Jill Williamson – Real Life Romance – Part 1 of 3

Shannon here: Young Adult/Speculative Fiction author, Jill Williamson shares her humorous real life romance. Every time you comment (US only, on this drawing), your name goes in the drawing for a copy of  Replication: The Jason Experiment. Deadline: June 2, 11:59 pm, central time. Here’s Jill:

In the spring of 1996, I decided to see if Jesus could run my life better than I could. I’d been thoroughly messing it up on my own, so I figured it was worth a shot. 
One thing I remember: I no longer needed a boyfriend. For the first time in my life, I felt good on my own. I liked that. Forgot boys and all the drama they added to my life. For now, it was just going to be me and God.
Apparently, God didn’t tell this to my friend Brad.
I’d met Brad some six weeks earlier on a college trip to clean up a flood. I hadn’t been a Christian on that trip; all those Christians had sort-of freaked me out. Except Brad. He’d made me laugh. A lot. 
And lately he and I had been playing a lot of Movie Mania (he always won) and watching Star Trek. Neither of us were Trekkies—we don’t speak Klingon, or anything—but I liked the Star Trek movies, especially the fourth one when they go back to the 80s to get the whales. And Brad owned them all. So we were getting together at his place to watch them.
Today, Brad says that this guaranteed him seven dates in a row. 
I was not considering them dates. I mean, I didn’t need a boyfriend. I didn’t even want one.
After the Star Trek marathon had ended, Brad and I were walking back from the cafeteria and I said something random—go figure—about being the captain of a starship like the Enterprise. 
A few days later, Brad had a surprise for me. He took me up to the Rotunda Room, a round classroom at the top of a building on campus. Before we went inside, he said, “Wait! You can’t go in without this.” And he handed me a Starfleet driver’s license and stuck a little Star Trek Logo on my shirt. 
Now we were ready. He opened the door and went into acting mode. 
Brad: “Captain! What are your orders?” 
Me: ? 
Brad (running to the lone chair in the center of the room): Captain, your chair! Have a seat.” 
Me (pointing to a cardboard cutout of a person drawn in black Sharpie): Is that Spock? 
Brad: Captain, I’m detecting a disturbance. 
Eventually, I sat in the captain’s chair and began to play along. When I said the magic words, “On screen,” Brad pulled open the curtains that covered the chalkboard, revealing a Klingon bird of prey taped to the chalkboard, surrounded by little hand-drawn chalk stars. 
We blew it up. Then Bones fell over and Brad said, “Somebody get a doctor. Wait… he is the doctor!” 
And finally, we celebrated our victory over the Klingons with some Romulan ale, which was blue Kool-Aid. 
One thing I learned about Brad early on: This was someone who was willing to put in some effort.
About Jill: Jill Williamson is the Christy-Award winning young adult author of the Blood of Kings trilogy and Replication: The Jason Experiment. Visit Jill online at www.jillwilliamson.com, where adventure comes to life, or on her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/jwilliamsonwrites.
About the book: Abby Goyer is forced to move to rural Alaska when her father takes a job in a laboratory called Jason Farms. Suspicious of her father’s decisions, she investigates and finds more than what she was looking for when a strange boy shows up at her door. Martyr, one of fifty-five identical clones, escaped from Jason Farms with one wish: to see the sky before he fulfills his purpose and “expires” on his eighteenth birthday. Abby tries to help Martyr see that God has a purpose for his life, different from the one the scientists originally planned for him.
Come back on May 23^rd for part two of Jill and Brad’s story.