Friendship. It means so many things when you hear the word.
Girlfriends. That can mean many things, too. But the purposes of my blog post here, I’m mixing friendship with girlfriends, and I’m talking about your best friends. The kind you grew up with, or the friends you’ve made along the way. The ones you tell all your secrets to. The girlfriends who know you at your best, and your worst.
The ones you would do wild and crazy things with, and then laugh at the consequences.
Some of the best times in my life have been with my girlfriends, especially my high school pals. And oh were we daring. Egging and toilet papering houses or the fun and abject terror of careening around the back roads with our heartthrobs of the moment. We shared our deepest, darkest secrets, consoled each other when our hearts were broken, hung out at the local drive-through after the Sunday night dances—and generally spent every spare moment of our time laughing together until our stomachs hurt. Some of the insane things I did with my friends makes me blush today.
I miss some of my friends; the daring, do anything girlfriends I knew when I was younger. And some of the friends that had the balls to say or do anything they pleased as I moved my way through my early adulthood years. I always admired the women who had the guts to go for the glory.
When I created my upcoming Berkley Heat release, Wild, Wicked & Wanton, the first thing that came to mind wasn’t 
the plot—it was the characters. Three best friends—girlfriends who’d known each other since they were kids. And these three women, now adults, had been through everything together, including all the fun times as well as the bad times. These were women who challenged each other at every turn, who dared each other to do the wildest things. I wanted to showcase these women—now adults, still willing to take a chance…to make an unimaginable bet, in order to find the man of their dreams.
Creating Abby, Blair and Callie was a joy for me, because these characters reminded me of what friendship was all about. I drew from the closeness, the laughter, the high jinks and the fun I had with my friends, using those experiences to create the personalities in my three characters. Though my book is an erotic romance, at its core it really is about friendship—the secrets we share with our best friends, the ties that bind us together, and the friends who will push you to reach for the thing you want most but are afraid to ask for.
What are some of your best memories of you and your girlfriends? Care to share some of your most daring, crazy escapades with your girlfriends?
My best moment ever? Eight grade dance and the school had hired a band of older teen boys to play. The lead singer was absolutely gorgeous and I had a serious crush going on. My girlfriends pushed me to flirt with him (I was utterly shy back then), so I batted the eyelashes at him a few times, and during one song he jumped off the stage and asked me to dance. Me! He asked geeky ME to dance with him. My legs were like jelly the entire time, but every single eighth grade girl in that room was overcome with jealousy that the hot guy picked me to dance with. It had to be the single best moment of my young life at that point, and all because my girlfriends teased me into flirting with him.
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Awww, eighth grade dances. You took me back in time, all right. Thank goodness for girlfriends! ;)
M
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I met my best friend in driver’s ed class in high school – we clung to each other in terror whenever one classmate in particular got behind the wheel. I swear that girl was determined to kill us all. We’ve remained best friends into our 40s – work in the same office, work out together three times a week and are very close to each other’s families, there aren’t many highs or lows that we haven’t shared – we’ve shed tears together, lended shoulders, and have shared bunches of laughs. There’s nothing better than a long-time best friend!
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Slightly off topic, but I wanted you to know I’m itching to get my hands on WILD, WICKED & WANTON. I’m hoping to grab a copy at RT. I know it comes out in May, but the end of April is almost May…
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Laurie – Aren’t high school memories the best? And sometimes the worst, too? ;-)
HelenKay – Thank you! I’m so glad you’re anxious to read it! I won’t be at RT, though *cries*. Hey, maybe my book will be, though. Let me know if you see it there…lol.
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how cute
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Growing up an Army brat, it was hard to keep in touch with friends. In high school, though, I no longer went to school on base. In my freshman year, I met my friend Stephanie. We hung out a lot that year… but she’s not the one I keep in touch with. No, that would be Nichelle :) I met Niki, through Stephanie on our first day of sophmore year. My first impression? Ack, she’s going to steal my friend Stephanie and I’m going to be left alone… lol, it’s funny because we actually ended up being the best of friends and still talk and travel to see each other to this day :)
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funny how friendships turn out, isn’t it Ali? I have a couple girlfriends who were ‘friends of my friends’, too.
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Looking forward to reading your book, Jaci. The best moment ever? Having both of my long time best friends–a guy and a girl whom I’ve known over 20 yrs–standing up with me at my wedding last year.
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Aloha Jaci,
Your book sounds steamy, Jaci. Reading it is going to be a guilty pleasure. LOL. The best moment ever? When me and one of my best friends entered a dance contest for a local dance show a few years ago. We went there solo, but knew we were going to be paired with a guy. We both ended up being one of twelve finalists…and I’m still with the guy I was partnered with. Gotta love it.
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My best moment ever? It was the last week of school my junior year. I had final exams all that week and found out that Miss Popularity Blair Neuman was holding an End-of-the-Year-Bash at her house. For juniors only. There’s this game called The Kissing Game and it’s kinda like Spin-the-Bottle, but with Polaroid pics. Long story short, I needed to brush up on my kissing skills and my wonderful best friend, Ellie, suggested learning how by reading a book about kissing. LOL. Yeah. Love her to death, but it turns out I really didn’t need the lessons after all.
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Celise – How cool is that? A couple of my friends from school ended up married. Loved that!
Mattie – What a great place to meet a guy…and he can dance, too! ;-)
Skylar – Had the skills after all, huh? lol. Good for you!
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Big thanks to Alison for letting me guest blog, and thanks so much to all who stopped by to comment!
:-)