Sacrifice for a Wish

Just a few notes from the Author

Just a few notes and thanks, I promise to keep it quick.

To my family, thank you for letting me write when ever I want to, even if that means I'll be sleeping all day. Thank you for believing in me, encouraging me to write even when I thought people might laugh at me. Thank you for letting me bounce story ideas and plot holes off you, and for never getting frustrated when I get stuck on certain details.

To all my friends online who keep me sane: Andy, Braulio, Celine, Jesse, Mike, Steve, Chris, and even Jamin. I know you guys think that you aren't my "real friends" because I only talk with you online, but you make my life so much better because you are in it. I wouldn't trade my friendships with you guys for any "real friend" ever! You are AMAZING!

I'm a huge romance reader, one year I read over 250 romance novels and except for Helen Hoang (if you want more characters with autism, read her books!) none of the male heroes are Asian (or black or Hispanic.) That really bothered me as there are some extremely attractive Asian men out there (also black and Hispanic.) So, in trying to combat that stereotype I made Tik and Tok Asian. However, I couldn't come out and say they were Chinese because there is no China in Avalon, so I had to be more creative in the way I described Asian. I also didn't want to be racist. So, thank you to John, an Asian friend who will probably never read this book or this comment. He helped me to write characters that were Asian without saying things that made them into a stereotype or made me come across as a racist. If I made any mistakes, they are mine and please know that I did try to write them as people and not as a race or culture.

Lastly, my main character Wren is loosely based off of myself, a woman with autism, who has been in the system, who has a mother who for some reason can't love her but wants her to love her anyways. Some of the things in this book you might say describes someone you know with autism. And someone else will read this book, knowing a person with autism and say that Wren is nothing like that person. Both are true because there is no one set of attributes that makes autism. I wish I could tell you all the things I know about autism and the books you should read, how every day I struggle with feeling left out, apart, different, and depressed but then I would have written another book and I really do want to start on the third book. I will tell you what every person with autism wants you to know; we just want to be loved unconditionally. We want to be loved even if we say the wrong thing, if we can't try something you absolutely love because the texture looks like it might make us vomit, if we refuse to go to a crowded store with you because the people in the store might brush up against us and it's super loud. We want to be loved even if we repeat certain phrases over and over, if we stim, or if we get stuck on certain topics. With all the strange and weird we things we do, we are people, and just like every other person on the planet and we just want to be loved.