Guest Blogger M.J. Fredrick - Road Trips

I love a road trip. Some mornings when I’m driving to work, I wonder what would happen if I just kept heading down the highway instead of taking that exit. I love the open road, I love seeing new things, things you can’t see from the air. It’s nice to not have to go through security, and to have more room to spread out. I love the camaraderie of being with my husband and son. My husband always makes it special, stopping for snacks and for lunch. They’re always better if we’re not trying to meet an impossible deadline. So it makes sense I would want to send my characters on road trips.
It’s a fun way to isolate them, to have them on their own against the world, to be able to concentrate on the growth of the relationship, pushing them closer every chance I get.
Even though Road Signs is a straight contemporary romance, I’ve seen the theme in my other books as well—my hero and heroine in Hot Shot are trekking down a mountain after being separated from the fire crew, my hero and heroine in Don’t Look Back are crossing Africa on their own after being separated from their team. In Sunrise Over Texas, the hero and heroine are crossing the wilds of Texas to the safety of civilization.
In Road Signs, I wanted to give two best friends the push they needed to turn from friends to lovers, and what better impetus than a road trip on Thanksgiving weekend, when they can’t get a flight or a room at a decent hotel and have to share, while money’s running out, the kinds of things that can make or break a relationship. It was fun throwing things at Cam and Willow to see what would make them stick together.
Do you like road trips or would you rather just get to your destination? Do you enjoy road trip stories? Best friend stories? What draws you to them?