Hi everyone, thank you so much for watching my latest installment in the Journey to Disciple video series, as well as the final final video in the series because before we know it, we will be at the release date for Disciple.
Something that I wanted to talk about before the release is the book dedications for both Disciple and The Aluria Adventures. Whenever I work on a project, there are a couple things that are very important to me before I start the writing process. One of them is determining what the title is and the other one is determining who I want to dedicate the book to. Both of those things help me become motivated and inspired with my writing project. And of course, those things change throughout the writing process, but they’re definitely something that I have to start in order to proceed
With my writing with my first book, The One, I dedicated it to Eva McCall. With Aluria, I dedicated the book to my pet, Booger, who passed away several years ago. Then with Vigilante, I dedicated the book to my father, Ken Cook.
And with Disciple, I actually dedicated the book to two wonderful women in my life, the first one being my mother, Melissa Cook, who is a constant inspiration to me and my rock who I can always go to when I’m in need of advice or help. Initially, I was just going to dedicate the book to her, but as many of you know some things happened during the writing process of Disciple which caused me to add an additional dedication to the book.
The second dedication is in memory of my great-aunt, Eva McCall, because she was not able to see the end of Disciple and actually didn’t know the specifics of what it would entail, but she was critical in the editing and publishing of Aluria and Vigilante and I felt the void of her presence when she wasn’t here with me, getting Disciple ready to read and I thought there was no better person than to dedicate the book to, and I knew my mother wouldn’t mind sharing the spotlight a little bit so the book is dedicated to both of these wonderful women.
Initially, when I was going to release The Aluria Adventures (3 Book Collection), I had no intention of doing a new dedication. I had planned on just combining the three dedications for the three individual books and include them respectively in their section of the three-book collection.
But then a thought occurred to me. When you have a special collection such as this three- book collection, you should also dedicate it to someone special in your life. There were multiple people I had in mind that I wanted to dedicate this book to, but ultimately, there was only one person that I wanted to dedicate it to and that is to my little “baby girl,” Kinsley Hodgin. She is someone that unexpectedly came into my life close to three years ago and she has just been a constant inspiration and joy in my life.
I get to see her at least once a week, and it is the highlight of my week and day and she is just so smart and so playful and so kind and polite. She is someone that I know will make a difference in this world and I hope that this dedication to her will make her feel just a little bit more special and show her when she gets older how much of an impact she makes on people’s lives.
So those are the dedications to my upcoming books, Disciple and The Aluria Adventures. I can’t wait for my mother, and one day, Kinsley, to read these books and understand why they were the people I chose to dedicate these books to.
Thank you so much for watching this latest edition and final installment to Journey to Disciple. The release of Disciple is quickly upon us, so I am so excited to see what you think. I’ll be posting future videos from the book signings that I attend. I can’t wait to see you there!