Fun Facts for “Nothing But A Fling”

Factoid One
The whole idea of Vanessa and Megan's relationship starting off as a fling didn't come until way late in the creation of the novel. Seriously...I was almost done with the book but I wasn't happy. Something was missing. The way I had originally written the book up until then, Vanessa and Megan had started off dating and becoming "girlfriends" rather quickly.
But like I said: something was missing. I agonized over it for a while and then I came up with the plot device of having Megan having to move to New York City. Once I came up with that, the rest fell into place: Vanessa feeling like the last thing she needed was a relationship because she had to focus on keeping La Vida Mocha afloat, and both women feeling like all they could offer each other was a mere fling.
It required a MAJOR rewrite of the manuscript up to that point which took 2 weeks!

Factoid Two
Remember how Megan's ex, Cindy, cheated on her with a man? Well, originally, I had a scenario envisioned in which Megan would catch Vanessa hanging out with her gay best friend, William, one day and then Megan would automatically assume that Vanessa was cheating on her...with a man. My plan was to use that as the device which would split the couple apart temporarily.
I ended up scrapping that idea, but I did use elements of it in my 2nd book, "A Matter of Trust."

Factoid Three
Speaking of William, originally his name was Javier and he was Hispanic. But as that character developed and I realized how camp I was making him, I began to get worried about offending Hispanic people, which is the last thing I wanted to do. So, Javier became William and William became a plain vanilla white guy. Well, a white guy who likes wearing fishnet t-shirts.

Factoid Four
Remember how Vanessa and William pretend to be a couple for the benefit of William's parents?
I had an idea to include a scene in which William's father is in Carlsbad for some reason and decides to visit La Vida Mocha. Once there, he sees Vanessa and Megan kissing. Vanessa notices him and then has to explain herself, also telling William's dad that he needs to talk to his son about certain things. In the end, I decided it didn't fit in the story overall.

Factoid Five
La Vida Mocha was always named La Vida Mocha right from the get-go. I never considered it naming it anything else. When I started writing the book, I thought to myself, "If I owned a coffeeshop, what would I name it?" And "La Vida Mocha" popped into my head.
I'm sure I must have heard that phrase used somewhere before, that's why it was in my head.
I did some digging, though, and as it turns out, there was a mobile coffeeshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico called La Vida Mocha, but from what I could tell, they are no longer in business..

Factoid Six
I also imagined a plot device whereby one of Vanessa and Megan's friends gets Covid but then I decided I didn't want that much angst in my novel.

Factoid Seven
I really had fun making Vanessa this supernaturally gorgeous goddess-type creature. And I had even more fun playing off of that in my second book, "A Matter of Trust."
I think all of us, at one point in our lives, have seen that one unbelievably, knee-weakening beautiful woman who just makes your head spin when you look at her. That's Vanessa.

Factoid Eight
That being said, I had originally written a scene in which Vanessa and Megan get into an argument because of how much Megan keeps complimenting Vanessa on how pretty she is and Vanessa hating it because she hates when women treat her like a trophy girlfriend.

Factoid Nine
Originally, this book was going to be a one-off. But about halfway through writing it, I decided I could make it a series and that the second book had to be about Chloe.

Factoid Ten
When Sienna popped into the story at the beach house, I was originally going to have her put the moves on Vanessa at some point during that weekend. But then I started seeing the potential in Sienna and decided I might one day want to write a book about her.

Bonus Factoid
Originally, I was going to have Vanessa and Megan move to New York City!
But I think we can all agree now that I made the right choice in having them stay in wonderful Carlsbad, California!