Can it really be true? I was pretty shocked to realize that Maybe Baby turned nine yesterday. It truly does NOT feel like it’s been nine years since I pressed publish on Laney & Mads’ love story. But this book…which is truly my book baby… is now nine years old. Maybe it’s time for me to give it a new cover?
How it started
If you’ve been following me from the very beginning, you remember how I got the idea for Maybe Baby. It started while I was in Copenhagen one summer, germinated while talking to friends in Sweden and the US about everything from infertility, long-term relationships, IVF and how it affected relationships, and other options for having babies.
All of this was the impetus for Maybe Baby. Add to it imagining Kerry Washington and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as the leads (c’mon, Simpson Street Productions, Ill Kippers or Hello Sunshine, this would be great project for Kerry and Nikolaj to star in!) and you’ve got the story that I focused on to help get me through the start of a very crazy and stressful time in my life.
So what’s it about?
Well, you have Laney, an African-American woman living in a sprawling turn of the century apartment in Stockholm, Sweden with her well-to-do Swedish partner, Niklas. Laney wants to have a baby; Niklas isn’t really interested since he has teenage children from his first marriage. Besides, he’s had a vasectomy – something he swears he’s told Laney about, but it news for her.
Instead of simply accepting the situation, Laney finds out about an alternative fertility clinic/sperm bank in Copenhagen where you can meet your sperm donor before you commit. While she’s in Copenhagen for a work-related project, she decides to visit the clinic – which just happens to be having one of its mingles where prospective clients can meet the sperm donors. That’s when Laney and Mads meet.
And what was supposed to be a simple meet-and-greet ends up leading to an affair and then Laney being forced to make a choice.
One book became four
I never intended for Maybe Baby to lead to a series… But Laney, Mads and some of the other characters in their lives kept speaking to me.
Maybe Baby (told solely from Laney’s point of view) led to Maybe Tonight, a companion novella told from Mads’ perspective. Which then lead to Maybe Forever (which skips a few years into the future of Laney and Mads’ relationship) and Maybe Tomorrow (which focuses on Laney’s cousin, Eddy, and Mads’ cousin, Henrik).
Haven’t read them yet? You can get the three books about Laney and Mads in one collection.
More coming?
For a few years, I’ve been promising more stories in the series, but life got in the way. I’ve told you before: I left a toxic work environment; my brother and several other people close to died quite suddenly; grief left me feeling like I had no writing mojo… but there are at least two other Maybe… books coming in the future. I promise, I will finish them.
In the meantime, let’s celebrate Maybe Baby. If you’ve read it, what’s your favorite scene in the book? Drop me a line and let me know!
