Bootleg Springs Series Bonus Epilogue

by Claire Kingsley

  * * *

  Millie Waggle’s baked goods finally snared her a man. Sid was on Day 34 of keto when, weak with hunger, he wandered past her open window and ate an entire loaf of her cheddar cheese and rosemary bread. They honeymooned in Italy and ate all the carbs.

  * * *

  Lula, spa entrepreneur and massage therapist, fell in love with a man with four daughters from a previous marriage. She is enjoying life as a not-so-evil stepmother.

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  Ol’ Judge Carwell and Carolina Rae finally retired and now run a canoe and kayak rental business on the lake.

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  Mrs. Varney and Old Jefferson Waverly finally came clean about their twenty-year love affair. They tied the knot but continue to live in separate homes.

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  Sonny Fullson expanded Build-A-Shine to include a barbecue restaurant. He continues to guard the moonshine truth serum recipe with his life.

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  Opal Bodine met Billy Bodine on a blind date. Turns out, he’s a second cousin to the Bootleg Springs Bodines. When they tie the knot this fall, she will officially be a relation.

  The Making of Bootleg Springs

  Once upon a time, two romance authors decided to write a series together. Neither of them really knew what they were doing, but they both thought it would be a heck of a good time.

  Spoiler: they were right.

  It started as random ideas thrown out in messenger and text conversations. What should they write about? How would this work? There should be a town, right? Yes, definitely a town. And a family. That sounded good too. How many books? Six. Why not?

  Lucy had this idea for a heroine. A sassy, beer-drinking, cowboy-boot-wearing tomboy who wore a tool belt and drove a pickup. Where would she live? What kind of background would give rise to a girl like that?

  They said things like country, small-town, quirky, boys who wear flannel and boots. A messy family with a complicated past. Overbearing brothers. How many? Maybe three. Wait, let’s throw in another one they never knew.

  The town began to take shape. Founded by bootleggers with a fondness for being just outside the law. A place that makes its own rules, lives by its own code. Bootleg justice! Where neighbors bring food so they can get a peek inside. Where gossip is a sport and the best way to find out the latest news is to walk down the street. Everybody talks.

  And then, the characters. They needed six to start. Three brothers and a baby sister made four. The brother they’d never known was five. They knew from the start that the sister’s best friend would be paired with a brother. So what if she had a sister, and she got a book too? That made six. Perfect.

  They made name lists and started assigning them. Brainstormed the family’s backstory and what the kids were like. The firecracker little sister. The ultimate good guy. The quiet artist. The grumpy asshole. The sister’s best friend, and her sister, the quirky one that most people don’t understand. The new-in-town brother they’d never known.

  Dividing them up turned out to be easy. Lucy had created Scarlett, so she went to her. She also wanted the good guy (Bowie), and the one they affectionately called “New-in-Town Brother” until he had a name (Jonah). Claire had ideas for the shy artist (Jameson), the quirky sister (June), and the grumpy asshole (Gibson).

  And then, another what if. What if there was a town mystery? What if it ran through the whole series, and each book had clues? What if the storylines were all connected to the mystery somehow?

  What if it’s a missing girl? And what if she’s the final heroine?

  Through more conversations, video chats, and brainstorms, Bootleg Springs was born. By the time Lucy started writing book one, they’d created the town, given it a touch of history, a bit of backstory, and the beginnings of the characters whose stories they’d tell. And thrown in a compelling mystery for good measure.

  Then the real magic happened. The stories came to life as Lucy and Claire each wrote their respective books. Lucy took one, three, and five. Claire wrote two, four, and six. There were more consultations and brainstorms. Secondary characters sprang to life—both animal and human. Bootleg Springs and its residents were no longer just a bunch of notes in a shared document.

  They read the first drafts of each other’s books, offering feedback and doing their best to ensure consistency. They discussed the mystery and how it would play out in each story. They created clues, abandoned them, thought up new ones. As they say, the tale grew in the telling.

  And yes, they watched the readers. The theories and conjectures. The questions and discussions. And the biggest thing they both realized with each new book was that their readers are too effing smart.

  In the end, they wound up with a series that was a fantastic experience for both of them. They laughed a lot, learned a lot, cried a little, and cemented a friendship that they both cherish.

  Behind the Scenes of Bootleg Springs

  Lucy and Claire put together some more bonus and behind the scenes material for your enjoyment. They’ve included their theories on Henrietta VanSickle, plus some peeks behind the scenes at text conversations and some of their original series notes.

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  Who is Henrietta VanSickle?

  Oftentimes there is a lot of backstory that never makes it into a book. Lucy and Claire didn’t have room for Henrietta the town hermit’s story and never discussed their own theories on where she came from with each other.

  * * *

  Here is what each of them had to say about the character…

  * * *

  Lucy: Henrietta VanSickle came to Bootleg Springs on a family vacation in 1977 with her three sisters, their husbands, and her nine nieces and nephews. The kids never stopped talking. The adults never stopped yelling. Four days into the trip, Henrietta had reached her limit. With just a backpack and her wallet, she abandoned the overcrowded lake house and took to the woods. She purchased a ramshackle cabin on the mountain, took a vow of silence, and managed her accounts via a post office box that she checked once a month. Using a pen name, she wrote three women’s fiction books that went on to become bestsellers in the eighties. She quit writing when her publisher started making noises about a book tour and public appearances.

  * * *

  Claire: With nothing but a single suitcase and big dreams, Henrietta VanSickle boarded a bus on the outskirts of her tiny hometown, bound for New York City. An only child raised on a small farm, she’d always dreamed of big city life. The lights. The people. The sounds. Not long after she arrived, she got a job as a secretary in a swanky advertising and PR firm. She lived the city life for years. Worked her way up until she was no longer taking notes and answering phones, but pitching ad campaigns to big clients. She went to cocktail parties, sipped martinis, wore expensive heels.

  And she talked. She talked, and she talked, and she talked. She talked to clients. Made presentations. Pitched new ideas to her bosses. She took phone calls in the evenings. Talked to her chatty roommate, and her many neighbors in her busy apartment building. She talked to people in stores and on the streets. Every day, she was surrounded by people. Crowds of people. Huge skyscrapers full of people.

  One day she woke up and realized her dream of big city life hadn’t been what she’d thought. She missed fresh air and flowers. Trees and snowy winters. She missed wide open spaces. And most of all, she missed silence.

  She quit her job, gave most of her possessions to her roommate, and got on a bus. Didn’t even look to see where it was going. She rode that bus until it stopped in a place where the air was fresh, the trees were green, and the mountains sang with the promise of solitude.

  Once again, with only a single suitcase and big dreams, she got off a bus. This time, in Bootleg Springs, West Virginia.

  * * *

  Funny Story about Mrs. Kendall

  Not only did Mrs. Kendall not have a first name until Book Five… we also killed her off. Originally in Whiskey Chaser we had her as recently deceased. But decided we had killed
off enough parents and brought her back. Lucy missed one line of dialogue in Whiskey Chaser that referred to her being dead. It made it through to the originally published manuscript! Oops! It’s a good thing she didn’t stay dead seeing as how she ended up being the bad guy and all. We were focusing on Judge Kendall until readers started predicting he was the reason Callie disappeared. Then we had the masterful idea to make her the even worse bad guy.

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  Bootleg Springs Behind the Scenes Author Commentary

  Snippets from text conversations between Lucy and Claire, in no particular order.

  * * *

  C: So seriously, I’m so in love with this book-it’s the craziest thing to read characters I had a hand in, and events and scenes we talked about, but it’s not my words (crazy in a good way, it’s really fun!)

  C: If we’re writing first person past tense, the first one.

  L: Is that what we’re writing in?

  C: Yes, I think so!

  L: Ok, good! The longer I think about it, the wronger everything sounds so I need to not think about it!

  L: Did you make your Monday deadline? How have I not messaged you since Saturday???? OMG, did we get into a fight that I don’t remember and we’re not speaking and the fate of Bootleg Springs is hanging in the balance?

  C: …

  C: Remember that one time we were talking about all the stuff that needed to go into the last book, and Mr. Lucy asked if I could do it in under 100k words? And I was like, oh yeah, I don’t think it’ll be that long. I was wrong.

  L: Thank god!! You have no idea how that made me feel like I was writing bloated whale corpses instead of neat and tidy books!

  C: LMAO! And I look at your bloated whale corpse books and think, of my god, my books are anemic and flat!

  C: Oh! I have the best idea for how June and George meet for the first time. I can’t wait to get started writing this book!!!

  L: EEEEEEP!!! TELL MEEEEEE!!

  C: It involves things like hot springs, being naked, and June making awkward conversation about erections.

  L: That’s awesome!

  C: It should be pretty funny!

  L: I have Cassidy and Scarlett dragging June to a party and she’s sitting there reading the Wall Street Journal with a headlamp. She socialized for exactly 10 minutes (her deal with the girls). People are going to be so excited for June’s story!

  L: Binge Readers is currently trying to break me down and pump me for info on Bootleg Springs.

  C: Hahaha!! STAY STRONG!

  L: What if no one ever gets as excited about anything else we write as they do about Bootleg Springs?

  C: No way, man. We’re romance geniuses.

  C: I have another thought. Can we make the Gibson/Callie connection stronger? Like what if it wasn’t just a crush from afar? What if they were secretly together? If could have even been kind of innocent-not like they were sleeping together. But she was sneaking around to see him. And he kept if from going too far because he was older, and he didn’t think he was good enough for her.

  L: Thought about book 6. I think when Callie decides to tell Gibs the story of how Jonah saved her you could write it as a flashback. So the reader is getting everything kind of in real time. Like all her thoughts, how much pain she’s in, what her feelings are toward her parents. How she feels about Gibson. I think it would be super powerful and goosebumpy. You could do a couple of flashbacks throughout since her escape is such a big story.

  C: Do we share a brain? Because I was absolutely going to do that. I think readers need to see it happen.

  L: Omg! Yaaaaaas!!

  C: Also, Gibson has a one-eyed dog named Cash. And he kinda sorta kidnaps someone, but not exactly. Cassidy isn’t happy with him.

  L: I love it!!

  L: Omg! That book! You killed it! I have such a book hangover from a beta read!

  C: I have SO MANY EFFING FEELINGS STILL

  L: Jotting down ideas for the bonus epilogue and practically sobbing in the salon.

  C: Aww! I know, this is so emotional. How are we going to say goodbye to these people?

  C: Damn you and your bonus epilogue genius! I didn’t get halfway down the first page before you made me cry.

  L: I was stoically crying while I plotted it out.

  * * *

  Bodine Family & Bootleg Springs Initial Story Notes

  * * *

  Here’s a peek behind the curtain. This was some of what we came up with during all our brainstorming sessions. As you can see, some things changed, particularly in the beginning. We had ideas we didn’t use, and there are a lot of ideas that came to each of us while we wrote that aren’t included here.

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  The Family

  Mom and Dad got pregnant with Gibson (oldest) when they were teenagers. Kind of blamed him for their lives never going anywhere.

  They have four children together: Gibson, Bowie, Jameson, and Scarlett.

  Dad had an affair when Gibson was young. This resulted in Jonah, a half-brother the Bodine family does not know about when the series begins.

  Mom died in what they believe was an accident (is the real reason for her death related to the town mystery?).

  Mom’s death sent Dad into a spiral of self-destructive alcoholism.

  Jonah is named after his father. It’s the one tie he has to his dad, but he doesn’t realize he has siblings until he hears his father died. He reads the obituary and realizes he has siblings. That prompts him to come to Bootleg to find them.

  Scarlett drags Jonah into the family (“Seriously? Another fucking brother? Okay…”)

  Mom and Dad’s relationship was volatile, but there were still lots of good times. They loved hard, played hard, lived fully. Maybe there were big, loud arguments, but there was also a lot of love in the family.

  The brothers took it upon themselves to finish “raising” Scarlett. They’re protective (smothering?) of her, and she is not having it.

  * * *

  The Mystery

  A girl went missing and the mystery has never been solved.

  She was 16 (and Scarlett was 14 at the time). So 12 years before the start of book 1.

  It’s become a town pastime to speculate on what happened to her.

  A lot of people have theories, and maybe some are particularly outlandish.

  The reality is, the girl was being abused by her father (parents? Is her mom around?). Dad Bodine was involved in sneaking her out of town to keep her safe, but he never told anyone.

  There will be clues to the mystery in each book, culminating in mystery girl returning to town (she’s Gibson’s heroine).

  In the first several books, it will become increasingly clear the Dad (and Mom?) was involved and the Bodine kids will fear he did something terrible. But in the end, they will learn he was instrumental in helping her get to safety and she feels she owes him her life.

  * * *

  Questions

  Where did she go? Where did she do the rest of her growing up? Did she go live with extended family? Someone else?

  Why was it necessary to sneak her out and keep it a secret, especially since the town clearly noticed and has spent the ensuing years talking/speculating? Whoever took her in, it needs to make sense that they would and could keep her whereabouts a secret for so long. (part of the answer is that her dad is a prominent judge)

  What prompts her to return to Bootleg Springs?

  Where is her father (parents?) now? Does she come home to confront him? Is he gone? Is she looking to reconnect with her past?

  She spent time in Blue Moon?

  Was she hurt severely and she needed reconstructive plastic surgery to correct a few things? It could have altered her appearance just enough that she’s not recognized when she comes back to Bootleg Springs.

  Gibson will notice she knows her way around town, etc.

  * * *

  The Town

  Annual festival that’s boozy/bootleg themed.

  Community softba
ll games on Tuesday nights. Moonshine concession stands. (Maybe different families have their own recipes and there’s good-natured ribbing/competition). School bus drives everyone home because they’re too drunk to drive (do any of the games actually go 9 innings?). Wednesdays are known as Wasted Wednesdays because everyone is hung over.

  Chicken shit bingo. Bonfires. Lake parties.

  Secret hot springs

  * * *

  Callie

  Callie Kendall disappeared from Bootleg Springs 12 years before the start of book one. She was the daughter of Judge and Mrs. Kendall, who spent summers at their lake house in Bootleg, but lived elsewhere during the rest of the year.

  Judge Kendall was abusive to his wife and daughter.

  Mrs. Kendall was abusive to Callie. She often made it appear that Callie harmed herself so she could blame the injuries on her daughter (self-harm). Judge Kendall didn’t actively abuse them, but he covered up his wife’s crazy and her abuse of their daughter for fear of what would happen to his career. He’s not the direct abuser, but he’s still a dick for letting his daughter be harmed and covering it up to save his career.