Sheena Binkley – 10 Things You Didn’t Know About In Love With My Best Friend

10 Things You Didn’t Know About In Love With My Best Friend

by: Sheena Binkley

I enjoyed writing In Love With My Best Friend, which tells a tale of two friends finding love unexpectedly. But there are some things you may not know about the book or what led me to writing this book.

Here are ten things you may not know about the book:

10. In Love With My Best Friend is a fictional story: I have received various comments on whether the book is in fact fiction. Although I do write stories that display various personalities from people I know (friends, family, etc.), the book does not depict anyone from my life.

9. The versions on Amazon and Barnes & Noble are different: When the book was first published, I was only going to publish the book on Barnes & Noble only, but I decided to expand the publication by putting it on Amazon. At first, the versions were the same, but after I completed the conversion process on Amazon, the story had minor differences (since as a certain location), but the story is still the same.

8. Some of the places in the story are real: Since I grew up in Houston, there are a lot of places I know and grew to love. The setting and places in the Barnes and Noble’s version of In Love With My Best Friend are in fact real (Maggino’s, The Corinthian, Aquarium, Perry’s Steakhouse & Grill), while in the Amazon’s version, the some of the places are fictional (Angelica’s).

7. A soap opera was my inspiration for In Love With My Best Friend: Before I wrote the story, I had to think up the basis of the story and which direction I wanted it go. One day, I was watching General Hospital (which is my favorite soap by the way), and I started to think about the idea of best friends being in love with each other. Although there wasn’t a plot on the soap that had this scenario, I instantly wanted to write about the subject, but have a soapy edge to it. Hopefully the story didn’t provide too much of a soap opera storyline, but I just wanted to have the right amount for an enjoyable read.

6. The Ending: I know several readers have commented about the ending, and even I had to admit the ending was a bit short. I was going to include an epilogue at the end explaining Trevor and Camille’s HEA, but since another story will be coming soon, I figure readers will have a chance to read how Trevor and Camille’s relationship progressed since they finally proclaimed their love for each other.

5. Chelsea Was Not Going To Be Camille’s Roommate: At first, I was intending to have Chelsea be a coworker of Trevor’s and the two would have fell in love at work; but I figured why not throw in the fact that Camille knew Chelsea and they were college roommates.

4. The Wedding Scene Was Different: The wedding scene was quite hilarious in the book, but I had a different scenario in mind. When writing, I was not going to have anyone know about Trevor and Camille until the wedding, when Camille confessed her love for him. In other words, Camille would have been present and in a bridesmaid dress when she broke the news. Since I decided to write the story as a novella, I changed several scenes and have everyone figure it out before the wedding.

3. There Was a Sex Scene: Trevor and Camille had a bit of sexual tension in the story, but they didn’t go further than kissing and touching. I did write a sex scene between the two, but decided to scrap it, because I felt it would have been out of character for the two (especially Camille).

2. A Series Was Never Intended: Usually with series, I like them, but on the other hand I don’t. I usually like to keep things simple and give the characters a happy ending. Since the book’s release, I have received comments from readers asking whether there will be another story explaining Tia and her relationship with Charles and Eric. I started to think about that as well, especially since there is so much potential between Tia and Charles and the comment Camille made regarding the tension between the two since high school. So yes, there will be another story coming that will feature Tia and whether her relationship with Eric has progressed and the issue she has with Charles (and trust me, it’s a doozy!).

1. In Love With My Best Friend Was Not The Original Story To Be Released: In Love With My Best Friend was not the first story I wanted to publish. In fact, I had an entire different story to tell; but I felt the story was too drama -filled to publish (Yep, I felt it was too much drama)! Instead, I wanted to produce a romantic story, because I’m a sucker for romance :-) The story that was set to publish was Baker Six, which tells a tale of close-knit friends reuniting when one of their own dies in a tragic car accident; but was it an accident? With many secrets surrounding the friends, they soon realize they may not have known each other as well as they thought. The book was going to be a 3-part series, which detailed each friend, their secret, the reveal and the aftermath. With this story, two of the characters may be quite familiar. I decided instead of publishing this story, I would use two characters, Trevor and Camille, to create In Love With My Best Friend. Baker Six provided their back story (which may be a little altered) as well as a few twists that prevented their relationship to progress. Twenty chapters of the Baker 6 are available on my blog at sheenabinkley.wordpress.com as well as my blog on Goodreads. More chapters will be uploaded soon.