The “Official” version:

Vivian was telling stories into a tape recorder “borrowed” from her older sister before she was old enough to write them down. Though the tapes have long-since been lost, the passion and love of writing has never let her go. She had three goals in life: to own a bunny at twenty-four, to publish a book at twenty-four, and to own a U-shaped house in California, regardless of age.  For her twenty-fourth birthday her father offered to self-publish her book for her, and countless hours were spent re-writing a book that she had completed at eighteen. She refused to let anyone else read the book, or edit it, wanting to do it completely on her own. In November 2007, Outskirts Press, Inc. published the book and sent her several copies of the finished book. She opened the box and was able to see the first printed version of her book with her dad, mom, sister, and husband-to-be.

A few months later, two days before her twenty-fifth birthday, her husband-to-be and sister bought her a bunny, completing two of her goals in life.

From the author:

Writing about yourself is hard.

Figuring out what you want to say about yourself in just a few paragraphs is difficult. How can you sum yourself up in just a few sentences? People are complex creatures—they can’t be summarized in a paragraph worth of text. It’s almost like writing a eulogy, only it’s about yourself. Disturbing!

Here’s what I really want you to know… I write because I can’t stop. It sounds crazy, but when I don’t write, I start to get really irritable and I start seeing these little movies in my head. Characters start buzzing around my mind and I can’t get rid of them.

I’ve always been pretty verbose—my e-mails are always ridiculously long—but if I go too long without writing, they get out of control. I write to save my sanity.

I wrote Dai (whose name was actually selected because “dai” means love in Japanese—the “Diamond” came out of the need for a name that will be explained in book two) because I was eighteen and feeling lonely. I wanted a friend I could relate to; someone I could talk to. I wanted a hero to come and sweep me off my feet and I wanted to go to some mystical place where the fantastic became real. I searched and searched for books to keep me company, and when I couldn’t find them, I wrote them. I wanted to write a fairy-tale, something that you could escape into and forget about everything else for a while.

Dai and Westly became my friends. They let me be part of their story. I love them; I cherish them. Even now when I look back and read the book, it’s always with affection, knowing where they came from and where they ended up. I wanted good things for them as much as I wanted good things for me.

I published this book as a tribute to dreams—to goals I thought were unattainable. It’s not a book for everyone, but what is? That’s the true beauty in dreams… No matter who doesn’t care for yours, it still belongs to you, and to you it will always be a success.