Picture Perfect (Weddings by Design Book #1): A Novel
Page 28
A toast to your coffin. May it be made of hundred-year-old oak. And may we plant the tree together tomorrow.
Here’s to Eve, the mother of us all, and here’s to Adam, who was Johnny-on-the-spot when the leaf began to fall.
Give a man a match and he’ll be warm for a minute, but set him on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.
Leprechauns, castles, good luck, and laughter. Lullabies, dreams, and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums. A thousand welcomes when anyone comes . . . That’s the Irish for you!
Acknowledgments
A special thank-you to my sweet crit partners: Jeanetta Messmer, Virginia Rush, and Barbara Oden. Ladies, you make my job a lot more fun! Thanks for sticking with me during the eleventh-hour rush!
A huge thanks to my agent, Chip MacGregor, from Clan MacGregor. Life and health to you! Thanks for all you do to propel my career. I’m also very grateful for your prayers and undying support.
To my team at Revell:
Jennifer: Where do I begin? I’m blessed with an editor who truly gets me. That’s priceless! Thanks for letting me . . . be me!
Jessica: If I could write a limerick just for you, it would go something like this: “There once was a copy editor named Jess, who cleaned up each fictional mess. She scribbled and tweaked and bit back a shriek as one author put her to the test!” (Now you see why I don’t write poetry!)
My publicity team: Michele, Donna, Claudia . . . you’ve become my support team. How can I ever thank you for making sure readers hear about my quirky tales? I’m eternally grateful.
My sales team: I raise my (nonalcoholic, of course) glass to you! Bless you for undergirding my work.
To my readers: Without you, this book would not exist. You insisted that I bring Bella back, and I did! I would never have had the courage to reshape the Rossi family without your input and advice. I’m especially grateful to the readers in my “dream team.” You named Bella’s children, for Pete’s sake! And you gave me wings to fly. Hugs to you all. Enjoy!
And finally, to the One who made all of this possible: Thank you for giving me a funny bone and teaching me how to use it to your glory.
Janice Thompson is a Christian freelance author and a native Texan. She has four grown daughters, four sons-in-law, five beautiful granddaughters, and two grandsons. She resides in the greater Houston area, where the heat and humidity tend to reign. Janice started penning books at a young age and was blessed to have a screenplay produced in the early eighties, after living in the Los Angeles area for a time. From there she went on to write several large-scale musical comedies for a Houston school of the arts. She continues to direct at a Christian theater and enjoys her time in the director’s chair.
Currently, Janice has published over eighty novels and nonfiction books for the Christian market, most of them lighthearted. Working with quirky characters and story ideas suits this fun-loving author. She particularly enjoys contemporary, first-person romantic comedies. Janice loves sharing her faith with readers and hopes they will catch a glimpse of the real happily ever after in the pages of her books.
Books by Janice Thompson
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WEDDINGS BY BELLA
Fools Rush In
Swinging on a Star
It Had to Be You
BACKSTAGE PASS
Stars Collide
Hello, Hollywood!
The Director’s Cut
WEDDINGS BY DESIGN
Picture Perfect
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