In the two weeks since To Touch the Stars released, I’ve been overcome so many times by the kind words and encouragement sent my way by folks who have picked up the story and shared Nick and Tait’s journey. As I said in my acknowledgements, my fondest hope was to open one mind or one heart to what we can achieve when we dare to reach for the stars—and it seems it is a hope fulfilled.

I’ve been very privileged to receive personal stories from readers who remember man’s first steps on the moon, who recall a friend or loved one being shunned for being gay,  who also marvel at how far we’ve come since the ‘60s and ‘70s, and how little vignettes took them back in time. These are precious moments for me, deeply treasured.

I wrote this book as a tribute to those people who dared to love the person their heart had chosen for them, who dared to defy those who said a woman’s place was in the home, who dared to study medicine despite their farmworker roots. The world of today is more just, more colorful, and more rich for their bravery.

I can recall a time growing up when my own dreams—rather bland and ordinary by some standards—seemed impossibly out of reach. All I ever wanted was a family, and yet it once seemed utterly impossible. Thanks to the courage of countless men and women I will probably never meet, here I am, a man having achieved that humble, but extraordinary goal.

That is what To Touch the Stars means to me. It is a simple story, but one that is steeped in all of my life’s wishes and fears, made possible because of people like Nick and Tait who followed their hearts, no matter how far away their stars seemed to be. More to the point, though, the truest acknowledgement of these courageous souls is you—the reader of this post—who embodies all that their bravery has achieved. You have opened your heart and were willing to embrace a story about two men falling in love. In my mind, that is the greatest tribute of all.

Thank you…. More than I could ever say.