For Nicky (24 page)

Please
come check out my Facebook page! I keep it updated with information about
For Nicky
, upcoming books, news, and myself. Audrey’s story is coming soon so you’ll be able to keep up to date with her book there as well!
www.facebook.com/adellisauthor

You can also “friend” me on Facebook if you’d like! Just search for “
A.d. Ellis Author”. I love to “meet” my readers so give my page a LIKE and friend me. Let me know if you’ve read For Nicky!

I’m on
Goodreads as well.
www.goodreads.com/adellisauthor
PLEASE leave
me a review on Goodreads if you enjoyed
For Nicky
! Positive reviews are a life line for independent authors.

I’m not very proficient w
ith Twitter, but I’m on there!
www.twitter.com/ADEllisAuthor

Check out my webpage as well.
www.adellisauthor.webs.com

A.D Ellis was born and raised in a small farming town in southern Indiana. An avid reader from the time she learned to read, A.D. could often be found curled up somewhere with her nose in a book. Most of her friends were not such book enthusiasts which earned her a few snickers when she was constantly reading.

A.D. had always dreamed of being a teacher. She earned her degree in Elementary Education from Indiana State University in 1999 and her Master’s Degree from Indiana Wesleyan in 2003. A.D. has been teaching in the inner city of Indianapolis for 15 years. While she’s taught several different grades, fourth grade is her favorite. They are learning independence by 4
th
grade, but most haven’t learned the attitude yet. A.D. loves teaching fractions, variables, probability, and graphing in Math. She loves almost all aspects of English Language Arts. Figurative language, theme, making predictions, drawing conclusions, inference, context clues, making writing come to life, A.D. loves it all! Her students may not be in agreement with that excitement.

A.D. met her husband in college in 1996 and they married in June of 2000. A.D. lives in a south side suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband and two school-aged children.
When she’s not reading or writing with music blaring, she can be found shopping at thrift stores, reading to her children, and running.

A.D. had always pondered the idea of writing a book, but until recently it was a far off dream. In today’s age of independently published authors, A.D. decided to take a chance and try her hand at writing. She has learned so much during this journey and is having a world of fun with it.

Please connect with A.D. Ellis on Facebook.
www.facebook.com/adellisauthor

As a teacher, I see students all the time who would thrive in a school setting like the center where Libby works. There are some schools like this, but they are few and far between and more are needed. Not every student is on a college track, but they all need life skills. I know there are different funds used for schools like the one Libby works at. I took “artistic liberties” creating the center in Torey Hope. I’m not sure where the funding for this center comes from, but I know it’s perfect for the students it serves and I hope that more students can find a place like this.

According to
www.stopbullying.gov
“bullying is unwanted, aggressive beh
avior….that involves a real or perceived power imbalance.  The behavior is repeated….” There are three types of bullying according to this site. Physical, verbal, social.

As a teacher of 15 years, I watch bullying occur daily. I do my part to help educate my students about bullying. What it is, some of the reasons it may happen, how to stop it. I especially like to focus on students learning to “take a stand and lend a hand”. Bystanders are almost as bad, and in some cases worse, than the bully. Bystanders just let it happen. Whether the victim is your friend or not, you should always have the common decency to step in and stand up for him.

Bullies usually act out due to something negative in their life. They are being bullied, home life is bad, a past traumatic experience, the list goes on and on. Bullies have no excuse and they should be stopped, but I feel it’s important to realize that the bully almost always has something bad going on with them as well.

I
have always and will always find the words retard and retarded disgusting, hurtful, unacceptable, and uncalled for. I found a site called
www.R-word.org
This site explains that the R-word (retard/retarded) “hurts because it’s exclusive.  It’s offensive.  It’s derogatory.” I hope that Nicky’s story will help to bring awareness about the use of this word. Here are some sites that offer other words and reasons not to use the R-word:

http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Using-the-Word-%22Retarded%22

https://www.aucd.org/template/page.cfm?id=605

http://www.parents.com/blogs/to-the-max/2013/03/06/autism/5-things-people-dont-get-about-the-word-retard/

I didn’t know a lot about male rape when I wrote this book. I knew it was possible and I assumed it happens a lot more than one might think. While it is true that male rape is more often male on male, females raping males does happen. I found this page helpful when looking for research about date rape of males:

http://voices.yahoo.com/sexual-arousal-male-victims-rape-1504019.html

If you are a victim of rape there are many resources out there for you. In regards to male rape victims, here are some sites:

http://www.rainn.org/get-information/types-of-sexual-assault/male-sexual-assault

http://www.aftersilence.org/male-survivors.php

There are many reasons for needing to plan an intervention. We see this almost joked about a lot of times, but if a person is truly in need of intervening, it is nothing to be made light of.
I found this page helpful when planning the intervention:

http://www.originsrecovery.com/how-to-plan-a-successful-intervention/

Captain Decker turned to alcohol after his wife died. He suffered with alcoholism most of Libby and Audrey’s tween and teen years. He did eventually get help and he’s in recovery, but an alcoholic is never truly recovered or healed. An alcoholic will be in recovery mode permanently. Alcoholism is a disease and it’s treatable but not curable. If you or someone you love has trouble with alcohol, please seek help:

http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=1

http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/

Captain Decker, Libby, and Audrey would have all benefitted from grief counseling when they lost Lois Decker. If you or someone you love is having a hard time dealing with their
grief, please seek help.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-5-stages-of-loss-and-grief/000617

http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-grief

Playlist to go along with
For Nicky
. I have this playlist on Spotify. Feel free to follow me on there (A.d. Ellis Author). Please know that I love music, but I don’t know or care much about the details. I know I like a song, but I don’t usually know or care who the artist is. So, on the list below, if Spotify told me it was by a certain artist, I took their word for it.

Brave by Sara Bareilles

Ho Hey by
The Lumineers

Beneath Your Beautiful by
Labrinth

Let Her Go by Passenger

A Thousand Years by Christina Perri

Say Something by
A Great Big World

All of Me by John Legend

Reach for Me by Kirsty Hawkshaw

Only Teardrops by
Emmelie De Forest

Apologize by One Republic

Fine By Me by Andy Grammer

I Won’t Give Up by Jason
Mraz

In Your Arms by Kina
Grannis

Never Stop by
SafetySuit

Me
Without You by Loick Essien

You Should Know Better by Andy
Grammer

Use Somebody by Kings of Leon

I Can’t Wait by Runner Runner

Amazing by Danny Saucedo

Take My Lips by Ferras

Better With You by Kris Allen

Out of My League by TJ McCloud

I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons

Machinehead by Bush (this is totally the song that goes along with Nate when he’s so angry and fighting everyone who bothers Nicky! Thanks to my cousin for the suggestion!)

Animals by Martin
Garrix (the song Nate and Libby dance to in the club)

CINDY MORGAN’S BANANA CAKE RECIPE

BANANA CREAM BARS

Makes 50 bars.

1/2 c butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup sour cream

2 larg
e or 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed

2 cups
all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Cr
eam butter and sugar together, add unbeaten eggs and beat thoroughly. Add vanilla and sour cream, mix well. Add the flour, salt and soda alternately with the mashed bananas, and mix until well blended.

Put into a greased 15 x 10 x 1 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
cool.

FROSTING

3 oz cream cheese, softened

6 TBS butter, softened

1 TBS milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional

Mix all together.

Spread over cooled bars and sprinkle with nuts if desired.

These are very moist and they freeze wonderfully.

This is Audrey’s story. As much as you probably hated her in
For Nicky
, you more than likely realized that there had to be reasons for WHY she was so horrible to those around her. In
Because of Beckett
you find out the ugly truth. You also get to meet a kinder Audrey and the ever gorgeous, reformed, single dad, Jeremiah Jordan.

Be sure to LIKE my Facebook page so that you can learn about
Because of Beckett
and when it will be released.
www.facebook.com/adellisauthor

I have a couple other stories playing out in my
head, I’ll keep you updated on those as well!

If you enjoyed
For Nicky
would you please consider reviewing it? You can write your reviews on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, anywhere really! I’d love for you to share your thoughts about
For Nicky
on my Facebook page as well! Positive reviews are what keep people taking a chance on my book and they mean the world to me! Thank you!

Oh my! Where to start? First, I will begin by thanking God. That’s not just a cliché little saying for me. I have a strong faith in God and I know that I would be nothing and be nowhere today without Him.

I want to thank J
odie D. for prodding me to write a book. Jodie and I share a love of the romance genre and she constantly persisted that I should write something. She’s been one of my biggest supporters and cheerleaders since all of this started. She was also my very first beta reader. It was so scary to let my baby go before someone else’s eyes, but Jodie read it and loved it. Well, she didn’t love it so much as to say it was great at that point (because it wasn’t, at all), but she loved the idea of it so much that she helped me make For Nicky what it is today. I am so thrilled that she’s been on this journey with me! I hope that we can continue on the trip together.

I want to thank my family. My husband and children have had to put up with me sticking headphones in and closing the door to write for hours at a time. My husband is NOT a fan of reading, but he’s supported me the entire way. I love the three of them more than words can describe. I’d also like to thank the rest of my family. From the moment they heard I was writing a book, my parents have been nothing but supportive. It doesn’t even matter WHAT I’m writing, they are proud of me and cheering me on. The world of independent publishing is new to me and very foreign to most of my family members, but they support me through it all and that means the world to me.

A HUGE thank you to my editors. I’m lucky to have a fairly firm grasp of grammar rules; however, after reading something as many times as a writer reads her own work, mistakes slip by. I needed new eyes to help me see my mistakes. Karen H. and Stephanne M. were those eyes. Karen pointed out many things to me, the main thing being extreme overuse of two things. After she brought it to my attention, I almost gouged my eyes out when I went back for another read. How did I not notice how many times I had used those?? Stephanne was probably about to gouge her own eyes out with my comma misuse. I own it, I’m terrible with commas. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Karen and Stephanne, for your editing skills. Especially because I know the genre I write isn’t one that you would choose to read. Your help was invaluable.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say thanks to some other authors. What started out as me fan-
girling on some of these ladies, turned into me asking them questions and them offering me support and answers. Aleatha Romig (author of the Consequences series, if you haven’t read it, go get it NOW) is basically my neighbor, although we’ve never met. Aleatha has been so sweet and helpful with all of my newbie questions. Nina Lane (author of one of my top favorite series A Spiral of Bliss) has answered about 101 questions from me and never made me feel like a bother. Mia Sheridan (author of MANY great books, but one of my top 5 favorites, Archer’s Voice) has proven to be kind and patient as I continually bombard her with questions. Lynetta Halat (author of some of my favorites, Everything I’ve Never Had and Every Rose being two of them) was one of the first I attacked with author questions and she never made me feel bad for asking. Sarah Robinson (author of Tainted Bodies and Tainted Pictures) was the first author in indie world to reach out to me and offer support. She gave me my first taste of an “author takeover” and I appreciate her so very much for that.

I want to thank old friends. Jodie, Deb S., Dona A., Kris W., Jen L., Merry L., Jennifer M.—MY BETA READERS—THANK YOU!! 
Merry, thank you for the music suggestion. Juana, Karen, Emily, Lucinda, Jennifer B., Stacy, Farrah, Lindsey, Jodie, Jennifer R., Jennifer L., Dona, Kris, thank you all for listening to me blather on and on about my book! Just having you to listen was priceless. To my May Mommies! Wow! Together since 2004/2005 and still going strong. Thank you for your support. All of you. I know my book isn’t one that some of you would choose to read, but knowing that I have your support is very important to me. And, to Sean! I guess you’d be a “May Daddy”? Thank you so very much for always being willing to answer my questions!

Thank you to all of my family and friends who will buy this book just because I wrote it! I know some of you will never actually read it, but knowing that you’d buy it just to show your support is humbling and heart-warming. Also, thanks to all of my family and friends who helped me get my Facebook page up and running. You were among
my first likes on that page and now it’s nearing 1000 likes before I’ve even hit publish. Thanks for being there from the beginning.

To new friends! I’ve been in the world of indie authors on Facebook just over a month now, and I’ve met some of the most kind, helpful, genuine people I’ve ever known. I am in awe at the support of bloggers and authors; it truly feels like a tight-knit little community.
Laura C., LW Michelle, Colleen L. Eryn S., Ava M., Cristy R., are just a few names that have quickly become my friends and have helped me more than I can explain. I can’t even begin to list all of the others who have offered support and answered questions for me! I’m excited to be in this little world with all of you!

To my readers, THANK YOU for taking a chance on
For Nicky
!! I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please leave me a review and tell your friends to read
For Nicky
! I hope you will continue on this wild ride with me and follow Audrey’s story as well. I think Nicky may even get his own story. You just never know!

From the bottom of my heart, to ALL of you, THANK YOU!!!