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His Private Diaries Begin
"THE WORLD IS READING THINGS HE NEVER INTENDED FOR ANYONE TO SEE."
In 2019, Jake Hunter was devastated when select excerpts from his private journals were stolen, posted online, and went viral. The world began to hate him for what appeared to be years of womanizing ways.
At the insistence of those who loved him most, Jake published all of his diary entries so people could see he wasn’t the monster they believed him to be. He published every dirty little secret he’d ever kept, every deviant behavior he had ever participated in, and every morally questionable thing he’d ever written since the age of fifteen.
Many expected to read the private diaries of a drunken sex fiend. Instead, people found the story of a little boy who had survived horrific childhood abuse with one devastating tragedy after another. It was the story of a lost child who had grown into a sad and lonely man using a parade of one-night stands, drugs, and alcohol to numb the pain of his traumatic youth.
But Jake’s diaries weren’t about all the women he had been with over the years, as expected. His writing focused primarily on one woman — the woman he met, befriended, and fell in love with over time. Jake documented in great detail how her strength, friendship, and unconditional love brought him back from the brink of self-destruction.
This is a fictional romance drama with a happily ever after ending that will warm your heart and leave you breathless.
This story is not for the faint of heart. The content could be triggering for some people.
His Private Diaries Begin is the first book in a dark, contemporary, slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance series like no other.
From 1987 to the year 2000, from age fifteen to age twenty-eight, this is how Jake’s story began.
In 2019, Jake Hunter was devastated when select excerpts from his private journals were stolen, posted online, and went viral. The world began to hate him for what appeared to be years of womanizing ways.
At the insistence of those who loved him most, Jake published all of his diary entries so people could see he wasn’t the monster they believed him to be. He published every dirty little secret he’d ever kept, every deviant behavior he had ever participated in, and every morally questionable thing he’d ever written since the age of fifteen.
Many expected to read the private diaries of a drunken sex fiend. Instead, people found the story of a little boy who had survived horrific childhood abuse with one devastating tragedy after another. It was the story of a lost child who had grown into a sad and lonely man using a parade of one-night stands, drugs, and alcohol to numb the pain of his traumatic youth.
But Jake’s diaries weren’t about all the women he had been with over the years, as expected. His writing focused primarily on one woman — the woman he met, befriended, and fell in love with over time. Jake documented in great detail how her strength, friendship, and unconditional love brought him back from the brink of self-destruction.
This is a fictional romance drama with a happily ever after ending that will warm your heart and leave you breathless.
This story is not for the faint of heart. The content could be triggering for some people.
His Private Diaries Begin is the first book in a dark, contemporary, slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance series like no other.
From 1987 to the year 2000, from age fifteen to age twenty-eight, this is how Jake’s story began.
378 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 27, 2025
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October 28, 2025Hi to anyone reading this. I’m TW, the author of this book series. I don’t think it’s ethical to give myself a review or a star rating. I believe that should be for readers. So I’ll just tell you a little about this story and how this series came to be instead.
Somewhere around the year 2000, I read a news story online about a man whose private journals were stolen and posted all over the internet. He was humiliated. I couldn’t help but think that scenario would make a fantastic plot for a book someday. That news story was part of the inspiration behind this new romance series. But there’s more to the story.
I was also working as a cop at the Tuscaloosa Police Department at the same time I read that story. I sometimes worked undercover with the state ABC board to bust local prostitutes.
You’d be surprised at some of the people we ended up arresting. One was a Tuscaloosa city councilman, a guy who often insisted police do something about all the prostitution in our town. We did. He’s not a councilman anymore. That arrest even made the TV news and the local paper.
Occasionally we’d have an undercover officer pretend to be an escort and post her services on the internet. Potential Johns would call her and agree to meet in a hotel room we rented. When they arrived, we’d arrest them after they solicited the officer. We were in the adjoining room waiting for the signal to come in and make the arrest.
Once they activated a cell phone for the undercover officer and drove one mile to the hotel to set up. They received over a dozen calls from potential Johns before they got to the hotel. The ad had been up less than five minutes. This is a big business.
Sometimes we’d also put an undercover male officer in a hotel room posing as a John. He’d call escorts who had posted their services online. We ended up arresting dozens of women for offering their services for money during those years.
I’m actually not capable of buying a prostitute. I tried being the John. The women always knew I was an undercover cop the second they saw me. They’d take one look at me and leave. I wasn’t the only one either. Several of us couldn’t get one to commit. We all ended up on the team making the arrests. Some officers were just better at playing the John than others.
One weekend I was hanging out at a local bar here in Tuscaloosa on my night off. One of the women we had arrested for prostitution came in with some friends who worked in the same profession. She recognized me immediately.
She came up to me and (surprisingly) hugged me. She said she wanted to thank me for being so nice and not judging her during the arrest. We sat down and chatted for a while. I don’t know what I expected, but they were no different than anyone else I usually hang out with.
She offered to buy me a drink. I let her, but I bought the next round to even it out.
My team’s arrest was the only time she had ever been busted, even though she’d been doing this since she was sixteen years old. She asked me all about the court process and what she could expect. I told her.
She also danced at a club a few days a week in another town not too far away. That’s how she did her taxes on all of her earnings. She didn’t want to go to jail for tax evasion. Counting every cent she made and claiming it as a dancer would prevent that. She traveled to other towns for “work” too. When I got home that night, I told my wife I’d run into her.
I saw her often when I was at restaurants or drinking in bars downtown off duty. She came up and spoke to me every time she saw me and was always friendly. She even met my wife a few times when we were together. We became friends over time.
Most people I hang out with never knew how she made her living. I never told anyone.
She constantly asked if I was sure I didn’t mind being seen in public with her. She knew what people would think of me if they saw us together and knew what she did for a living. Since I’ve never cared about what anyone thinks, I truly didn’t mind being seen with her. She was a nice, caring person as far as I could tell. I worry about how things actually are, not what they look like.
I haven’t cared about anyone’s acceptance or approval in decades. And I certainly don’t care what others think or believe when it comes to me helping another person. That includes helping people who are drug addicts, strippers, and prostitutes.
NOTE:
YES! She was slim, trim, in her early twenties, and drop-dead gorgeous. She wasn’t your average escort. She was high-priced and took great care of herself. If you’d met her out on your own, you’d have had no clue what she did for a living. Contrary to what you see on TV and read in books, that’s not how it works. Most of these people are as normal as we are.
One night we were talking about my job and the night she was arrested. I told her how the prostitutes (somehow) always knew I was a cop, but I had no clue what gave it away. Well, she knew. And she told me exactly how they’d figured it out. It wasn’t the way I looked.
She said when I walked, I looked around way too much for the average person. I’d also hold my right hand away from my body just slightly more than I did with my left hand. She told me that likely meant I was used to carrying a gun on my right side.
She told me that when I talked to her, I always stood with my left side towards her and my right side (where I carried my gun when on duty) was always the furthest away from her reach. I did that with everyone else too. It’s called a bladed stance. Cops do that so if anyone goes for our gun, they literally have to go past our entire body to get it. It’s a tactic we use all the time.
When I talked to her, I looked down at her chest, but not at her boobs. She noticed I did that with everyone, as if I was watching and ready for an attack. Apparently, I also look at everyone’s hands as soon as I see them.
All those things let her know I was probably a cop. She and her friends had been taught to look for those things in their profession. People who break the law have a vested interest in staying out of jail, so they learn what to look for.
Cops are taught all of these tactics in the academy. I’d been doing them for years. I guess it had carried over into my personal life when I was out drinking with friends wearing jeans and a T-shirt. I’d never noticed. But she did.
Then I understood why she got arrested. The officer pretending to be the John the night she got busted was about as tactical as Barney Fife. To this day, I consider him a disgrace to the badge. I’ve told him that to his face multiple times. We never got along, and most officers agreed with me. He was very unsafe. If he showed up on one of my crime scenes, it was just one more gun I had to worry about shooting me if things went south. He left the job years ago. Good riddance.
My new escort friend’s observation skills were amazing. We started playing a game one night when we were half lit. When someone came into the bar, she’d watch them for a few minutes. Then she’d point out things they did and tell me what she knew about them based solely on the way the person carried themselves.
I knew some of the people she watched and commented on personally. She was dead-on every time. This girl noticed EVERYTHING! It was amazing how well she could read people. It’s a character trait that I’d later give my fictional female lead in The Private Diaries Series.
We also talked about her job at times. She shared some of the things about her profession and how it operated. This young lady even had local politicians, doctors, preachers, an Alabama town mayor, and three local cops who called her every two weeks for her services. She had all kinds of people for clients.
One night she ended up telling me her entire life story and how she came to be where she was in life. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I’d ever heard. I was honored she shared it with me. I’m glad I had become a person she could count on and confide in. I went home and told my wife what the young girl had told me. My wife was as devastated about what happened to her as I was.
I made some phone calls after hearing her story and seeing how it had affected her. We ended up getting her free counseling to help her deal with her past traumas. I had no clue there were so many services available at no cost for those who need them. The therapy helped. I noticed a huge change in her mentality in only weeks. She’s not cured, but she’s gotten better at dealing with what she went through as a child.
I have to acknowledge my wife here. Very few women would be okay with her husband hanging out with a good-looking young woman who worked in the sex industry. But as long as I was honest, my wife and I were good. I have to give her props.
My new friend and I talked about her quitting her job often. I never pushed her. I knew it HAD to be her decision. She once told me I was the only person in her life she’d never lied to, and she was going to keep it that way. She told me that if she ever told me she was done with that lifestyle, she was going to be certain she meant it. She had tried walking away from it a few times before we met, but she always went back.
After a few years, I got a call one night. It was that fateful call I knew was coming someday if she didn’t change professions. An unfortunate incident had come close to costing my friend her life. She almost died from it.
When she woke up in the emergency room hours later and miles away, I was there. She was finally able to ask me what happened. They worked on her for hours to keep her alive. When I told her that, she went silent. She must have lain there for fifteen minutes without saying a word, just staring at the ceiling.
Then she asked me to come to her bedside. She could hardly move. I’ll never forget this. She looked me in my eyes and said, with tears rolling down her face, “I’m DONE with this lifestyle. I promise you I’ll never go back. It’s over.” She’s kept that promise to this very day.
After some time in the hospital, she recovered with very few lasting injuries. At least, very few lasting physical injuries.
I couldn’t help but think her story would also make a great novel. I found her life fascinating. Make no mistake, I’d give anything if she hadn’t gone through all the abuse and none of this had ever happened to her.
She’s so intelligent. I can’t help but wonder what she would have become if any adult in her life had cared enough to step in when she was a child being abused. But nobody ever did. I know people had to know with what all happened. But they did nothing. It’s sickening.
We’ve kept in touch. We’re still friends, even though she now lives hundreds of miles away. She’s gotten married, had children, and works a legit job making good money. She’s also open about her previous life experiences. Her husband knows everything about her past. She hid nothing from him.
I’m proud of her. She’s an amazing person, smarter than the average cookie, and has a heart of gold. She’s one of the most honest, nicest, and trustworthy people I’ve ever met.
I did my very best to treat her no differently than any other friend I had. I was absolutely appalled at the way some people treated her, especially a few of the cops I worked with. We were there to help people. That was our job. We weren’t supposed to be judge or jury to anyone. Some cops never understand that, especially the more religious ones.
The ones who went to church and prided themselves for it were the very ones turning their backs on her and judging her when she needed help the most. They were the very ones condemning me for hanging out with her.
Some of those officers told me I was jeopardizing my career. I wasn’t. And, if that had been the case, I was definitely in the wrong line of work. They didn’t approve of it. As far as they were concerned, she was beneath them. I think that’s pathetic. They missed out on an amazing relationship with an amazing person.
She told me from the beginning that people would judge me for being seen with her. She was certainly right about that. It’s horrible at the things some people said to me and said about her. I was told to “be careful” about who I was hanging out with. I heard it constantly.
For the record, I’m VERY careful about who I hang out with. I don’t hang out with people who will turn their back on someone who needs help just because of what others might think. I refuse to break bread or drink with someone who believes they’re superior to someone else because of their beliefs. I have no use for that kind of person.
I can’t help but wonder what those self-righteous people would have done if they’d been in her shoes when they were children. What would they have turned out to be if they’d been abused the same way she had been? What if they were alone, homeless at sixteen, and weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet?
By 2008, I’d decided if I ever did write a book, I’d combine the stories and make it one fictional story based on real-life events. That planning and inspiration was the beginning of what’s now The Private Diaries Series.
I created a fictional male lead who had written about his life since he was fifteen years old. He wrote privately about the things he’d been through—all his one-night stands, his childhood abuse, and using alcohol and drugs as an escape from his past. He was in a downward spiral.
His private journals would be stolen later in life and posted online after he falls in love with a woman who is a stripper and an independent escort, a fictional character inspired by my friend. His documentation of how they met, how they fell in love, and how she brought him back from the brink of self-destruction is the story.
The first fiction novel I ever wrote, The Retirement, was written and published on a whim. It was a simple story that didn’t require a lot of thought or effort to write.
After I dipped my toe in the writing pool with that release, I started writing the story I had been thinking about for decades. I started outlining it back in 2021 as I was learning how to write, publish, and market books. I figured out quickly this story was too big for one book. It had to be told with multiple novels and a continuing storyline. That’s how The Private Diaries series was born.
I called my friend and told her about the new series I was writing. I explained it was a fictional story focusing on a woman who was a stripper and an independent escort as the love interest.
I asked her permission to have my female lead go through things similar to what she’d been through. I thought it might help people understand a side of life they’d generally never see. I wanted my story to be as realistic as possible. I told her I’d change things around to keep people from figuring out who she was. But I wanted this character to be believable. I wanted my fictional female lead to be like her, but I’d only do it with her permission.
She was all for it. She gave me the green light and thumbs up immediately. She wished me luck and told me to call her any time I had a question about the lifestyle. She also told me she was never going to read it. She didn’t want to relive her past or anything like it. I understood.
This is the reason I chose to add a warning at the beginning of every book in the series. She’s not alone. There are tens of thousands of other women like her all over this country who have been through the same things. Her story isn’t as unique as one would think.
Many people are living with traumatic pasts that will haunt them until the day they die. Many of those people also read fiction for entertainment just like we do. If one of them picks up my books, I want them to know what they’re getting.
I’ve been creating these characters in my head for decades even though I’ve only been writing them since 2021. I’ve spent eight, ten, and sometimes sixteen hours a day with them. I’ve become more attached to them than anything else I’ve ever written. I’ve come to care deeply for all of them, even though I made them up. Writing this story has been one of the most mentally exhausting things I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve spent more time with these fictional people than I have with real family and friends.
For the last four years, these characters have only belonged to me and my wife. We’ve worked with them, talked about them, planned with them, and done everything we could do to make them the best they can be for our readers, even the villains. We’ve only shared them with a handful of beta readers. I love these characters with all my heart, even though they don’t really exist. A news story I read twenty-five-plus years ago and a chance meeting with a type of person I’d have never met if it weren’t for my job inspired this series.
These characters may not be real, but their stories, their pain, and their tears are. These subplots were inspired by things that happened in real life to real people. I lived through similar things myself when I was a kid. And what I didn’t go through personally, I’ve seen the end results firsthand in people who have.
With that, the time’s finally here. Jake and all his friends are leaving my computer screen and going out into the real world to be judged by everyone who buys my book. My wife and I can’t protect them anymore. The whole world is now able to judge them.
I hope the world will be kind to them. If you plan on reading my story, I hope you love these fictional characters inspired by real people half as much as I do. I especially hope you like my female lead. She reminds me so much of my friend.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. You guys rock. And for those who have already purchased it, I promise, there’s a twist, a reveal, and a happily ever after ending coming that you won’t believe. My goal is to make you to cry tears of joy when you read the last few chapters of the last book in the series. Happy reading.
-TW
Somewhere around the year 2000, I read a news story online about a man whose private journals were stolen and posted all over the internet. He was humiliated. I couldn’t help but think that scenario would make a fantastic plot for a book someday. That news story was part of the inspiration behind this new romance series. But there’s more to the story.
I was also working as a cop at the Tuscaloosa Police Department at the same time I read that story. I sometimes worked undercover with the state ABC board to bust local prostitutes.
You’d be surprised at some of the people we ended up arresting. One was a Tuscaloosa city councilman, a guy who often insisted police do something about all the prostitution in our town. We did. He’s not a councilman anymore. That arrest even made the TV news and the local paper.
Occasionally we’d have an undercover officer pretend to be an escort and post her services on the internet. Potential Johns would call her and agree to meet in a hotel room we rented. When they arrived, we’d arrest them after they solicited the officer. We were in the adjoining room waiting for the signal to come in and make the arrest.
Once they activated a cell phone for the undercover officer and drove one mile to the hotel to set up. They received over a dozen calls from potential Johns before they got to the hotel. The ad had been up less than five minutes. This is a big business.
Sometimes we’d also put an undercover male officer in a hotel room posing as a John. He’d call escorts who had posted their services online. We ended up arresting dozens of women for offering their services for money during those years.
I’m actually not capable of buying a prostitute. I tried being the John. The women always knew I was an undercover cop the second they saw me. They’d take one look at me and leave. I wasn’t the only one either. Several of us couldn’t get one to commit. We all ended up on the team making the arrests. Some officers were just better at playing the John than others.
One weekend I was hanging out at a local bar here in Tuscaloosa on my night off. One of the women we had arrested for prostitution came in with some friends who worked in the same profession. She recognized me immediately.
She came up to me and (surprisingly) hugged me. She said she wanted to thank me for being so nice and not judging her during the arrest. We sat down and chatted for a while. I don’t know what I expected, but they were no different than anyone else I usually hang out with.
She offered to buy me a drink. I let her, but I bought the next round to even it out.
My team’s arrest was the only time she had ever been busted, even though she’d been doing this since she was sixteen years old. She asked me all about the court process and what she could expect. I told her.
She also danced at a club a few days a week in another town not too far away. That’s how she did her taxes on all of her earnings. She didn’t want to go to jail for tax evasion. Counting every cent she made and claiming it as a dancer would prevent that. She traveled to other towns for “work” too. When I got home that night, I told my wife I’d run into her.
I saw her often when I was at restaurants or drinking in bars downtown off duty. She came up and spoke to me every time she saw me and was always friendly. She even met my wife a few times when we were together. We became friends over time.
Most people I hang out with never knew how she made her living. I never told anyone.
She constantly asked if I was sure I didn’t mind being seen in public with her. She knew what people would think of me if they saw us together and knew what she did for a living. Since I’ve never cared about what anyone thinks, I truly didn’t mind being seen with her. She was a nice, caring person as far as I could tell. I worry about how things actually are, not what they look like.
I haven’t cared about anyone’s acceptance or approval in decades. And I certainly don’t care what others think or believe when it comes to me helping another person. That includes helping people who are drug addicts, strippers, and prostitutes.
NOTE:
YES! She was slim, trim, in her early twenties, and drop-dead gorgeous. She wasn’t your average escort. She was high-priced and took great care of herself. If you’d met her out on your own, you’d have had no clue what she did for a living. Contrary to what you see on TV and read in books, that’s not how it works. Most of these people are as normal as we are.
One night we were talking about my job and the night she was arrested. I told her how the prostitutes (somehow) always knew I was a cop, but I had no clue what gave it away. Well, she knew. And she told me exactly how they’d figured it out. It wasn’t the way I looked.
She said when I walked, I looked around way too much for the average person. I’d also hold my right hand away from my body just slightly more than I did with my left hand. She told me that likely meant I was used to carrying a gun on my right side.
She told me that when I talked to her, I always stood with my left side towards her and my right side (where I carried my gun when on duty) was always the furthest away from her reach. I did that with everyone else too. It’s called a bladed stance. Cops do that so if anyone goes for our gun, they literally have to go past our entire body to get it. It’s a tactic we use all the time.
When I talked to her, I looked down at her chest, but not at her boobs. She noticed I did that with everyone, as if I was watching and ready for an attack. Apparently, I also look at everyone’s hands as soon as I see them.
All those things let her know I was probably a cop. She and her friends had been taught to look for those things in their profession. People who break the law have a vested interest in staying out of jail, so they learn what to look for.
Cops are taught all of these tactics in the academy. I’d been doing them for years. I guess it had carried over into my personal life when I was out drinking with friends wearing jeans and a T-shirt. I’d never noticed. But she did.
Then I understood why she got arrested. The officer pretending to be the John the night she got busted was about as tactical as Barney Fife. To this day, I consider him a disgrace to the badge. I’ve told him that to his face multiple times. We never got along, and most officers agreed with me. He was very unsafe. If he showed up on one of my crime scenes, it was just one more gun I had to worry about shooting me if things went south. He left the job years ago. Good riddance.
My new escort friend’s observation skills were amazing. We started playing a game one night when we were half lit. When someone came into the bar, she’d watch them for a few minutes. Then she’d point out things they did and tell me what she knew about them based solely on the way the person carried themselves.
I knew some of the people she watched and commented on personally. She was dead-on every time. This girl noticed EVERYTHING! It was amazing how well she could read people. It’s a character trait that I’d later give my fictional female lead in The Private Diaries Series.
We also talked about her job at times. She shared some of the things about her profession and how it operated. This young lady even had local politicians, doctors, preachers, an Alabama town mayor, and three local cops who called her every two weeks for her services. She had all kinds of people for clients.
One night she ended up telling me her entire life story and how she came to be where she was in life. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I’d ever heard. I was honored she shared it with me. I’m glad I had become a person she could count on and confide in. I went home and told my wife what the young girl had told me. My wife was as devastated about what happened to her as I was.
I made some phone calls after hearing her story and seeing how it had affected her. We ended up getting her free counseling to help her deal with her past traumas. I had no clue there were so many services available at no cost for those who need them. The therapy helped. I noticed a huge change in her mentality in only weeks. She’s not cured, but she’s gotten better at dealing with what she went through as a child.
I have to acknowledge my wife here. Very few women would be okay with her husband hanging out with a good-looking young woman who worked in the sex industry. But as long as I was honest, my wife and I were good. I have to give her props.
My new friend and I talked about her quitting her job often. I never pushed her. I knew it HAD to be her decision. She once told me I was the only person in her life she’d never lied to, and she was going to keep it that way. She told me that if she ever told me she was done with that lifestyle, she was going to be certain she meant it. She had tried walking away from it a few times before we met, but she always went back.
After a few years, I got a call one night. It was that fateful call I knew was coming someday if she didn’t change professions. An unfortunate incident had come close to costing my friend her life. She almost died from it.
When she woke up in the emergency room hours later and miles away, I was there. She was finally able to ask me what happened. They worked on her for hours to keep her alive. When I told her that, she went silent. She must have lain there for fifteen minutes without saying a word, just staring at the ceiling.
Then she asked me to come to her bedside. She could hardly move. I’ll never forget this. She looked me in my eyes and said, with tears rolling down her face, “I’m DONE with this lifestyle. I promise you I’ll never go back. It’s over.” She’s kept that promise to this very day.
After some time in the hospital, she recovered with very few lasting injuries. At least, very few lasting physical injuries.
I couldn’t help but think her story would also make a great novel. I found her life fascinating. Make no mistake, I’d give anything if she hadn’t gone through all the abuse and none of this had ever happened to her.
She’s so intelligent. I can’t help but wonder what she would have become if any adult in her life had cared enough to step in when she was a child being abused. But nobody ever did. I know people had to know with what all happened. But they did nothing. It’s sickening.
We’ve kept in touch. We’re still friends, even though she now lives hundreds of miles away. She’s gotten married, had children, and works a legit job making good money. She’s also open about her previous life experiences. Her husband knows everything about her past. She hid nothing from him.
I’m proud of her. She’s an amazing person, smarter than the average cookie, and has a heart of gold. She’s one of the most honest, nicest, and trustworthy people I’ve ever met.
I did my very best to treat her no differently than any other friend I had. I was absolutely appalled at the way some people treated her, especially a few of the cops I worked with. We were there to help people. That was our job. We weren’t supposed to be judge or jury to anyone. Some cops never understand that, especially the more religious ones.
The ones who went to church and prided themselves for it were the very ones turning their backs on her and judging her when she needed help the most. They were the very ones condemning me for hanging out with her.
Some of those officers told me I was jeopardizing my career. I wasn’t. And, if that had been the case, I was definitely in the wrong line of work. They didn’t approve of it. As far as they were concerned, she was beneath them. I think that’s pathetic. They missed out on an amazing relationship with an amazing person.
She told me from the beginning that people would judge me for being seen with her. She was certainly right about that. It’s horrible at the things some people said to me and said about her. I was told to “be careful” about who I was hanging out with. I heard it constantly.
For the record, I’m VERY careful about who I hang out with. I don’t hang out with people who will turn their back on someone who needs help just because of what others might think. I refuse to break bread or drink with someone who believes they’re superior to someone else because of their beliefs. I have no use for that kind of person.
I can’t help but wonder what those self-righteous people would have done if they’d been in her shoes when they were children. What would they have turned out to be if they’d been abused the same way she had been? What if they were alone, homeless at sixteen, and weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet?
By 2008, I’d decided if I ever did write a book, I’d combine the stories and make it one fictional story based on real-life events. That planning and inspiration was the beginning of what’s now The Private Diaries Series.
I created a fictional male lead who had written about his life since he was fifteen years old. He wrote privately about the things he’d been through—all his one-night stands, his childhood abuse, and using alcohol and drugs as an escape from his past. He was in a downward spiral.
His private journals would be stolen later in life and posted online after he falls in love with a woman who is a stripper and an independent escort, a fictional character inspired by my friend. His documentation of how they met, how they fell in love, and how she brought him back from the brink of self-destruction is the story.
The first fiction novel I ever wrote, The Retirement, was written and published on a whim. It was a simple story that didn’t require a lot of thought or effort to write.
After I dipped my toe in the writing pool with that release, I started writing the story I had been thinking about for decades. I started outlining it back in 2021 as I was learning how to write, publish, and market books. I figured out quickly this story was too big for one book. It had to be told with multiple novels and a continuing storyline. That’s how The Private Diaries series was born.
I called my friend and told her about the new series I was writing. I explained it was a fictional story focusing on a woman who was a stripper and an independent escort as the love interest.
I asked her permission to have my female lead go through things similar to what she’d been through. I thought it might help people understand a side of life they’d generally never see. I wanted my story to be as realistic as possible. I told her I’d change things around to keep people from figuring out who she was. But I wanted this character to be believable. I wanted my fictional female lead to be like her, but I’d only do it with her permission.
She was all for it. She gave me the green light and thumbs up immediately. She wished me luck and told me to call her any time I had a question about the lifestyle. She also told me she was never going to read it. She didn’t want to relive her past or anything like it. I understood.
This is the reason I chose to add a warning at the beginning of every book in the series. She’s not alone. There are tens of thousands of other women like her all over this country who have been through the same things. Her story isn’t as unique as one would think.
Many people are living with traumatic pasts that will haunt them until the day they die. Many of those people also read fiction for entertainment just like we do. If one of them picks up my books, I want them to know what they’re getting.
I’ve been creating these characters in my head for decades even though I’ve only been writing them since 2021. I’ve spent eight, ten, and sometimes sixteen hours a day with them. I’ve become more attached to them than anything else I’ve ever written. I’ve come to care deeply for all of them, even though I made them up. Writing this story has been one of the most mentally exhausting things I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve spent more time with these fictional people than I have with real family and friends.
For the last four years, these characters have only belonged to me and my wife. We’ve worked with them, talked about them, planned with them, and done everything we could do to make them the best they can be for our readers, even the villains. We’ve only shared them with a handful of beta readers. I love these characters with all my heart, even though they don’t really exist. A news story I read twenty-five-plus years ago and a chance meeting with a type of person I’d have never met if it weren’t for my job inspired this series.
These characters may not be real, but their stories, their pain, and their tears are. These subplots were inspired by things that happened in real life to real people. I lived through similar things myself when I was a kid. And what I didn’t go through personally, I’ve seen the end results firsthand in people who have.
With that, the time’s finally here. Jake and all his friends are leaving my computer screen and going out into the real world to be judged by everyone who buys my book. My wife and I can’t protect them anymore. The whole world is now able to judge them.
I hope the world will be kind to them. If you plan on reading my story, I hope you love these fictional characters inspired by real people half as much as I do. I especially hope you like my female lead. She reminds me so much of my friend.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. You guys rock. And for those who have already purchased it, I promise, there’s a twist, a reveal, and a happily ever after ending coming that you won’t believe. My goal is to make you to cry tears of joy when you read the last few chapters of the last book in the series. Happy reading.
-TW
November 20, 2025
I read this 400 plus page book in less than 2 days, I couldn’t put it down. It’s written in journal form about the life of Jake Hunter. He had a very tumultuous and difficult life and chronicled it in his journals. Jake’s upbringing was appalling, which set the stage for the rest of the book. This book reminds me of all the Law and Order shows rolled up in one. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions and tales that will break your heart. I can’t wait for the next book in the series. I highly recommend reading it.
December 18, 2025
Just enough of everything
Spicy, sweet, shocking…all of the things you look for in a read. I couldn’t put it down and found myself eager to read the continuation. Write fast, TW, because we need to know what happens next. The story flows smoothly, the characters are developed to the point where you can lose your eyes and imagine them standing right next to you, and the spicy scenes are hot enough to steam up the windows. A great read…and I want more!
Spicy, sweet, shocking…all of the things you look for in a read. I couldn’t put it down and found myself eager to read the continuation. Write fast, TW, because we need to know what happens next. The story flows smoothly, the characters are developed to the point where you can lose your eyes and imagine them standing right next to you, and the spicy scenes are hot enough to steam up the windows. A great read…and I want more!
January 28, 2026
I had no expectations going into this book. Having enjoyed The Retirement, I knew this one would be different since it is labeled a romance. I wouldn't really call it a romance; more like a fictional memoir or a coming-of-age story. With a little added spice, of course.
The book starts off slow—nothing really happens until about 40% in—but I guess diaries are like that: day-to-day info dumps. There is some unnecessary information, and stuff gets repeated from time to time, again, I kept reminding myself that these are diary entries.
Despite the slow start and the repetitive information, I couldn't put it down. I have never kept a diary, nor have I ever read one written by someone else. My thought is that if I ever got hold of a stranger's journal/diary, it might captivate me in the same way. At least if they are as interesting as Jake.
From the start, I was invested in Jake’s life. I love that we get to meet him at such a young age. I know this is a series and I'll have to wait for the rest of the story but now I'm just hanging here on the side of this cliff wondering what to read next!
The book starts off slow—nothing really happens until about 40% in—but I guess diaries are like that: day-to-day info dumps. There is some unnecessary information, and stuff gets repeated from time to time, again, I kept reminding myself that these are diary entries.
Despite the slow start and the repetitive information, I couldn't put it down. I have never kept a diary, nor have I ever read one written by someone else. My thought is that if I ever got hold of a stranger's journal/diary, it might captivate me in the same way. At least if they are as interesting as Jake.
From the start, I was invested in Jake’s life. I love that we get to meet him at such a young age. I know this is a series and I'll have to wait for the rest of the story but now I'm just hanging here on the side of this cliff wondering what to read next!
February 27, 2026
I recently read His Private Diaries. It took a bit to get into the story but it does pull you in. I don't want to spoil anything but Jake has had a hard start in life and goes through his troubles. I liked the character and rooted for him. I wasn't sure how the story was going to unfold but it wasn't disappointing. It left me wanting to know what happens next.
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