Queen of Someday (21 page)

**Author’s Note**

The true story of Catherine the Great is one fraught with betrayal, intrigue, and romance. While a good deal of my story is drawn from actual people and events, I have been very liberal in the rearrangement of dates, events, and places. Whenever possible, I took my cues from her own words, intermixing my own thoughts and ideas. My thought upon the creation of the book was simple. I looked at the woman she was when she claimed the crown and then wondered—how did an innocent girl from Germany become such a force of nature? Most people aren’t born cold or ambitious, but have circumstances that forge them into those people. And that was the story I wanted to tell in this book. I wanted to see the events in her early life that would have changed her into the person she became, and not knowing the truth of that story, I simply made something up. That is what we, as writers, do best.

If you are curious about the real history behind Catherine, I suggest heading to your local library and doing a bit of research. This is not meant to be a historically accurate representation, but a flight of fancy, one that I hope you, dear reader, will enjoy as much as I have.

~Sherry

Every book is a journey, and I was very fortunate to have a wonderful group of people helping me along the way.

First and foremost is always my family. My wonderful husband and brilliant children. You guys sacrifice a lot so I can follow my dreams, and I want you to know how grateful I am for that and how much I love you all. For my extended family, my parents both blood and borrowed, my fantastic siblings and my dear cousins, I love you guys to the moon and back!

I would like to give special thanks to my publishing family over at Clean Teen Publishing. Dyan, Marya, Courtney, Rebecca, Cynthia, Melanie, and the rest of the team. You ladies make publishing a book FUN, and that speaks volumes. I have never felt so in sync with a team before, and I can’t tell you how humbled and grateful I am to be working with you every day! Extra hugs and thanks to Marya for the AMAZING cover and Cynthia for being the best editor in the world!

I’d like to give a shout out to my Minion Army and the CTP street team. You guys are the best street teams a girl could ask for, and I want to thank you for all you do! You are my heroes!

Thanks as always to my beta readers, DJ, Tiffany, Amanda, and Erin. You guys are the best! Without you, my stories would linger in plot purgatory. Thanks to the hardworking bloggers who help us poor authors spread the word about our books, I would like to give you all a big hug (and I just might, fair warning. I’m a hugger).

And last but never least, thank you, dear readers, for following me on this amazing ride. I hope you all enjoy reading Sophie’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

She is the author of The Gods of Fate Trilogy now available from Dragonfly Publishing. Her previously self-published novel After Burn: Military Brats has been acquired by Harlequin and released in 2014 with a second book in that series to follow. Her newest YA steampunk novel, Extracted: The Lost Imperials book 1, co-written with Tyler H. Jolley is now available everywhere books are sold and her newest YA novel, Losing Logan, released in 2014 from Clean Teen Publishing.