"Morning Max," Mike called as he headed to the coffee pot, "Thanks for making coffee."
"I do every morning Wheeler, you're just not up early enough to drink it."
Mike chuckled at her and grabbed himself a mug, he had an idea for a novel. A series of novels and was excited to get started.
"Why are you up this early Mike? Something wrong."
"Got a story idea. I think I can bang out a few chapters today."
"Oh? Hit me with it, I'll tell you if it's stupid or not."
Mike knew that was coming, he bounced a lot of ideas off his roommate and she always had common sense suggestions. He was sure he could write without her it would just take longer and several drafts later before he'd be done. Something he thought his publisher would whine about. But he was a relatively famous writer, so he was sure he could get away with it.
For her part, Max was grateful that Mike let her stay at his place, rent free no less. Mike wasn't her best friend, but he was a good friend nonetheless. She didn't have a best friend. Her job at the lab kept made any social life completely non-existent.
She was reading the latest science news on her laptop at the breakfast nook in the loft. "I know you aren't the least bit interested in this but they are going to fire up the LHC in a few weeks."
"I might be semi-excited if I even knew what that was, Max." Mike opened his own laptop opposite her in the nook.
"I thought you were supposed to be science geek?"
"I wrote about science that interested me. I'm guessing seeing as you're a particle physicist that's interesting news to you."
Max rolled her eyes. "Large Hadron Collider. Think of Hadrons as in between Boson's and Fermions."
Mike facepalmed. "Of course, how could I forget!"
Max rolled her eyes, "Ok you've obviously found the Moron particle. So the TL;DR version, it's theorized that Boson's and Fermions overlap exactly half of the Hadrons on each side. We've pretty much proven the Fermion side, that's electrons, protons, and neutrons to you, but we really only theorized the Boson side. LHC is trying to find the Higgs particle. Scientists call it the Higgs-Boson particle. The stupid press calls it the God Particle."
"Related to the Big Bang?"
Max rolled her eyes. "No, more like to reality as we know it. You'll need about seven more years of university for me to explain the rest to you dumbass. By the way, have I mentioned how grateful I am for the free rent?" She smiled at him.
"They give you a big pipe for an internet connection, so I'm ok with your freeloading." Mike smiled back at her.
"Screw you Wheeler, I can throttle your connection anytime I want." She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Yeah yeah… so do you want to hear my idea or not?"
"Knock yourself out. I'm listening."
"Ok, I haven't worked out all the details yet, but the basics are that a young boy has been kept in a lab for eleven or twelve years, he has an ability or two and they are running experiments on him to turn him into a some kind of super weapon against the Russians. He escapes and is found by a group of girls looking for their missing friend."
Max just looked at him, "Who's your target audience?"
Mike shrugged, "I don't know, boys around twelve or thirteen?"
"Have you looked at that kind of young adult stories in movies, Tv and on the bookshelf?"
"Not really, why?"
"For crying out loud Wheeler, you're a writer, do some research. Strong female characters are in. You will get more boys reading it if it's a female character, and you will get actual girls to read it if she develops a romantic interest in the boy that finds her."
Mike sat back. Shit. She's right. How did I miss that?
Max saw his look and said, "It's still your idea Mike, you just change genders around and it works better. I'm speaking strictly as a girl. Just remember what it was like when you were twelve or thirteen and you saw a pretty girl you liked."
"I am, but she wanted nothing to do with me, but ended up being my redheaded roommate anyway. You know I didn't have any girlfriend's Max you don't need to rub it in."
"Sorry Mike. I know that's a sore spot for you. So write the main character as lonely who finds this girl, she's sweet and innocent. Scared and just as lonely. Doesn't even know what a friend is let alone a boyfriend."
"Shit. I wish I'd thought of that."
"You would have gotten there. A lot of your novels feature that very theme, maybe you don't see it but I do… and so do all of your readers."
XXXXX
"Ok, I sent you the draft of the first chapter in email. Give it a read and give me your honest opinion. Remember Max Friends Don't Lie. If something really blows let me know. Feel free to ask any questions, if you have questions, other readers are likely to also."
Max opened up the document and started reading.
"1983?"
"No cell phones. I'm not having the characters rely on cell phones and google searches. They have to use walkie-talkie or something. And the library, where they'll need to be able to read."
Max laughed, "Good idea." She continued reading. Suddenly she felt a little sick, but recovered quickly
A few minutes later, "Did you just introduce a monster?"
"Yeah," Mike swallowed, he was feeling a little lightheaded. "It will figure in the story later. You don't look good Max, you feeling ok?"
Max put her hand to her stomach, "Felt a little nauseated, not from the story," she gave him a faltering smile. "And no, mister, not my time of the month.
He held up his hands, "TMI, Max. Keep it to a minimum."
"I like how you use this Will character as a vehicle for the mother's and party's actions. He's not in the forefront but the events surround his going missing."
"I needed, something. I don't even like the character so he's not going have a lot of dialog. And he's going to be bit whiny. I'll find some use for him. It's mainly about the friendship of the other characters and the girl."
"I like how they are going to have to avoid this Brenner guy, but eventually have to deal with the monster. This is a good chapter Mike."
A little while later Max said, "Oh! She's telekinetic, reliving your X-Men days Mike?"
He smiled at her.
"Poor Benny. He was the first person to show her kindness. I love how you describe her smile and her eyes. Why did you have her head shaved?"
"I want to generate sympathy. For girls I know that's a big thing to have their hair cut like that."
"I have nightmares about that. That's a good touch. Boys will feel sorry for her too."
"You haven't given her a name yet?"
"Still thinking about that. I think it's going to be a number. Not thirteen though, too cliché. I'll make it a prime number or something."
Mike felt a lurching in his stomach. He was going to be sick.
"Eleven." He said to Max and ran to the bathroom.