Sweet Talkers

END CREDITS | fun facts + author's note

FUN FACTS:

1. Nadine and Ross could have been endgame. They are intertwined soulmates who found each other. The love they have for each other, in their friendship, glowed brighter than any romantic inclination either one ever had. That was important to me.

2. Each character in the sardonically named 'Heartbreaks Club' portrays love in a certain way from a certain viewpoint. There are others who yearn for it, others who have it fall to their feet, others who play it like strings to a cat, and others who brick up boundaries and solid walls and make lines because to them, love is too dangerous to get swept by, but acknowledges it is addicting enough to dip your toes in a little bit.

3.  The premise is lighthearted, and I fully intended it to be so. Unfortunately, as time ran and I, as the author, experienced many things concerning life and love, it got deeper. I hit touchstones with it that I just had to explore and tell. A couple of times, I broke pieces of myself and taped it over characters and words. Experiences that bleed, turning into ink for the pen. A writer's penance, I suppose.

4. Outlining a book and drafting it is truly a different experience lol. I outlined the Las Vegas trip and the 'Coffee Girl' arc, and whilst drafting, I stumbled on these arcs haha! I just hope they're easy enough to get back into the first edit.

5. Not fully sure I got to portray it, but Nadine has such an interesting identity crisis that she herself, burrows into her subconscious. It's how she reacts with her parents' relationship, with her relationships, etc.

6. If you weren't here from the start, I changed Nadine's major from Fine Arts to Fashion.

7. Naddy's yellow dress in the showcase is inspired by the yellow dress in How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Because romcom. Because I can. Heh. Her green dress, ironically enough, is inspired by that lovely silk piece that Kiera Knightley wore in Atonement.

8. I realised I never introduced it, but Nadine and Bucky's ship name is #Buddy.

9. I knew. I just knew I couldn't end this book without at least showing how cute Buddy is together. So when I was re-doing my outline (I did this a lot; this was a long writing period, ya'll), rewriting a couple of arcs, I knew I needed the last chapters to show for it.

10. This was my first romance book. Ever. And it's finished. I am still in awe because I didn't think I'd do it. Or I would survive it. But it's here and it's a pretty penny.

11 (Bonus): I was plotting this book all the way back in 2017 alongside Lemon Sorbet, but I only really started it in 2008. It was a bumpy ride from there to here (as you've all witnessed), but still. Quite funny.

FINAL NOTE:

When I say this was a journey to write, I am saying a full road trip with twenty cousins halved from your mother's side and dad's side, only few are getting along, cliques have started, and the engine broke mid way in the middle of nowhere and I'm pretty sure that's an encampment of cannibals.

It's Wrong Turn and House of 1000 Corpses. It was a lot.

Both because it's my first romance book (and as a mystery writer, the urge to throw a dead body now and again was a struggle to my being, just to get a conflict out of it from an external posse and not from inside myself) and a story I just couldn't let go, I persevered. Hunkered down and kept churning.

Butter is made, butter is here. And by god, is it good butter.

Pointing out from point 3 of fun facts, I truly thought this was just going to be funny and lighthearted, instead I went deep within myself and punctured holes from my past and present, wrought some intense emotions, and poured.

This became a very vulnerable work very fast. Too fast. There are some scenes here that was so raw from my own experiences that I teared up from writing them. The reflections are crystal clear. This book became too precious not to finish by that point. It felt like I owed it to them to give them a good ending. A better ending. Sweeter and more tender.

Half the time, I felt like I was writing this as a penned letter. A journal entry. To whom or for what reason, I cannot say. The pieces I left in this book is tenderer than flesh, hewn close to what my organs are made from.

That is all to say I am relieved it is all over, and I am insanely grateful for all of you who have stuck by. Since the very beginning in 2018, since the refurnish in 2020, and again in 2022. Or somewhere in between that and more. The patience and adoration and comments have tided me over strong waves. Over insecurities and heartbreak and hopelessness.

This book wouldn't exist without you. Thank you <3

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