{Special Guest Post} Exposure By Morgan & Jennifer Locklear (@MJLocklear)

Publicist Shaunna Noble is no stranger to the ego-filled dysfunction of Hollywood's elite, but is she ready for her two biggest clients to turn into her worst nightmare?

Kyle Petersen and Michelle Cooper are Hollywood royalty, everyone's favorite celebrity couple, but while on location filming their new summer blockbuster, Kyle ambushes his wife with divorce papers and orders Shaunna to destroy Michelle in the media. Unwilling to comply, Shaunna spectacularly and publicly quits her job, humiliating Kyle in the process.

David Quinn, a struggling actor cast alongside the A-listers, is caught in the crossfire. When pictures surface of David and Michelle out on the town, media and fans rush to crown them Hollywood's new hot couple. Kyle explodes, tensions boil over, and everyone's lives and careers are thrown into jeopardy. 

So what's a publicist to do? Especially when Shaunna finds herself falling in love with the sexy and talented David. Can she put out fires on the set while keeping the flames burning in the bedroom?

Love, lies and passion. What happens when the naked truth is exposed?

Read our 5 Smoking Guns review of Exposure - HERE!

Guest Post - Morgan & Jennifer Locklear

So, we’re experimenting with this guest post a bit. We decided to write about what it’s like being married to another writer, but without knowing what the other person was going to say. We think the side by side comparison will truly demonstrate our similarities and our differences. Hopefully, what we say here today won’t ignite any new debates, but then again that might be great material for a follow-up post. *taps chin*

WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING MARRIED TO ANOTHER WRITER

Jennifer’s POV:

In the years since Morgan and I joined forces as a writing team, I’ve discovered that people are typically interested in knowing what it’s like to explore creative writing with my husband.  Sure, people are curious to know the process, but they also really want to know what it’s like for us on a personal level.  What was our relationship like before writing? What is it like now? Who wrote first? Why did we decide to work as a writing team? Do we ever fight over writing? How do we resolve our creative differences?

I should begin this whole thing by saying that Morgan and I have been together a very long time.  I met him when I was 15 years old and that means the majority of my life has been lived with him playing a significant role in it.  Upon our introduction, we became immediate friends. We began dating five weeks after we met and we’ve been a couple ever since. We’ve never broken up for any reason, although we once lived apart from one another for nine months.  And what I learned in those nine months was that although I could function without him around, it wasn’t an enjoyable time.  Simply put, I’m a better person when I’m with him, and so when Morgan asked for my hand in marriage there was no doubt that I would always be his wife. We just belong together.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for us, however. Like any married couple we’ve had our challenges, some more obvious than others.  For example, Morgan was born legally blind.  He can see, but not well. And certainly not well enough to drive. As teenagers, we lived in separate towns and attended different high schools.  For the first two years we were together, we only saw one another on Friday nights and Saturdays and had to rely on others to bring us together. This was back in the days before the internet and cell phones. There was no texting or skyping or photo sharing. All we had going for us back then was the old fashioned landline.  There’s no doubt that we drove our families crazy with the amount of time we spent on the phone, but I’ll always maintain that being limited to phone calls five days a week solidified our foundation as a couple.  As frustrating as the situation could be (not just on us, but on all those waiting in line to use the phone), we learned how to fully communicate with one another and this, more than anything else, has kept us united through the years.

In our mid-thirties, Morgan decided to give fiction writing a try. Having been with him for two decades, I knew he’d carried story ideas in his head for years. Even so, I was a bit surprised by this decision.  He told me he was going to write, and one day he sat down to the computer and began typing away.  Pretty soon, I realized he was doing this every day and then I saw that the more he sat down to write, the more he enjoyed the experience. 

Let’s pause to remember something for a moment – Morgan is legally blind.  So, when he sits down to the computer that means he must lean very far forward as he types and he practically presses his nose into the screen so he can follow what’s showing up on his monitor.  Try that out for a sentence or two and see how long you might last. If you’re like me, you’ll quickly get frustrated and sore.  Morgan has adapted, but writing is both mentally and physically demanding on him.  As his wife, I knew he was taking things seriously when I observed him sitting in that pose for hours at a time, day after day after day. He was always eager to get back to his story and he never complained about the less than ideal logistics.

In the beginning, Morgan was writing and keeping his words to himself.  He kept telling me he would share the story when he felt things reached a certain point, but they never seemed to get to that point. I was curious, but only wanted him to include me when he truly felt ready, so I kept waiting to read.

What finally happened?

Well…

I discovered a good looking brunette British actor; and then I discovered social media; and then I discovered a fandom that was passionate for fiction. Suddenly, Morgan had serious competition for precious computer time.  I was reading stories online (a lot) and once I started, it was kind of hard to walk away from it.  He didn’t know why I was so interested in the internet and I was clearly in his way, but to his credit he asked me about what I was doing on the computer rather than getting angry at me over it. (This is where all those hours talking on the landline came in really handy.)

I explained that I was reading Twilight Fan Fiction and we began talking about it.  What it was, who was writing it, how it all worked between writers and readers.  It all caught Morgan’s attention because here was a platform where he could try out his writing and then receive feedback from those reading the story.  He asked me to recommend a few of the stories I was reading online and then he took a peek at them. 

Not long after that, I returned home from work one evening and Morgan announced that he’d been working on a new story, one he was thinking about posting as FF.  He then asked me to read it and tell him what I thought.

It didn’t grab me, and I told him so. 

He stared at me.

I elaborated by telling him it was well-written, but the story idea just wasn’t clicking with me.

I didn’t know how he was going to react, but I had to be honest.

He told me he had another idea and he would try that instead.

The next night when I returned home from work, Morgan announced that he’d written a prologue and the first chapter on the second idea. 

I sat down to the computer and braced myself.

Three thousand words later, I was hooked and I told him so.

He said he’d post that chapter the next day.

I told him to wait.

He stared at me.

I elaborated by telling him he needed a Beta reader, and when he asked what that was I explained it to him as best as I knew how.

He then told me I could be his Beta reader.

I stared at him.

He told me he knew that I knew what to do to make the story better.

I couldn’t really argue with that.

And that’s how it all began. He wrote and I edited one chapter a week, nearly every week for two years. It was completely chaotic, but it was also a great deal of fun. We discovered something new and exciting about one another and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration for me to say that we found a way to fall in love with one another all over again.

Eventually, I started having story ideas of my own and after sharing a few of my own words with Morgan (and some of our new online friends) I decided it was time for me to give writing a try too.  Having Morgan immediately accessible when I had questions or needed some inspiration was a huge part of the reason why I felt confident enough to make a go of it.  His excitement for the craft was infectious, and I knew that by working together we couldn’t fail.

* * * *

Morgan’s POV:

Being married to a writer means that every time I say something particularly romantic or sweet, she tells me which character would say that in one of our books.  It also means sharing the computer and bringing the font size back up to a size a person can actually read.

It’s super nice having someone else to bounce wild plot twists off of before I actually have to write them out and there is always another song that she thinks “would be perfect for that book’s playlist.” I listen to music when I write but she does not.  However, we each like to use music in our stories to help set up an emotion or just to keep things relatable.

Being married to a writer means being married to an editor as well and THAT can get interesting.  We both go into editing mode for each other when asked (and sometimes when not asked) but we only have good intentions for one another’s work and we work to encourage and support the story even when it has the legs of a newborn calf.

It’s helpful to have access to a trusted set of eyes well before the normal process of editing and we have assisted each other with outlines, character names, story locations and funky sex positions.  (The latter was purely for research purposes, but I understand our swing is now a tax write-off).

At one time I wondered if there would be competition between us, but like parenting, it’s a team effort no matter who’s signing the permission forms.  I like knowing that we are always rooting for each other and excited to see the other succeed.  Also, I can shamelessly promote her solo books far more aggressively than I can promote my own and that’s a nice bonus.

We definitely have our specialties and our gifts but we are rubbing off on each other every day (also for research purposes) and growing as individual writers and as a co-author team.  Funny, that we fear and revere the editing process.  It’s where the sandblaster comes out but what’s left is nice and shiny.  Like I mentioned before (and to continue the construction metaphor), we take turns donning the safety goggles and hosing off our partners’ pulp.

Sometimes, we straight out give each other assignments.  If Jennifer needs to provide a little more background, or if I need to flesh out a bit more emotion from a character, we are given marching orders and expected to perform.  Our standards are high for each other and even higher for ourselves, so we don’t mind a critical eye because we know it generally comes with good advice and plenty of “I know how you feel, Slugger.”

We often text each other about our projects and that’s pretty fun too.  Especially because we can go back and look up things we forgot.  We talk in the car a lot and on walks but the real work is done in the bedroom (no surprise there).  We read everything out loud together when a story nears completion to give us a new way to process our work and to share the experience simultaneously.  You might even say mutually.

I’m glad that I don’t have to explain everything I’m going through when I’m working on a book.  She understands because she’s going through the same thing.  We are lucky to have each other and I can’t wait to share some more of our novels with everybody.

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