May I Have Your Autograph by Joan Reeves

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I received the autograph book shown below as a birthday present from my mom. I can remember taking it with me everywhere I went.

I collected “autographs” from my teacher in second grade, our neighbors, my parents, my mom’s friends, and my brothers. I was particularly thrilled with the autographs from the teenage girls who lived near us. I thought those girls were so beautiful, and I wanted to look like them when I grew up.

Fast Forward

Little did I know that a few decades later, those girls’ autographs would inspire me as a writer. In fact, I hadn’t thought about the autograph book in years. When my mom passed in 2010, I had to clean out her house. I packed boxes of books and papers and took them home with me. I planned to go through them later— when I could manage not to cry.

Later turned out to be last year. We’d sold our home too fast and ended up having to store everything while we waited for remodeling to be completed on the Houston townhouse we’d bought. Christmas of 2014, we moved everything into the new house. A year ago, I began unpacking. That’s when I came across all of my childhood mementos including the autograph book.

Inspiration Strikes

One of the autographs that inspired me.

When I read the autographs from those teenage girls, my imagination took over. Both had written sentiments like this:

2 Sweet2B4Gotten and Sweet4Ever

In my mind’s eye, I could see a couple of kids, desperately in love. A boy in a letter jacket, leaning against a locker, and drawing a heart on the back of his girlfriend’s hand. I imagined him writing, LuvU4Ever.

Story Wrote Itself

The autograph book from my childhood inspired not just 1 short story, but an entire series: A Moment in Time.

LuvU4Ever is the first romance short story in the series.

David and Noelle fell in love when they were eighteen. They promised to love each other forever. Now, it’s 10 years later, and Noelle is heartbroken because she thinks she’s lost David.

About LuvU4Ever

LuvU4Ever, that’s what David had engraved on the plain gold heart he gave Noelle when he proposed.

Can 9 little words destroy a Forever love?

I told you NEVER to call me at home.

Noelle faces the biggest decision of her life. Will she stay? Will she dish out some payback? Or will she just walk away?

I love this story and hope you’ll like it too. Want to watch the video book trailer? It’s getting a lot of views so it must be hitting some hot buttons. Here’s the link: http://youtu.be/P1WCB2yE04k (I’d be ecstatic if you’d click LIKE and Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.)

LuvU4Ever, at These Ebook Sellers: All Romance eBooks * Amazon Kindle * Kobo * Nook * Smashwords.

Final Note

I didn’t think autograph books were still sold, but I was surprised to find several available on Amazon. Most have Disney characters on them, but I found a few autograph books that resemble the one I received long ago.

Post Script

Bestselling eBook author Joan Reeves makes her home in the Lone Star State with her hero, her husband. She lives the philosophy that is the premise of her romance novels: “It’s never too late to live happily ever after.”

Visit Joan online: Blog * Website. Sign up for Joan’s free newsletter for readers or her free newsletter for writers.