By ML Skye (Guest Blogger)
My favorite question inspires
everything
What if?
It's a great question, yeah? I have to
credit my mom with planting it in my head, at a very young age, to
keep my busy when she'd rather be doing something else—usually
reading a good book—whenever I asked the inevitable 'Why?'. She'd
stop whatever she'd be doing, look at me, and say: Instead of asking
'Why?' and expecting an answer, why don't you use 'what if?' and
figure it out.
She started a lifelong obsession for
me.
My dad got in on the act, too. Star
Trek re-runs always aired about the time he got home from work and
he'd sit and watch with me and my two brothers. We'd be watching an
episode and one of us would say: What if Spock captained the
Enterprise instead of Kirk? Or, what if the transporter
stopped working before the person fully reintegrated? Of course,
growing up in the seventies gave me a lot of good fodder for my
favorite question. Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Wars
fed my love of science fiction and lent themselves to imagining all
kinds of crazy scenarios.
Having parents and grandparents who
read widely and encouraged me to do the same opened up a myriad of
mind-bending worlds for me to devour and live in for a while. My mom
and her group of friends were romance junkies and their books spurred
my interest in all kinds of new genres: time-travel, suspense, even
espionage. I never lacked for new reading material and always had an
opportunity to try every new style of romance when it came out, which
also means I got to ask my favorite question—a lot.
So… I apply the same curiosity to
writing. Almost every story I've ever written starts with 'What if'?
With Midwinter Crises, I asked: What would happen if two
people loved each other madly, but split over a career issue? Then
had to work together post break up? For my Furlough 99 Novella,
Shyler: Finding Home, the question started with: What if a
police inspector traveled to the end of the known galaxy to get her
bad guy? If I get stuck or blocked, regardless of whether I'm writing
speculative fiction, contemporary, or magical fantasy, I can always
ask the question to shake things loose.
The scenarios spin out from there and
the story unfolds, sometimes really fast with words flying faster
than I can type. Other times, the question will spawn a million more,
and that's when wrangling everything together into something cohesive
is harder than herding cats. The ideas take on a mind of their own
and my brain explodes.
Okay, not really. But all the
information has to go somewhere, right? Enter the big book of What If
Possibilities, also known as my Works in Progress file. I may never
finish everything I start, but I have an extremely cool log of almost
every 'What if' question I've ever asked. And who knows, I could get
lucky and complete all the random stories in my head. I've definitely
learned never to say never—I couldn't ask 'What if' if I did.
For my current release, Boyfriend's
Brother, I asked what if my heroine met the wrong guy first? The
manuscript grew out from there, not easily, but every time I hit a
wall, I'd ponder the 'what ifs' until I had what I wanted on the
page. I'm seriously thrilled with how everything finally came
together.
Please enjoy the following blurb and
excerpt…
Blurb:
Chloe Timmons and Jason McIvey are each
at a crossroads.
On what may be her last weekend as
'just a girlfriend', Chloe quells her restlessness by hitting the
town and runs into her boyfriend's brother, Jason, a fellow pilot in
the area for an air show. A barroom brawl brings them together.
Chloe thinks her boyfriend Marc may
propose, and she's not sure she's ready for marriage. Jason McIvey
has to decide if he's staying in the military or going civilian. When
Chloe and Jason spend the night together, it doesn't make either
decision easier.
Excerpt:
Chloe ducked and looked up in Jason's
direction. "Little help here?" She stood back up, and Max's
fist connected with her jaw, her head smacking back against the wall.
Stars burst behind her eyelids, but she
shook it off. Jason sucked in a breath and winced.
He kept his tone light. "Thought
you'd never ask."
He stepped into the fray, grabbing one
of the guys and spinning him around to meet his fist. The guy went
down, but Jason got grabbed by the arm and Max got a solid punch in,
splitting Jason's lip in the process. Jason landed his own jab and
knocked Max backward to land on a pool table. Max didn't get back up,
and Jason's face showed more than a little satisfaction with laying
the guy out.
He made his way over to Chloe, and with
their backs together, they slowly made their way out of the bar. Only
two of Max's friends made an attempt to follow, but the crowd more or
less swallowed them up when Jason and Chloe stumbled out the door.
Once outside, Chloe leaned up against
the exterior, slowly sliding down until she crouched close to the
sidewalk. Still seeing stars, she figured she hit her head harder
than she thought. Looking over toward Jason, two of him hovered in
her line of sight, but she attributed that to the alcohol. She let
out a chuckle that ended on a groan.
Jason sucked in the cool night air,
then turned to check on her. Her cheek burned, and she'd lay odds
she'd have a big purple bruise along her cheekbone. Bet that would
look really lovely tomorrow.
He used his thumb to wipe the blood off
his lip. "Well, that was fun."
~*~
I hope you enjoyed reading. And a huge
thank you to Lisabet for hosting me on her blog!
Oh, and I'm giving away a copy of MidwinterCrises, the first book in the Capital City Seasons Series.
Please leave a comment—maybe even
note your favorite 'What if' scenario—and provide your email
address. I'll contact the lucky winner off list.
Best regards,
ML Skye
Creating Character Connections… One
Page at a Time
Silver Publishing:
https://spsilverpublishing.com/boyfriends-brother-ebook-p-60475.html
About ML Skye
Currently a writer and editor by trade,
ML Skye, also writing as Skylin O'Thomas and Skye Ritchey, can
usually be found on IM or browsing the web while the TV plays in the
background. She credits her parents for developing her fascination
with 'what if' scenarios.
Growing up, she watched a mish mash of
science fiction, westerns, and military dramas and read about other
worlds and distant times along with contemporary romance… thanks to
her mom's reading group—a wild, wacky bunch with diverse tastes
that never failed to entertain.
She started writing short stories in
grade school, switched to poetry in high school, and got sidetracked
by a myriad of jobs and starting a family. But the writing called
again and now she gravitates toward the genres she grew up loving,
combining them with sensual and erotic romance set in different times
and places. Meeting her husband on a blind date—after swearing
she'd never go on one—ML Skye decided to never again say never.
'What if' couldn't exist if she did.
She resides in Ohio with her husband
and children.
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