Every story, no matter how long or short, begins with a kernel of an idea. I like to call it the What If? moment. With MIAMI SPY GAMES the basic idea presented to me was, “What if there was a weapon that could turn people into zombies?”
That was what was pretty much dropped into my lap when Hobbes End Publishing came to me with the idea to write this story. I love a challenge, and when they gave me the three main characters and not much about them, I was even happier. I was allowed to create the story as I wanted, and it wasn’t being treated as some kind of adaptation, where I’m given pages and pages of notes and storylines and forced to implement them.
It’s always fun when you’re given the keys to another kingdom, I suppose. But you know what ended up happening? MIAMI SPY GAMES became my world. I populated it with secondary characters, created all the bad guys and situations and settings, and The Powers That Be let me run with the ball.
The story progressed in ways I didn’t expect, like certain minor characters stepping up and moving the plot along in intelligent ways, and certain characters’ personalities having an effect on the people around them. The bad guys ceased to be one-dimensional cartoons and became real and suddenly more deadly, and the ACES team weren’t just three pumped up killing machines who made no mistakes and had no feelings.
There became several What If? moments during the writing, and each character had to find their path while bumping into the other people around them. Like in real life.
And the story kept progressing.
If you have any questions about the MIAMI SPY GAMES series, I’d love to hear them: armandrosamilia@gmail.com.
–Armand Rosamilia
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