DEAD IN BED By Bailey Simms: The Complete Second Book

PART 10, AUTHOR'S NOTE - 2/10/15, 1:08pm

So, I've decided to start writing the next installment right away. But probably not for the reason you think.

For more than any other reason, I made this decision because I need to take back control of the story. I need Ashley's life to play out how it's supposed to play out. Not the way some psycho ex-cop thinks it should.

I know what you're thinking. Why don't I just delete what he wrote? Well, I can't do that. According to the read-counts, more than a thousand of you have already read it. I can't just take it down. It would be way too confusing and hard to follow after that. Part 9 has become part of Dead in Bed, whether I like it or not, and I have to accept that.

And, also, more to the point: screw the cop and his bullcrap literary critique.

He thinks I've made Shawn a flat, unbelievable character? Well, fine. Maybe he's right. Maybe Shawn has been a one-dimensional villian. Real people are complex. They have good sides and bad sides and everything in between. And maybe Ashley has slept with him at the dwellings. Fine. I mean, he's her husband after all, and she's super lonely, and they once were close, and the cop did actually make Shawn out to have turned into a pretty decent guy.

Still, that doesn't mean I have to compromise my vision for the novel. There's still a LOT of story left to tell before Dead in Bed ends.

And telling that story, I'm seeing now, means almost everything to me.

I can honestly say now that I don't know if I'll make it out of this alive. And I can honestly say that, even if I do make it out, I don't know how much time I'll have left to finish this book. My symptoms aren't getting any better. In fact, I'm starting to find it harder to focus and concentrate—signs that my doctor told me would be indications that the disease is progressing.

I can't say that I know what happens to any of us after we die. I don't know if my mom or anyone else is looking down on me from some kind of heaven, or if when we breathe our last breaths everything just fades into a black oblivion.

Either way, though, Dead in Bed has become a part of who I am.

And when I'm gone, I want it to live on after me.