The Birth of Marco Graf

So, for starters, I had my cover for a little over a year! Tragic, right? I’m a cover junkie and when I see a premade that I love, whether I have a story for it yet or not, I’m staking my claim! My cover designer, Anna Coswell, of Cover Couture, is so amazing that I had to turn notifications for her page off to keep me from giving in to temptation. Sad, but true.

Anyway, about this Marco Graf guy. The moment I saw the cover, my mind was made all the way up. This man was gonna be a man of leisure. Ultra-wild, ultra-sexual . . . yep. But, if you know anything about the writing process then you can admit without shame that we, the authors, are not always in control. This was such a time. I worked on this story off and on for about six months. It took that long because I was in a fight–with my character! He didn’t want to have sex with random women for money and for merchandise. Said it made him feel like a prostitute! Ummm, well, that’s what a man of leisure kinda is. But he was opposed. For every section that I wrote, he’d go mute on me and become thoroughly rebellious.

If my characters ain’t talkin’ my hands are tied. So, my hands were tied–sometimes for weeks at a time. Can you believe that?!

So, then I ended up meeting this guy at my last job, who was actually a real male stripper. He was also a professional corporate guy, having worked as a Senior Project Manager for the Nevada Test Site (by way of Los Alamos), for twelve years. He saw me working on my book at work one day and looked at the cover. Without blinking, without hesitation, he goes, “That’s a stripper.” Without blinking, and without hesitation. I responded, “No, he’s a gigolo“. He was like, “Nah, that dude is a stripper.” I was okay with doing the back and forth until he confided in me that he was part of an all-male review based in Texas and showed me their picture. I was sold. And it went from there.

I dug all the way into his brain about how his wife felt, how he got started, what he loved, what he hated . . . all of that! And then we lost touch, which left me pretty much on my own.

But by that time Marco had already pretty much stated which direction he wanted me to go in with him. I wanted him to be a hoe so bad! Not that he’s not a little bit loose, but I wanted him to be alllll the way loose. A chick every night of the week and on the weekends too! And making big bread while he was at it! I like writing those type of men, and then breaking them down for the right woman. Don’t judge me for how my creative works.

Oh, and also, I kept the title that Anna had on the cover already. So I basically structured my story around that title. I 🖤LOVE🖤 to freestyle, because it challenges me, pushes me, and I get to learn new stuff about myself every time.

If Marco interests you at all, you can download, The Graffiti Effect via any of the links below:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JB31WP7
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07JB31WP7
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07JB31WP7