About the Author

 Growing up, Kelli Volonte has realized sometimes you have to be the princess and knight in shinning armor. It has always been important to her that young girls find peace with themselves and learn to love who you are; all the while knowing that being happy fulfills them as people. Instead of thinking falling in love with another person will make them whole.

This is her first published book. She lives in Springfield, Missouri with her mother, brother, dog, and four cats.

Movie Preferences

  Oceans Eleven is an underrated classic. It's kinda like Leo’s Inception, where it takes a few times and a crap ton of attention to understand it, but once you do, the brilliance of it hits like an ocean wave, slowly dragging you into the amazement of it.
   80’s movies are my downfall. 90’s are a close second. But my undying love for The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Take up approximately 80.1232% of my heart, while the rest is reserved for food. You’ve Got Mail, Pretty Woman, and When Harry Met Sally are what I grew up watching, and are now what I base my love life off of; which is probably why I'm still writing the manuscript for my wedding.
   I've never understood why people like horror movies. They're full of negativity and horrible things; why would you want that in your life? The world is hard enough to stay positive in without being reminded of the scary vastness of how much we don't know or can't control.
   Movies and tv shows are my life. They're the best way for me to escape from reality, take a break from things. They also inspire me. I use them as a motivational tool. I'm usually in bed or on my couch in my front room. Before I got a job my mom and I would go see a movie in theatres every other week. It was great bonding time and a nice way to get out of the house. We've only been to the movies once since Campbell 16 closed. I really miss those nights, especially the popcorn. Movie theatre popcorn tastes so much better than regular popcorn.
   Building a fort and filling it like the inside of a pie with soft pillows and fuzzy blankets to settle in for a movie marathon of all of my favorite old time romance classics on a rainy day with candles burning next to a cracked window in an empty, quiet house is still on my to do list, but I like to think I'm close to checking it off.
   If I were to answer that last question honestly it would be sad and depressing and far too emotional than I would like to share, so instead I'm going to write about a day I hope to experience.
   Rain welcomes the hello from a long lost love of a window as the city outside begins to stretch and wake up. The slight breeze waltz in with smell of rain on its jacket as the perfume entices the scent of fresh laundry wandering around the apartment. They greet Frank Sinatra as he speaks a language of love threaded together by music notes of a saxophone.







 

Dan in Real Life

   My brother turns thirteen in December. He's in seventh grade. In my opinion, seventh grade is the hardest year of an already hard age. You're in the middle of everything, lost in a sea of expectations and newfound pressures that come with getting older, especially when it comes to socializing in school. Grades are different and teachers have less empathy. This quick sand is hard for a marathon athlete of life’s hardships at thirteen. Therefore I try to be for him what I needed someone to be for me at his age. These are my guidelines:


you have to let them make their own choices; the best you can do is educate them as much as possible and hope they make the right decision
you can't protect them from everything; letting them make their own mistakes is how they learn
support them no matter what


They're a lot easier to preach than to practice but we’re all doing the best we can do.


   After looking at the most iconic photos of this millennium, I realized what fuels my fire is taking those in a moment fleeting photos that capture something so beautifully astounding and breathless which tells a story far beyond what words could ever do. I want to go to Iraq and India and Ethiopia and so many other places that will strip me of all but the bare necessities to gain perspective and lose the materialistic edge that I'm in a battle with everyday. I want to help those that have suffered far more than I ever will, and those who bear stories most people in this country will never understand. All the while, I want to share that with the world; to inspire those who sit in the back of an economics class listening to over privileged teenagers try to talk about something they know nothing about and feel like the world is against them because only they know the truth; it will be a reminder that the world holds so much more than a life of trying to make millions and losing everything you thought you stood for along the way. Love and selflessness is what holds the world together.


   I like to think that if tubing and hide and seek were Olympic sports, I'd be a gold medalist. While I won't spill any of my secrets for either, hide and seek was a special favorite pastime of mine to play as a kid and still is. My favorite spot in my house to hide was the very back of my mom’s closet, behind all of her long black clothing reserved for certain occasions, upon the plastic tubs in which the contents are still unknown to this day. Sometimes when I was feeling the need to be alone in a quiet, safe space I would climb to the back of the closet in the hallway across from the bathroom. Behind all of my mom’s fancy dresses and past the spare toilet paper, to lay on the comforters and blankets. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that.










 

Movie Quotes

I'm such a sucker for quotes, especially quotes from my favorite movies.

They were too good not to post.

"It only took three months. Twelve years and three months."