Cookies from Mellark's Author's Notes & Acknowledgements:

Cookies was written for Nanowrimo, in my first attempt to write 50K words in 30 days. I did it, but I still couldn't come up with a good way to end it. I finally decided to edit it somewhat heavily and publish it on FF.

All typos and grammatical errors are mine. One of the reviewers pointed out that there are a lot of them and, for that, I apologize.

Plot:

I love the A/Us and wasn't sure if I could write one. When I needed a Nanowrimo topic, this popped into my head after a breakfast in Solana Beach. I was explaining to my husband that the café where we were eating was the perfect location for Mellark's in my head…and suddenly we were having a conversation about all sorts of baking euphemisms. That later turned into the conversation Peeta has with his brothers at the funeral.

Process:

30 days – 50 K words. Insane.

Moving On was fully formed and felt tight knit.

Building the Dream was meandering and like induced labor.

This was more like a concentrated romp. I had a lot more starts and stops with crazy plot twists in this one where it seemed like I was done with one plot so another needed to start.

I'm not sure which process I like better. The editing did let me get a feel for the story as I ran it through my hands over and over. I also felt like I could refine dialogue in a better way. The posting felt better because I could rapid-fire the postings and get better feedback, without getting hung up on reviews. Because I wasn't writing, it also let me respond to some of them.

What do the readers think? If you've read any of my other stuff, or all of my other stuff, is there a difference? Do you not care? Was this noticeably more horrible? It's different subject matter, that's for sure.

Trivia:

Haymitch's and Mellark's are actually based on a location in Solana Beach. T's Café is located on the Pacific Coast Highway and is across from a converted garage that is now an upscale French chic accessory shop. The converted garage is green. T's has phenomenal breakfasts and I highly recommend it.

Carlos Nieve is an adaptation of Snow's character. We don't find out what actually happens to Mrs. Mellark and Carlos. If there's interest, I might try to wrap that up in a way I didn't really handle here.

This Emma Paylor and Brinna Paylor have very little in common. This Paylor is more Paula Dean, rounder and more soft spoken, than Laura Roslin. Laura is the President on Battlestar Gallactica. Some of Brinna Paylor (from Building the Dream) is based on her. That is the reason that I did not use the same name for both characters.

Streeter is based on a person I work with – Streeter is his nickname. He is a surfer and helped me with both surfer jargon and sent me pictures of California surf until I had more than enough material. Although he does not quite talk like the Streeter I depict, he does have a bit of the surfer dialect.

Prim here is loosely based on my niece. She has many piercings and tattoos and I tried to capture my Mom's horror at finding out about all of them.

Peeta's house is based on a house fairly close to Dog Beach in Del Mar. It's not right on the beach…but it's lovely.

The inside of Mellark's is loosely based on a bakery off of Del Mar Heights Road.

USC and UCLA are a famous cross-town rivalry in Los Angeles. I'll let you figure out which side I favor based on who I sent where. (Alexander Ludwig (Cato) from the movie actually goes to USC.)

My original plan was for Katniss to have a dog (golden retriever) named Gale. WaffleNinja advised against it, and the idea was dropped.

The idea of Prim "blowing up" with Cato came to me one night: I wanted an event that would forever change Prim for Katniss. It couldn't be literal (just like Katniss couldn't be a real hunter) because they lived in So. Cal. I wanted something akin to that moment of let –down when someone you really respect falls from grace. Cato was it.

Playlist:

I listed to a LOT of the following while writing this story. I wanted summer music that made me feel like a kid:

One Direction

Carly Rae Jepsen

Katy Perry

Peter Frampton

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam

3 Doors Down (Here Without You) is the soundtrack for the June breakup scene

Sighing39 asked me about a playlist for that last chapter and I'll go one better. The Prom sequence was actually written to Michael Buble's version of Sway. The final lemon-y scene was written to Enigma and Seal and Janet Jackson (Anytime, Anyplace and If I Was Your Girl)

Acknowledgements:

All of you – the readers – deserve my thanks. Many of you reviewed this story. Thank you for sticking with it and giving me feedback. It is always welcome.

Thanks especially to:

Sighing39 – for making me laugh. "I am Delly and I can own that…" had me laughing for days.

Ursa Major II – you are thoughtful and give great feedback. Thank you for continuing to read my stuff.

FFR –Your PMs cracked me up. I loved your snarky comments about Johanna and Mrs. Mellark and Katniss's total inability to commit. Also, thank you for your straight-up feedback. The fact that you even READ this one is humbling. Thank you.

Heavyarms59 – for reading this and the other stories too. Crazy, since they are so different!

Itsybitsybookworm – For acknowledging (in a good way, I hope) that I do not like to rush a plot. Thank you for reading.

Averagejocookiestacker – for making me laugh and not feel quite so alone in my demographic.

BaronessKika – for reading everything I'm writing and giving me straight-up feedback. Thanks, lady.

.Style – thank you for responding to me on believability… I'm not a teenager, so you gave me some good context.

So many othesr reviewed too: KPFan72491, VMars, kayola15, sarammlover, Pandora1984, LittleMissEnigma, honeylime, littlemissartsi, kiwi, You'll think of me, brinkleydeelite, moonlite982…

Thank you! Reviews are wonderful and they help me gauge what works and what doesn't. I don't write professionally and this is about improving.

What's next?

The third installment of Moving On – Building the Dream will be starting next. We'll see how long that takes to write!

If you have comments or questions on this story or any of my other work, please let me know. I love hearing from readers!