The Swedish Sex Bomb (LSD, #7)

Author's Notes: (Tag)

Author's Notes: (Tag)

This is the end. Seven stories. A hell of a ride. I apologise to anyone who I failed to offend. Thanks for taking the time to read it. For me, it was a pleasure to write it.

A pleasure?

Can you imagine how it feels when you walk on the beach after an exciting day of writing, still laughing about the jokes you've just made up, feeling wonderful about how the story goes, music on your headphone, the album «Welcome to the Pleasuredome» by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and when you listen to all those fantastic songs... another idea pops up, and another one, and something funny to go with it, so after you return home, you take the laptop and start writing again... Pleasure? Work? «That ain't working. That's the way you do it», Sting and Mark Knopfler sing in «Money For Nothing». That ain't working. That's living a dream and enjoying it at the max. Nothing left to wish for.

One thing was different between writing this LSD series and other books: little miracles happened, like magic. When I start writing a story, I like to start with the ending, so I'll know where I'm going. I started the chapter San José when #5, The Runner (Benny in this book) and Frieda are sitting in the car, not knowing what to do. Benny puts the radio on to listen to some music. I didn't want to drop in the middle of the song San José, so I thought it would be nice to hear something else first. Nat King Cole came up. I wrote the lines and did research on Mister Cole, to see if there was something I could use (the story about him, buying a flat in a white neighbourhood). Then I read about the father of Nat King Cole, a butcher, like Benny's father. San José, Saint Joseph, is the father of Jesus, with a link to the church where Agneta married. The song «San José» goes about going home after chasing an impossible dream, which makes Benny think of the house of his father. Any writer would like to start the chapter with an unforgettable song from an artist who has some kind of link to the father of Benny, but it would take years of research to find one artist whose father was a butcher. Nat King Cole just dropped from the sky, the perfect start of the chapter, a little miracle. The High Powers, who pull the strings in this universe, might just have given my books their blessing.

Another item was the date of birth of #5: the 24th of June, 1995 (it has a meaning; it was the day on which the South African rugby team won the World Cup, the day on which Nelson Mandela showed the world what we can achieve when black, white and coloured work together). After I set this date, I did research on the Chinese astrology for that year, the Yin Wood character of the Pig, and the Zodiac astrology for the characteristics of Cancer. I wanted to use some of the info in book 5, «The Austrian Aroma», when Shirley defends her belief in astrology and Higher Powers. The results were impossibly accurate: every quality I found was already part of the character of #5, a character I invented a year earlier and followed through four entire novels. Of course, nobody believes in astrology, but so much coincidence is not possible in normal life. Like people in the old days, I have only one explanation: another little miracle happened here.

How many songs do you know with the word 'butcher' in them? How many of them also have a line about a banker (tycoon) in debt? «You've Got Me Rocking» fitted the chapter like a glove. Another little miracle helped me to write a better plot.

Two weeks before I started with book 4, «The Spanish Spotlight», I still didn't have any idea how to fix a major dilemma in the plot. At that time, I tried to help a writer-friend from Canada with a problem he had, and... in one of his e-mails, he put the exact words I needed to solve my problem. Coincidence?

How about this: at the start of the project, I 'invented' all the main characters of the seven stories, worked out the details about them, and wrote already a few snippets to get to know them better. Four weeks before I started to write book 5, «The Austrian Aroma»... I met Shirley in person, and she became a lovely friend. Well, she's not Shirley exactly. The name of the woman I met was two whole letters apart from "Little Maria from Austria" and she has only almost the same physics, hobbies and character as the Shirley I invented. How many people do you know who have a direct line with the High Powers and tell you about future events like Shirley? My friend Little Maria does it all the time. Coincidence? I call it «a little miracle».