What sparked the idea for Converging lives.

I starting playing a well known word game on line two years ago because I love word games. I soon had a number of games on the go I think 12, three were with friends and the remainder random games generated by the server. I soon found that some people were happy to chat in the text box and some just played without speaking.
It’s always been my habit to open with a hello my name is …… and enjoy the game. If there is a reply the conversation might continue or if no reply then I just play. Often the people who don’t reply just play the one game and move on but I have been playing two people for over a year we have never spoken I do not know their names or gender but we play good games and that is what it is all about.

I played happily for several weeks and heard complaints from some women about predatory males, inappropriate sexual overtures, some women had removed their thumbnail pictures because they were being hit upon. I thought blissfully that because I was more mature that I was unlikely to be hit upon and had the idea reinforced by the fact that some random players resigned as soon as they saw my name and thumbnail. So the first thumbnail in a random game of erect male genitalia was somewhat of a surprise. I found it annoying, in that it felt like a disrespectful thing to do so I resigned that game. Then came the game with the opener   “I am horny ” on balance I wasn’t interested so I resigned that game.  To be fair it is not only men hitting on women, in my chats to some of the players who became my friends, I have heard of women also chatting up and initiating sexual chat.

Now at the start of this process I was pretty naive about what was happening on the Internet and was unused to texting and the terminology. I was playing with a young man probably 20 years younger than me it was a tight game. We had a brief conversation about our interests when he suddenly typed “mm mm you are such a MILF. ” I hadn’t the remotest idea what a MILF was so I had to Google it. When I had finished falling about laughing,  what a crazy idea, I replied  “I am far too old for you to even be thinking that.” He assured me I wasn’t, suggested what fun I could have with a young stud and what fun he could have with an experienced woman. He wanted a meet for live sex, I panicked and resigned the game.

This and a few other encounters sparked my curiosity about exactly what was happening behind the scenes in this game. I started talking to people to find their experiences and found the women who had been seduced into cybersex and Skype sex who had inevitably fallen in love and been hurt, when their love was not reciprocated. The men who were spicing up a life ,where sex with real life partners was scare, but they didn’t want a real time messy affair, but needed a sexual outlet. The people who enjoyd the chase. The people who felt they were providing a service helping people climax and sharing that intimacy with them.

A world I had no idea existed. So this sparked the idea for Converging Lives and the novel was born.