Always Conall (Bitterroot #2) (25 page)

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Authors: Sibylla Matilde

BOOK: Always Conall (Bitterroot #2)
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Songs that inspired Conall
  • Adele – Don't You Remember
  • Aerosmith – Jaded
  • Afrojack – Do Or Die - Afrojack vs. THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS Remix
  • Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Spread Your Love
  • Bruce Cockburn – Pacing The Cage
  • Christina Aguilera – Hurt
  • Damien Rice – Cannonball
  • Daniela Andrade – Bright Blue
  • Emily Wolfe – Accident
  • Feist – Intuition
  • Ian Britt – The Shape Of Us
  • Jack Johnson – Banana Pancakes
  • James Blunt – Bonfire Heart
  • Jesse Cole – Same As the Sun
  • Joan Jett – Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
  • John Mayer – If I Ever Get Around To Living
  • Joshua Radin – Tomorrow Is Gonna Be Better
  • Jules Larson – True Colors
  • Kings Of Leon – Beautiful War
  • Kings Of Leon – Comeback Story
  • Kings Of Leon – Tonight
  • Kings Of Leon – Revelry
  • Linkin Park – Numb
  • Mindy Smith – Hurricane
  • The Outfield – All The Love
  • The Outfield – The Way It Should Be
  • Perrin Lamb – Everyone's Got Something
  • Restless Heart – Long Lost Friend
  • Sara Bareilles – Gravity
  • Sarah
    Jarosz – Build Me Up From Bones
  • Stevie Nicks – Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You
  • Susie Suh – I Do
  • Theory Of A Deadman – Bad Girlfriend
  • Thirty Seconds To Mars – The Race
  • Thirty Seconds To Mars – Bright Lights
  • Thirty Seconds To Mars – Stay
  • Tori Amos – Winter
  • Tori Amos – Silent All These Years
  • Travis – Peace The Fuck Out
  • Travis – Closer
  • The Weepies – World Spins Madly On
  • William Fitzsimmons – Beautiful Girl
  • Willie Nelson – Always on My Mind
  • The Wreckers – Lay Me Down
Acknowledgements

First of all, I have to give total props to my husband.  I know he wonders what he got himself into at times. He sort of worries to show how much he cares (and he worries a LOT!), yet he put up with being a single parent for two weeks this summer (when he really, REALLY didn’t want me to go) because he could see just how much it meant to me. The concept of me flying across an ocean was so beyond anything he’d ever imagined, I think. He’s, quite simply, the sweetest, funniest, and most loving man I’ve ever known, and I thank God every day that he saw something to salvage in the 20-year-old train wreck I was so long ago.

This is my fourth book since I started publishing almost a year ago. I’m a little shocked, both that it has been THAT long and that it has ONLY been that long. A little over a year ago, my ‘trowel’ Amy got a wild hair up her ass to gather some of her
Goodreads friends on Facebook and Twitter. And, thus, the SmutSisters were born. I can honestly say, I doubt I would have ever dared to publish without them. Some of them are authors. Some of them are bloggers. Some of them just love a good book. But all of them inspired a confidence in me that I’d never really felt in all my life. Through the smooth sailing and the rocky seas, I can’t imagine my life without them.

Through them came RARE in Edinburgh, the first signing I’d ever attended, much less signed at. (That would be the trip my husband really, REALLY didn’t want me to go on, but he knew how much it meant to me and told me to go anyway.) The encouragement and support I received from my mother, my step-mother, and my aunt helped to make that faraway dream come to fruition. My brain is still reeling from meeting so many authors who are so much more noteworthy than I am. It is so easy to see them as larger-than-life… superheroes with super imaginations. I still feel rather awestruck by them all and kind of have to go “OMG! I met her!” from time to time, but I really felt welcomed, even if I was a complete spaz at times.

Even more so, the attention I received from readers in Edinburgh stunned me. Every now and then, I am kind of like “Wait… I have fans! WTF?” I had anticipated twiddling my thumbs and trying to look up Stu’s kilt most of the signing (thanks in no small part to some awesome table placement), but I was actually very busy. It was so lovely seeing some of the people I connected with online, to see the real person and thank them for supporting the stuff that goes through my mind. It was all kind of a blur and I’m sure I was terribly inarticulate. I’m still a little flabbergasted that some of you wanted to meet
me
.

I also got to meet some of my Flannel Squad face-to-face. These women have come to mean so much to me. I laughed with you until my stomach seized up. And none of you thought I was too terribly off my nut when my agoraphobic self about had a panic attack before the welcome party. You are always there for me and for each other, and it is a beautiful thing to be a part of. Such different lives we’ve led that somehow led us to each other. I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of friends. Looking back on the trip, everything seems so surreal. I will never forget it for the rest of my life. (And thanks to the staff at Edinburgh Castle for not tossing the Flannel Squad out on our ‘
arses’ – we weren’t extraordinarily well-behaved, but we had a really great time!)

Thank you to Christopher John from CJC Photography for helping me
find the perfect Conall. You were truly delightful to work with and I can’t wait to see what other hotness you can come up with for me! And thank you to cover model Brian Laferriere for being sooooooooooo… um… inspirational. I could stare at pictures of you all day.

Thank you so much to my beta readers and proofreaders – Michelle, Beth, ‘Nurse’ Ashley, Terri, Amy, Teri, Arabella, Diane, Dawn, Jane, Nikki (who
bagsied Conall, BTW), Teri, and Nicola (OMG… I hope I got all of you in there because I’ll be totally gutted if I forgot someone!) Thank you for your honesty by telling me what you really thought. And, OMG…Terri was surprised at condom usage after beating it into my head for the last year? That still blows my mind… 

Thanks to Denny for being such a wanker. Yes, that maybe sounds odd, but it is so nice to have someone to blame when all the shit starts hitting the fan. And thanks to whoever wrote that on the Summer House in
St Stephen's Green. If I ever run into him, I’ll be sure to let him know what you think of him.

Extra special thanks to my Brit Ho.
That crazy Coventry girl who is so damn smart and sweet and funny. She listens to K-pop and loves things like steam mops (okay, I totally didn’t really mean that to rhyme). We’re sharing a table in Montreal, and I’m so very excited to bedazzle the shit out of that place since we didn’t get it done in Edinburgh.

And finally, thank you to my Pimp Shell.
Because she is truly my backbone some days. She started as a reader who wanted to get her hands on Little Conversations. She has become one of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life. She makes me laugh when I feel like crying. She calms me down when I’m raging. She is almost always the first person I ‘talk’ to every morning and the last person I ‘talk’ to at night. She was my ‘sick buddy’ in Dublin, she warns me of stranger danger, and she ‘gets’ me. I heart you, Shell.

About Sibylla

Sibylla Matilde grew up in the mountain valleys of Southwest Montana, and grew up exploring the alfalfa fields on the back of a horse. She attended a two-room schoolhouse 1st through 6th grade where she had same teacher the whole time. Beginning at about age 12, Sibylla discovered historical romance, feeding off of work of Jude Devereaux, Lisa Kleypas, and Karen Robards. She loves a book that can make the reader run the gamut of emotions, from the sweet glow of new love to gut-wrenching heartache. She always has stories floating around in her head, living in some fantasyland until she writes them down to free them. She is a true romantic, a bit of a Pollyanna, and a deeply emotional soul.

Music is her emotional trigger. Growing up with a
Wagnarian-opera-loving mother, Sibylla grew up with music that digs deep into her soul and pulls out emotion. The soundtrack to her life includes different genres and generations. She looooooooves Thirty Seconds to Mars (rather obsessively, actually) with a little Kings of Leon to mix things up, and pimps them out regularly to all her friends through Spotify. She also enjoys watching Met Opera HD broadcasts at her local movie theater, and hopes (listening Met?) to someday see Diana Damrau reprise her role as Mozart’s Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte – The Magic Flute.

Sibylla lives with her husband, Mike, a man who she firmly believes saved her from her self-destructive, hot mess self. He makes her laugh every day, even when things seem to be falling apart around them, and has proved to her that love really can heal a shattered soul. In almost 19 years, they have never had a fight, but argue regularly with their two teenage kids who have, unfortunately, inherited their father’s quick wit (unfortunate as it is a quick wit that Sibylla, herself, definitely does not possess – there is a reason she is a writer and not a stand-up comedian), and live a quiet life with their two weird little rescued
Chiweenies. Wait… teenagers and little yap-dogs?  Okay, maybe not so quiet. :)

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