What if?  I used to dread those words.  I used to work with Jerry, an executive producer at a small (okay, minuscule) production company and those of us who did any writing for him knew that no good would come of any of this man's ideas, especially those prefaced with 'What if....' Of course, most of his 'what ifs' were along the lines of "What if...the galactic warriors have to pretend to be strippers on this alien planet?"  Or "What if...these women end up in a bar in the middle of a wet t-shirt contest and have to pretend to be contestants?" or "What if the only way these vampires can be killed is by a werewolf with a magic sword? and the werewolf is a stripper?"  Jerry was obsessed with strippers, big boobs (the kind that stood at attention even when their owner lay down), and bizarre plot devices that had no place in a movie not destined for straight-to-video release and a good shot at winning a Golden Turkey Award.  You learned to pick your battles and include at least one scene shot in a strip club, even if it was the medieval equivalent of a titty bar.  It was the way of things.  

But oh, did I learn to hate those two words.  'What if?'  

Then, a few months ago I had to come up with a story for Ravenous Rendezvous.  I’d been working on a novel based on a famous succubus and, while this particular plot line didn't lend itself to erotica, I found myself thinking those dreaded words:  What if...? What if a woman who has succubus in her family tree (sort of like a recessive gene) and can't have sex without draining her men dry (pun sort of intended) of life essence meets a man with incubus in HIS gene pool, with much the same problem?  And if they had sex...who would feed off of whom?  And what if the part-succubus worked in a STRIP club?  

Damn you, Jerry.  See what you did to me?  

So I wrote Succubusted and was pleased as anything when it ended up as the story of the day on December 1st, Ravenous's official launch date.  It stayed in the Top 10 for a while too, which made me very happy indeed.  So thank you to everyone who read it!   I got my first official review from the Romance Bureau of Investigation (if you haven't been to their site, check them out – their premise and review style is a hoot and I absolutely love them) and it was positive!  

Lesson learned?  The words 'what if' are not necessary bad unto themselves.  They can used for good instead of evil.  But if they're uttered by a semi-insane executive producer with a fixation for women with faux boobs and a predilection for pole dancing, not to mention character hooks like "What if...one of the characters is obsessed with vitamins?"

Run away.  Very quickly.  

Tags: succubus | succubusted | bad movies | inspiration | romance bureau of investigation

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