Hard Fall by Brenda Rothert

Author’s Note

Writing books is a lovely, frustrating, draining, exhilarating experience for me. After I finished my first book, I was hooked. I’ve crafted stories, both in my head and on paper, since I was a kid. This career is a dream, but it can, at times, be lonely. The opportunity to write this book with Kat came at a time when I was experiencing some personal issues that left me unable to focus on anything else. But then Kat and I started talking about this idea, and our enthusiasm snowballed by the day. We didn’t just love these characters and this story—we felt them deeply. And as I wrote, I escaped my worries for a few hours at a time. I got to experience that incomparable feeling of a new chapter from Kat showing up in my inbox. Co-writing with Kat came to me when I needed it most, and she has become a dear friend in this process. Hard Fall is more than a book to me. When I look back on it, I’ll remember the friendship that started and grew out of it. I’ll remember that when I was feeling lost, this book was there to remind me that I had a place I could go for a little break—the Mavericks world.

My greatest hope is that Hard Fall can be for readers what it was for me: an escape from real-life stresses and worries, and that after that time away, readers will feel just a little bit recharged and ready to take on the world again. Even if we never meet in real life, having that connection with a reader is a precious gift that I’m forever grateful for.

~Brenda