The Founder (Trillionaire Boys' Club Book 7)
Page 19
SHIT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Rebecca may just be my favorite ordinary-human heroine I’ve written to date. I loved Bridget from the Trevor’s Harem books and LOVED Chloe Shaw from The Future of Sex, but those ladies were a little bit superhuman in one way or another. Rebecca, on the other hand, is a lot like the rest of us. And she’s a total fucking mess.
(Note: I’m about to use some plural pronouns, so at this point I should remind you that my books are created as a team. It’s me and my partner Sean, planning and shaping stories together. I write the books; he plans the worlds and cleans up my mess after I’m done.)
There were people we drew inspiration from so that I could write Rebecca, but like all good characters, Rebecca quickly outgrew her mold. At the beginning, all we knew was that she was funny as hell. Like, caustically funny. Bitingly funny. The kind of funny that comes with an edge, and is just as likely to scar you as to make you laugh. We knew Rebecca ran a diss website, because we’d been joking with each other for a while about something called SteveHasATinyDick.com. It didn’t exist, but we both thought it’d be hilarious if it did. It’d be a little like Things My Dick Does (NSFW), only with a lot more mockery. Rebecca’s website would be merciless and cruel … but of course, we knew that her ex Steve had done plenty to deserve that cruelty.
The best humor comes from pain, and the funniest people in our world tend to be the ones who are seriously messed up. Rebecca was no different. As I wrote her, I learned the depth of that pain. I saw that she was hilarious only because she was deeply hurt, and that her in-your-face bravado was just a mask to hide a soul that was deeply afraid, deeply insecure. That made Rebecca a delight in two ways. I loved writing her manic, over-the-top, I-can’t-tie-my-shoes-today breed of everyday crazy, and I simultaneously loved writing Rebecca at her most vulnerable.
Because you know what I love writing most of all? Sean will tell you.
Fights.
Fights are the best. When someone snaps and just goes the hell off on someone else? That’s what I live for. Fights get right at the core of who people are. When people fight, they stop speaking in subtext and finally say what they really mean. People who seem so kind show their true faces when they suddenly fight dirty. In explosive moments, we show the world our real selves. It’s bliss for a writer.
That’s why I loved Rebecca so much. It’s not that she and Evan fought so much as she fought and he tried his best to bring her back to center. There were some wonderful moments in this story where Rebecca simply blew up for no apparent reason that Evan could see. You knew why she was mad, because you’d seen what Steve or others had done to her in the past. But Evan? The poor guy.
But of course, even the most stable heroes have damage of their own, don’t they?
In the end, I loved seeing how these two came together. Rebecca had obvious baggage, whereas Evan’s was hidden. She brought him out of himself because she has no filter whatsoever, and at the same time he helped her to find limits. They complemented each other, like yin and yang. And isn’t that how a good couple is supposed to work? To … make each other whole, and be their rudder?
We’ll see how things go with the next two folks you meet: Expendable Chic’s Hampton Brooks and a woman who doesn’t remotely share his worldview. I hope they’re as crazy. I hope they’re a totally screwed up. You can follow them in The Designer, which follows this book in the Trillionaire Boys’ Club series. Even if you’re reading this note close to this book’s release date, you won’t have long to wait.
I guess that’s it, but if you’re feeling keyed up and want to discuss my books with other readers, you should absolutely join my Facebook reader group here. It’s a party.
Until next time, happy reading.
Aubrey Parker
July 2017