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I hadn’t been writing long when I got a note from my friend Stephanie asking me to submit a short story for the Valentine’s Special at the Royal Academy of Bards. I immediately said yes and started trying to organize my thoughts around a Valentine-oriented scene featuring the characters from my first book, Shaken. No matter how hard I concentrated, the story wouldn’t come. So I set it aside and went to see a few movies. One of those was a midnight showing of Star Trek: Nemesis. Lest you think a sci-fi tale inspired Mulligan, I should add that I barely remember what the movie was about. As I sat down in the theater, it was as though the character of Louise Stevens took the seat on my left to tell me all about her heartbreak at losing Rhonda, the love of her life for thirty years. Well into her story, we were joined by Marty Beck, who insisted on telling her side of the story, of how she turned on the charm in an effort to hustle Lou at the driving range, only to be rudely dismissed. I somehow managed to sleep that night, but by the next afternoon, I had 8,000 words – their meeting and initial brush-off, a fair bit of conflict, and a very happy ending.
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