I hope you enjoy Mistakes Were Made: a comedic romance about some of my favorite characters of all time. I wrote this book to explore the dynamics of love, friendship between women (and friendship between women and men), and what happens when adults are stuck in a location together. While the primary plot is Jules’ sweet quest for love, I thoroughly enjoyed contemplating the complexity of adult relationships when everyone is stuck together at a location — the Misty Forests recovery and adult living center.

The book doesn’t explicitly state the location or time period, but there are numerous subtle references to Portland, Oregon throughout the story. I liked the idea of pushing everything forward about 20 years to around 2035, which means today’s teenagers are the adult thirtysomething protagonists of the story. We still have mobile devices of some sort and computers for work, we operate cars (but do we drive them?), and some of my favorite Portland restaurants are still in existence. Misty Forests doesn’t actually exist, but I do have a secret location in the Portland West Hills picked out.

I quite enjoyed give Jules a career as a greywater plumber — still a little unusual now, but I like to imagine that there are many more greywater projects in 2035 and many more women working as plumbers.

There are at least three books in this world, with the second book (Best Laid Plans) becoming available later in December 2015. I so much fell in love with the characters, that I can easily imagine many more. Some of the secondary or minor characters who may need their own books include Jules’ best friend Martha and her new good friend Sue at Misty Forests. I could also see books about Jeff who runs the front desk at Misty Forests, his buddy Melody, the facility manager Neal, and the grumpy but sweet gardener. To name just a few.