The Making Of: WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUMB€R?

As I was driving home (Fernandina Beach, FL) from Orlando a couple of days ago, I saw the billboard for the Mega Millions jackpot at $660 million and just laughed to myself. It felt like deja vu, but not really, because what I was thinking hadn’t REALLY happened, but it WAS written. By yours truly.

WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUMB€R?, my debut novel. (BUY IT NOW)

I’d just finished having two wonderful days with my wife’s family and mines. Krystal was sitting next to me and Gabriela was strapped in tight to her car seat and I thought to myself, ‘What would I REALLY do if I hit that jackpot in real life?! ‘ One thing was for certain, Krystal wasn’t gonna let me set up a guys trip on a yacht anytime soon, and I wouldn’t blame her! I took the billboard as a cue to finally tell my readers how and why that story came about because I believe that it will give the project a little more depth and context. There will be some SPOILERS ahead but I’ll make sure to leave them towards the end of this post and I’ll give you another warning before doing so.

How Did I Get The Idea For The Story?

This story wasn’t on my radar at all. I had just finished writing an outline for Not Lost, Not Found... and I had done a ton of research for that book. I watched at least a dozen movies and documentaries about topics related to that story but I still hadn’t felt like it was enough. I would love to travel to the locations I will be writing about first, instead of just doing online research, because I want to actually feel what I plan on writing. It’s that type of book. Think ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ but with a male military character. The travel research will take time and I have finally learned to accept it, instead of trying to rush a subpar product.

One thought kept pushing its way into my mind over and over again. It was something I heard from an author I was studying via the MasterClass app (can’t remember who), saying that your first book is very rarely gonna be a success. Like extremely rare. As you develop as a writer, your work should improve. The stories are better written and you will have established some sort of fan base. Then when you release a book that is finally a hit, new readers will go back and research your previous work. I honestly do believe that story will be my ‘hit’. I’m very passionate about it. It deals with the military, PTSD, some real life scenarios either I have faced or some of my military friends have. It will include some very vivid travel scenarios that I want the reader to feel as they read it. So I can’t just half ass it. I decided I wasn’t ready…yet.

I came across Walter Mosley’s class on the same MasterClass app and took away so many lessons from him. One in particular was him saying something like, “Anything can become a story. Imagine driving down a highway on your way to work but you decide to keep driving instead of turning on your normal exit. The possibilities of what can happen next are endless and THAT can become your story.” My imagination just blew wide open with ideas after hearing that, just as I’m sure you might be thinking of a few right now.

Some days later, I was at work and a conversation about the current massive lottery jackpot brewed. I think it was the Mega Millions prize that hit 1.5 billion. The chatter eventually became a question that we asked other coworkers that were in and out of the radar room (I’m an air traffic controller, if I haven’t mentioned that previously). “What’s your number?”, we would ask. “Or more specifically, what is the amount of money you’d need to win to quit your job right now and never work again?” We all did our own math and projections as if it were a serious question. As if one of us was really gonna hit the lotto. The consensus was around 5 million dollars and we all assumed we could live a simple life with very little luxuries after getting that 5 million. Yeah right.

So that’s where the concept came from. Then I thought about what Walter Mosley said and the ideas started flooding my mind. Everyone SAYS they’d live a simple life with all that money, but I’ve seen how people act when they get a little extra change in their pocket. Shit, I was one of them! So the theme of the book was set. I ran the idea with a few friends, family and coworkers and they loved it. I was gonna write a book about a good person who hit the lotto and the money was gonna corrupt him. But how?

Building The Story

Ok so how the hell do I write 70,000 words about what the main character would do with a lottery jackpot?! Actually, it could be easy if you think about it. Writing all the things a lottery winner would do with 600+ million dollars? But how do I GRASP a reader and then KEEP their attention? Most people don’t read books, my friends especially. So I cheated a little bit, I used my own name, my wife’s name, some of my best friends and my coworkers. Who wouldn’t wanna read a book where they have a lead role in?! Victor, that’s who…one of my main characters, and he STILL hasn’t read the book.

Anyways, I settled on using mine and my wife’s names for a couple of reasons. One, it was going to be easier to write a book in my own perspective. Write what you know, is something I kept coming across, and I know me pretty well. I also did some research and didn’t come across anything where the author used themselves as the main character, besides autobiographies of course. The originality factor intrigued me. I imagined myself as the Puerto Rican Quentin Tarantino. Include just enough about me to where the reader thinks this is something I WOULD do, but then throw you for a loop, add a few twists and go off the rails. I want you to say ‘Screw you Luis! Why would you do that?!’ My goal was to make you hate the character as much as you want to love him and from the feedback I’ve gotten, I think I made it happen.

Secondly, I knew who my immediate audience would be. Friends and family. I wanted the reader to have an instant attachment to the story, because the people I’m telling to read this book, don’t normally read books. So if I use our names and make up some wild stories about us, would that catch their attention a bit more? I think soooooo. A book is supposed to make you FEEL something. If not, what’s the point of reading it? Krystal was the first person to read what I was writing. I could see everything she was feeling and she made it very clear how she felt. There was everything from laughter and amusement to sadness and jealousy, for reasons that are clear from just reading the book description. ‘Luis’ is a cheating asshole and she didn’t want our book characters to be intertwined with our real life personalities. I understood completely and I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for the strong foundation of trust and loyalty we have committed towards each other since the very beginning. I went back and forth thinking about how I could tell this story and make it as good without using our names. I couldn’t. I truly believe that the positive reviews I have gotten are because of the way the story was told. It’s always the same response, “I hate ‘Luis’ for doing that to ‘Krystal’! But damn, I loved it!” I’m just so happy that she saw and understood my vision, even when others wouldn’t. If you’re seeing anyone’s true character in the book, it’s hers. She’s as tough as they come and I can’t wait to write the sequel, because…never mind, I don’t wanna spoil that just yet.

Location, Location…

Travel will play a major part in most of what I decide to write in the future. It changed my life, even before I got a chance to travel myself, from either reading about it or seeing it on TV. That’s part of my mission. I want to take you to places you haven’t been, so either it will inspire you to take the trip or if you have already been there, you can relate to the story and reminisce on good memories.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

I had to make the book title stand out because a movie with the same title already exists. ‘What’s Your Number?’, and it’s in reference to how many sexual partners the character had had. I think I saw it a long time ago and it was a funny movie but I had to give the question a different meaning. I was lucky enough to have a few letters I could substitute for currency symbols and figured that would let the reader know it had to do with money. WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUMB€R? was then born. Now I couldn’t just place those symbols there and not give them any significance, so I had to add Europe and China to the story.

Now how do I tie in all of these places in a story whose plot I want to take place in less than 3 months? Make the antagonist from China. This is where Jasmine comes in (a name that is now forbidden in my household). A wealthy model and entrepreneur who resides in France but is from China. I did my research too. There’s a large Chinese presence in south France who immigrated there in the mid 1900s and that’s the backstory I gave her and her family. But because she was of the wealthy class, I decided on Macau, the Las Vegas of the East. Perfect for my book.

For the Europe leg of the trip, I had to keep the timeframe in mind so it would all seem realistic. That part of the story begins in Nice, France. A place that my wife and I had been planning on going to before COVID hit, so I was very familiar with the area based on research we had done before the trip was cancelled. I wanted ‘Luis’ to go to places where the very wealthy would be at since he was now one of them, so the next stop would have to be in Monaco, which is actually a short drive from Nice. I’ve become a Formula One fan as of late and thought it would be a fun idea (actually this was Krystal’s idea) to add the actual Monaco race from 2021 (which had its own drama) in the book to give some significance as to why Jasmine was there. A few things happen during the stay at Monaco that not only foretell what is going to happen later, but will be featured in the sequel. Hint hint.

Initially I thought about having ‘Luis’ and Jasmine sail the south of France after Monaco but instead decided on the Balearic Islands, Menorca and Ibiza. One reason being that I had been to Ibiza before and would be able to describe the scenery and locations better. Plus we all know what goes down in Ibiza, so it fit right in line with the book.

You then watch them travel to Geneva and Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. Geneva was chosen because I wanted to tap into the niche of opening a Swiss bank account. It was on purpose and done to show how gullible ‘Luis’ was. He’d seen it in all the movies, so it had to be legit. My mother helped me out with the pitch from Leon Keller, the quick talking financial advisor, since she’d been an advisor herself for many years. I’m pretty proud of the pitch I wrote up using her advice, as was she. It was one of my favorite passages of the book. Lauterbrunnen was also a destination my wife and I had to cancel due to COVID shutting everything down, so that’s why the scenes there are so descriptive. We had done so much research on it, we could literally visualize the place.

The last international place in the story was Macau, China. The last tie to the ‘¥’ in the title. This place I actually had to do some research about, including the fact that the dragon boat races were only a few weeks after the Monaco Grand Prix race and also how long and grueling that flight can be. Not on a private jet though. I was very adamant about making the events in the timeline work perfectly, including all the way up to the time where ‘Krystal’ makes her confession at the end of the book. (Don’t want to spoil that part yet.)

The Las Vegas scene was one of my favorites because you get to feel how unhinged ‘Luis’ becomes. Here you see him going through a range of emotions from being broken down and battered to optimistic when he gets lucky at the tables. Then something in him snaps as the scene ends, which leads him to the conclusion of the story.

Fact vs Fiction

If you know me, you probably read a few things in the story that sounded like some things I had done before. I tried to mix a little bit of fantasy and reality, obviously to engage the reader while also making them think ‘Did he do that in real life?’ Well, I’m here to clear the rumors. I did not hit the lottery. I had a few people asking me and I thought that was pretty funny, although I did think I had won a million dollars playing a $20 Cashword scratch-off a few weeks before I released the book. I called out of work and everything, telling my wife to get ready to go to Tallahassee so we could collect our cash prize. She was convinced we had won too after she analyzed the ticket! We made plans of paying off the house and taking a trip, but when I sent a picture of the ticket to my parents, they found the discrepancy. Read the fine print. After coming off of that high, I went to Publix and collected the $100 I’d actually won.

The next thing I made up was the twins. I feel like it added more to Luis’ character. Since Krystal was pregnant when I released the book, we had a few people asking and speculating if that was the case. Krystal did help me name them though, that was fun. Mia and Mikey. I felt like I knew them.

The conversation that took place at work at the beginning of the book where we were asking ‘What’s your number?’, was a conversation that really did happen and sparked this whole idea, as I mentioned before. I used some of my current coworkers names, including Pete, who’s gotten rave reviews in his debut as a book character. He’s exactly how I described and when I told him I was writing a book, he told me he wanted a part in it. Without hesitation, I agreed. I knew my coworkers were gonna be reading the book so when I wrote his part, I had to seize the opportunity for a good joke. They all thought it was hilarious, some even thinking he’d be mad at me for it. But I know Pete pretty well and he loved it. Just be warned that if you ever ask me to add you as a character in one of my stories, I can be pretty creative. Ask Izzy.

The guys that went on the yacht trip are like my brothers, so just like in HBO’s Entourage, I had to include them in Luis’ ‘started from the bottom, now we here’ moment. We grew up together and still remain close, even at a distance and I had a blast writing their characters in and trying to nail their personalities down. I think I succeeded in that, especially Danny’s character. We’ve got stories for days and you’ll see a bigger role for him on the sequel, because Danny does what Danny wants.

Musical Influence

After I finish writing my outlines, I create a playlist of music from multiple genres that coincide with the storyline. I listen to this playlist almost daily and it helps me imagine the outline as a movie with its own soundtrack. I run through the story in my head over and over and new ideas come to me just about every day on how to add or subtract from the narrative.

In this book, I decided to begin with the prologue, which actually shows ‘Luis’ at the end of the book. Here, the mood is ‘Low Life’ by Future and Drake, but he’s actually feeling like ‘Esta C****n Ser Yo’ (Translated to- Being Me Is The Shit) by Bad Bunny and Anuel. The scene ends with him not caring about anything but the money he’d won, so that’s where ‘Money in The Grave’ by Drake and Rick Ross comes in. The playlist then goes on to coincide with mostly hip hop, Latin trap and Reggaeton tracks that ‘Luis’ listens to for motivation and you’ll notice the vibe changing as his journey plays out. His character in this book is also influenced by the music and movies he’s grown up listening to (like me) and I make several references to that, because most people don’t know how to be rich. They just do what they’ve seen before and that’s what leads him to making several decisions such as what clothes, watches and cars to buy as well as how his behavior shifts over time.

The Weeknd was also very influential in how I wanted some of the scenes to feel. From his tracks ‘Heartless’, ‘Blinding Lights’ and ‘In Vein’ with Rick Ross, he captures Luis’ frame of mind during specific parts of the book. I did all of this with the mindset that this would be a movie or series and the songs I had chosen, would be played during the corresponding scene. So if you’ve already read the story, or not, be sure to check out the WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUMBER PLAYLIST (on Apple Music) I uploaded. It’s a great mix for car rides and workouts.

WHAT’$ N€XT?

For a story that seemingly came out of nowhere, I LOVED how it turned out. I originally thought it would be a one book type of story, but I eventually saw more potential in it, so I ended it with a major plot twist at the end. Now I have plans to write WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUMB2R? and WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUM3€R?, releasing in Spring 2023 and Spring 2024.

SPOILERS AHEAD INCLUDING ENDING OF BOOK
(Don’t read til you finish the book, Victor)

The next book will pick back up about a week after the conclusion of the first book. There were a few key points I tried to make during the Epilogue that I heard some readers caught, but not others. While John is saying his vows, he vows to Krystal that he will ‘love her and her two beautiful children’. But Krystal was pregnant at the end of the book…what happened? You’ll find out.

Also, I made a point to make Jasmine’s partnerships with some characters a little ambiguous. She is a master at her craft after all. Did she really know all of them, or was she playing them too? Were they in on it? Did her half brother John have more influence in everything that went down? Again, you’ll find out.

Did ‘Luis’ really die? Yes. I killed him off because what author would actually write a character about himself and end him tragically in the first book? Me. I felt like the selfish thing to do was to keep ‘Luis’ alive and have his story continue. It was another reason I used our names in the book. I wanted the readers who knew us to think I would give him a shot at redemption. He was a good person who made shitty decisions and paid the ultimate price for it. I initially thought to make him suicidal before accidentally shooting himself but I got the idea literally as I was writing that final chapter, to tie the ending to something minor that happened at the beginning. It was inspired by a MasterClass I took by Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code) who said he liked doing that. Add in the fact that ‘Luis’ thought there would be a lesser chance of being killed by a black cop (at the beginning of the book), then it turned out he would be the one to kill him. Not intended to be a knock on police here because ‘Luis’ did aim his gun at him, so I don’t plan on making it a ‘thing’ in the next book. In fact, the cop may have a role in the sequel. Hint, hint.

I think that’s all I’ll give for now as far as sneak peeks go. I do plan on releasing an Author’s Edition of WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUMB€R? a couple of months before the sequel, where I will go more into detail with hand-written notes throughout the book, some merch, early access to future projects before they go on sale and a few other things. More details to come, but it will be a very limited release and won’t be available after they sell out.

I hope you enjoyed The Making Of: WHAT’$ ¥OUR NUMB€R? This was just a quick summary of how I came about the book and main points I wanted to share but there will be a lot more in the Author’s Edition. Thank you all for buying and reading my book. Thank you for the feedback. I love doing this so I will continue writing and evolving. Share the book with your friends, family and coworkers and as always, feel free to comment below! I’ll answer any questions you may have about the book.