You see, when a mommy and a daddy really like each other, sometimes they…
Wait, sorry. Not that kind of birth.
This post may contain spoilers. Reader beware. And, honestly, if you haven’t read the book yet, do you really care about my thoughts? Why are you here? Go buy my book already!
So, Lloyd Gibson. What can be said about him? He first popped up in my head somewhere between 2009-2011. I can’t tell you exactly when I thought of him. I worked overnights at Wally’s World at the time, 11pm-7am, and nothing fuels the creative process better than regular sleep deprivation. One of my buddies and co-workers did a lot of artwork on the side, and we started spit-balling ideas about a graphic novel that we never ended up acting on. When that idea was broached, Lloyd formed in my head almost immediately.
At the time, I hadn’t yet fully given up on a book I’d already written. I started writing my own High Fantasy series when I was 17, and even completed the first book, but never felt overly confident in what I’d achieved. Honestly, it may have even been a good book. I still have the manuscript, but I haven’t revisited it in over a decade and a half. Over the following years, I just quietly stopped trying without meaning to. I’d like to revisit it, some day in the future, but for now, I use it as inspiration.
So, in this original fantasy book, I had characters with certain skillsets. One was a Shadow Walker, who in that world, was an assassin. Another was a Soul Seer, who could see the auras of everyone around him, and read their emotions like a book. A third had the ability to sling fireballs.
Sound familiar?
I took elements that I really liked, reworked them into a real-world setting, and voila. I spent years thinking about it, always planning to do it someday, yet never actually did. I told myself, when I was younger, not to become one of those guys who always tells people he’s writing a book, yet never produces anything. That’s exactly what I became, and even that fell to the wayside. I stopped doing any form of writing for a solid decade. Then, in 2022, while visiting a friend, she asked me point-blank how my book was going. I stared back utterly dumbfounded by the question, and simply had no answer. I always had excuses – how does one find time to write and work a full-time job? And be a present husband?
That was in February. I went back to work, reviewed my annual leave balances, and booked off the entire month of June. I spent the next few months mostly ignoring it, only occasionally thinking about it, and life went on as usual. When June rolled around, and I started my “working holiday”, I no longer had any excuses to hold me back. So, I sat down and got started.
I did no prep work, other than thoughts in my head. When I wrote my first sentence, all I knew for sure about the story was that Lloyd used to be a thief, stole something he shouldn’t have, and now lived in hiding. I knew a female fire investigator would hire him for a case. I knew who was burning down the homes, and why. I knew who had powers, and why they had them. I didn’t name them until I started writing their first scenes. Once their names entered the word document, their entire personalities followed afterward.
I wrote, fervently, by the seat of my pants. Most of what came out wasn’t even a thought before my fingers started attacking the keyboard. I created Pierre Moreau, Martin Jansen, and Johnathan Bauer on the fly. Jonas Wong formed in my head after Lloyd walked into his office. I named Bradstone at the same time he told Lloyd his name. When Lloyd’s phone rang, I didn’t know his mother was calling until Lloyd answered it. Brian Fowler didn’t exist until I realized Casimir had to have had help. Hell, between Fowler and Bradstone, it took me until Act 3 before I finally settled on which side they were on – Vardot or Council.
I’d sit and write, get up and walk around, then write some more. I’d find my wife, interrupt whatever she was doing, and bounce ideas off her. At the completion of every chapter, I’d rush out and find her so she could read it. She experienced the entire story live, as it unfolded, and her reactions were genuine and amazing to watch.
I finished the rough draft in 8 days.
After two weeks of editing, I completely changed my first chapter. My original launching point was full exposition, an info-dump right from the start. That wasn’t great and wouldn’t exactly hook readers. Info dumps are useful, but only when those reading are already invested. So, I chopped it up, spliced and diced, and inserted it into various parts throughout the book. Then I created Bob Arsenal, and the rest was history. Personally, I love that my first chapter was the last thing I wrote for In Like Lloyd. By doing it last, it allowed his personality to become fully formed and fleshed out in my mind, letting me toss him into an absurd situation and let it play out.
And that is how Lloyd came to be. I published on Amazon Kindle, under its original (and not well received) cover, exactly one year later.
In my next post, I’ll talk about the trials and tribulations that came with prepping the manuscript for publishing, why I chose to self-publish, and why I stopped using that first cover. Then, after that, maybe I’ll write something that has nothing to do with my books. Keep it fresh, right?
If anyone reading this has any questions or has something they’d like me to discuss in a future blog, feel free to click “Contact” in the header above. There’s a comment section below, but I have no idea how to make it open to the public. If you want a free short story, check below and subscribe to my newsletter. I promise I won’t spam you with stupid shit. Honestly, I haven’t even fully worked out how to use it, and those who’ve already subscribed have only received that story, and literally nothing else.
I should probably work on that.
Until next time.
May the Lloyd be with you.
-Matt