In 2023, I drove across Spain for 6 hours to see family.
My destination?
La Línea.
Despite clocking hundreds of miles, dodging speed cameras, and encountering more tolls than I knew could ever exist in a country, the journey went off without a hitch.
That was until I parked up a couple of miles away from the famous Gibraltar Rock.
I remember getting out to the ebbing sunlight and hearing an almighty hissing sound that didn't belong to Lady Laura (for once).
I then noticed the car suddenly tilting left, so I sped around the hood and sank inwards as the passenger-side tyre wheezed out its last breath.
Only as I rolled it forward did the culprit reveal itself…
A stupid, bright-pink disposable vape, no doubt discarded by an equally stupid (and not-so-colourful) person.
How the hell this thing destroyed a tyre that had eaten hundreds of miles of hot tarmac without issue still alludes me.
Alas, it didn't just put a gaping hole in the tyre…
But also my evening, as I had to drive at a crawl to the nearest rental branch.
I pissed off a lot of Spaniards that day, let me tell you!
But hey, that's life, folks.
As much as events like these suck in the moment, they do make for a good story later to tell friends and family.
Why?
BECAUSE DRAMA IS CATNIP TO HUMANS.
It's why millions attend football matches every weekend. It's why we slow down when someone is pulled over by the police. And yes, drama is also why the Kardashians are able to keep getting yet more plastic surgery.
Without drama, there's no story.
Without story, there's no attention.
Without attention, nobody has a reason to care.
Like it, love it, or wholly reject it — it doesn't change the fact that this phenomenon exists. The above is why I'm a sadistic little sod when it comes to my fiction.
Characters die.
Awful things happen.
And when things get a bit too warm and fuzzy, I call on Milo-the-Muse to bring the sledgehammer.
The result?
A growing fanbase of readers and listeners who continue to devour and praise my stories in ways even my ego has trouble computing at times.
All of this to say:
Drama is our friend, not our enemy.
And you'll find plenty of it in The Divided Region series here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/TDR-Bundle
DJJW