just a few examples.

Fun fact #4 - John is based off of my favorite character in my absolute most favorite book series.

Okay, so there's this book series called 'GONE' and it's written by the amazing Michael Grant. In it there's this kid who wants to be a leader and rule everybody and for the most part doesn't care about anyone but just really wants to be in charge. His name is Caine Soren. I modeled John after this guy for the first half of the book, you know, when we still didn't know him all that well. I was trying to make him a believable jerk without going too overboard, so I went to my favorite book series for help. No, I didn't copy what Michael Grant did in the book, I just got some inspiration that I needed badly. But wait, why is this Caine Soren evil dude my favorite? BECAUSE HE'S AWESOME. Besides, he's not my favorite til the second to the last book anyway...