HAPPILY EVER BEFORE (25 page)

What you just read was the almost totally true story of two sisters, but this modern day tale of love lost, love won, impatience, sacrifice, friendship, sex, loyalty, honesty, and at times indecision, drunkenness, flatulence, and cookie dough is far from over. Clair and Grace, with the help of their good friend George, as well as both Grandma Erickson and Nonie Higgins, will be back to continue the saga of the hilarious bedwetting, wedding stopping, cookie making, mistaken identity ridden, drunken, impatient, diet hating, unruly, loyal, heartbreaking, law breaking, joyous, and at times crazy, Higgins Sisters and friends.

I must thank the wonderful Melissa Peterman, a remarkable and brilliantly funny woman, who gamely went on this journey with me and made it a joyful, fun-filled adventure.  I must also thank John and Riley Brady who good-naturedly put up with our writing schedule, John for his array of colorful outfits and Riley who played with me and shared his toys.

The
Figueiredo’s
Linda, Paul and
Jacklyn
who always have my back and always make me laugh.
The
Morewitz’s
Brian,
Kira
,
Georgie
Bell and Miles who are the best buddies and cheerleaders a gal could have.
Andy
Morewitz
for his patience, support and friendship.
My dude, Michael
Fister
, who always helps me see the bigger picture. Rebecca
Green  a
great friend and one of the smartest and most loyal gals I know.
Kim
Dankner
for her friendship and grammatical prowess.
Mark Wood, the first person to read this novel and believe in it and in me.
Shani
Tuch
and
Dani
Alpert for their unwavering support and for pushing me to take a chance and go for it.
 
My gratitude gals Tiffany
Zehnal
, Johanna Whetstone, Janet Wood and Suzy Shelton who pick me up when I’m down and continually fleece me when we play
Bananagrams
.

Laura Caldwell, Claire Cook and Bettina
Clairmont
, for being the nicest, most supportive, informative authors out there and
who
graciously took me under their wings.

Aimee
Pitta

To my sister Julianne for the laughter, the fights, the late nights with wine, for our shared history, for being a great aunt to Riley, for sharing clothes but never guys and for being you. To George, you are my double negative and I am sure we were separated at birth.  To
Stina
, we should never have been friends but we are. I promise to go camping with you if you never let me eat salted caramel in bed again. To
Di
, you’re probably sitting on my back patio right now and I never want it any other way, I love you all. And to Aimee, for making me write and making me laugh, you’re simply an amazing lady. 

Melissa Peterman

Melissa Peterman currently stars in ABC Family’s new hit series “Baby Daddy”. Peterman is best known for her starring role as “Barbra Jean” on the ever popular series “Reba.” Peterman, who grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, made a name for herself when she was cast and performed in over 500 productions in the local production of “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” and went on to become a staple on the comedy and
improv
scene. Peterman produced and starred in
CMT’s
“Working Class”, host’s the networks #1 game show “The Singing Bee” and is currently working on her first comedy album for Big Machine Records. This past year Peterman toured with Reba
McEntire
,
George
Strait
and Lee Ann Womack. Peterman made her feature film debut as Hooker #2 in the
Coen
Brothers’ Oscar winning movie “
Fargo
.” Other film credits
include  “
Dirty Politics,” “40 is the New Dead,” and “Here Comes the Boom.”

Aimee
Pitta
, a native New Yorker, is an Award winning Writer/Producer and Marketing Executive with over 20 years experience creating cutting edge theatrical marketing campaigns for almost every major studio in
Hollywood
. Her skills as a writer and marketer have also allowed her to create a niche as one of the top film “
retitlers
” in the business, and she has titled such films as Playing For Keeps, People Like Us, Mirror-Mirror, No Strings Attached, It’s Complicated, Our Family Wedding, The Bounty Hunter, Almost Heroes and the upcoming Seth
Rogen
and Barbara Streisand comedy The Guilt Trip.

Melissa and Aimee met at Book Club, which over the years devolved into Eating Club, and then, well, completely disappeared, but they maintained their friendship and toyed with the idea of writing together. While working on some ideas Melissa and Aimee hit upon the concept for “Happily Ever Before” and when Aimee suggested that it might make a great book, Melissa gamely went along and the rest as they say is history.

Melissa currently resides in
Los Angeles
with her husband and son. Aimee currently resides in
Los Angeles
with her couch and DVR.