Georgia Red will be my debut novel. I have others that are half-baked, planned, or just dreamed of, but this is the first one I'm actually writing.
Where did it come from? Don't laugh... it came from a role-playing prompt I wrote with ChatGPT. A guy gets lonely and bored sometimes, and I was screwing around one night when I first started messing with AI chatbots. I wrote a basic role-play prompt: smokin’ hot woman, accidental meet-cute, me as the male lead. I didn’t even know “meet-cute” was a thing yet.
It was supposed to be something fun and naughty. It was both of those things, but it was also... more real than I thought it would be, and the story was actually pretty decent. It wasn't... hook up at a bar, mentally bounce on a bed with a mythical hottie, and call it a night. It had background... texture — and, yeah, some mental bed bouncing, but that wasn't a flaw, it was a feature.
I didn't think much of it, thought maybe I was just sleep-deprived and horny. Then I tried it again a few days later. Different loose prompt and... that story was also pretty damned good. While ChatGPT was there as a reactionary 'character', I was writing the story, and, eventually, I stopped the back-and-forth with the AI bot and just wrote all sides myself.
I'm sure this story isn't unique, but it was pretty groundbreaking for me. You see. I've never described myself as a "creative type". I work in a boring ass government job, and do handyman work on the side. I've always been good at guessing the ending of movies and books — I'm almost never surprised by either — but I would never in a million years call myself an author.
Hopefully, you’ll agree that I was wrong about that.
So, about Georgia Red.
Georgia Red is the story of Luke, a gaming dev & computer nerd, and Roxy, a badass corporate finance lawyer. They meet by chance, start to fall in love, and — because Luke is lovably clueless — end up accidentally becoming a viral sensation “shipped” couple.
They are both insanely attractive people because — hello, nobody wants to read romance books about “normal” looking people. OK… some people do, but… this is my first book and I didn’t want to break molds too much. They’re middle-aged Southerners living in Boston, and both have been hurt by lovers in their pasts.
Dating in your 40s, in a big city, isn’t easy for anyone… as I understand it. I personally have been married for 25 years, and the last time I went on a date with anyone other than my wife, the Internet was still mostly text-based.
Anyway, I know it’s a tough scene. Now… add on the pressure from being under a spotlight while you’re trying to get to know each other… toss in some angst from tragic pasts… sprinkle in some trust issues and performance anxiety… garnish it with Southern sass and sheet grabbin' brown-chicken-brown-cow (for those who don’t yet speak Will… that means sex. Lots of it).
That’s Georgia Red.
There will be more on this site about my first couple — backstories, deleted scenes, character bios… hell, I might even bust out a haiku. You never know.
I hope you’ll fall in love with them as I have.
-Will
