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While roaming on a social media site looking for my favorite authors, I came across a group of writers who who were writing as the characters from a favorite series of mine. I was immediately drawn in to the story that was being run at the time and found heaven. A filler to keep in touch with the characters I loved until the next book in the series came out. Eventually, I began to interact with the characters on their individual pages and on their fan page, enjoying the opportunity immensely.

One day, I was approached by one of the characters that I had befriend and asked if I would be interested in writing for a new group they were launching. The group was based on the characters of another series I had fallen in love with. After giving it serious thought and wondering if this was fate kicking my ass for waiting so long to actually write, I decided to go for it.

I was extremely nervous. Here I was, being given an opportunity to write in a public forum. What I posted to the group would be read by a large number of followers. To wet my feet, I chose one of my favorite characters. One that, although had a large presence on the books, was considered a secondary character. I joined in posts and storylines, wrote my own slices of life and waited for someone to take the mantel of my soul mate in the series. I have to admit that in these types of situations, it is easier to write with a partner for those couple interactions.

My mate in the novels was and continues to be a complex character with a wicked sense of humor and the true backbone of the series. A daunting challenge for many and not one that someone can pull off easily. To complicate matters, there was the lack of a backstory for the two, there were only brief glimpses of them, their interaction with the primary characters and personality.

As a result, based on what little one knew of the characters one had to maintain their integrity while creating their world together within the group. This scared off many possible contenders and to be frank, as a result, I too almost threw in the towel not because of the challenge—I took to that like a bee to honey—but because I felt out of the loop due to the nature of the character and the discouragement of losing writing partners even before they started. This occurred something like five times before at last the creator of the group told me, “I have found THE person to play your mate.”

I was excited and decided to hang on a little longer. Thank the gods I did. My partnership with Chris was …magic. We took to each other immediately and the writing was awesome. Kindred spirits, the missing half, whatever, here was someone who got my quirky humor and embraced it, challenged me to a higher level of writing, and became very important to me.

After almost three months of writing bliss, we encountered a situation beyond our control and it was with great sadness and a broken heart that we left the group, striking out on our own. I will be forever grateful to my friend who founded the group and gave me the opportunity to finally write. I will be forever indebted to her for introducing me to my partner. Although it still aches, I will never regret our decision to leave the group and strike out on our own. If those events had not taken place, Chris and I would not be where we are today—authors, independent publishers, writing, laughing, and enjoying the bullet train that we are steering on tracks of our own choosing.

Tomorrow Cecilia Aubrey Day 7: From Role Playing to Author
Bio
Cecilia Aubrey (also known as C. Aubrey) has dabbled in writing on and off over the years. But it was in 2010, when she was offered a life changing opportunity within a role-playing group that writing placed itself front and center. The development of story ideas, research, writing, and participation in bringing those stories to life spurred a desire to take writing to a higher level.

A few months later, Cecilia and her partner in crime, Chris Almeida, began writing suspense driven erotic romance with sexy, technologically inclined men and woman filled with intrigue and enough twists and turns that makes a rollercoaster seem tame.

They have several published short stories to their credit. Their first novel, Countermeasure, was published in January 2012, and the second novel in the series, To Russia with Love, was released in July. Currently they are hard at work on the next installment. Through all the chaos and laughter, they still hold true to their roots bringing their favorite role-play characters and stories to life.