| 2 3 | > |
And that's the conclusion of Summer of '89. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing. It's not the typical teenager story here on SoL, I know that. I read enough of them, and often enjoy them. But I'd never written one -- and I didn't want to until I could bring something different to it.
In a typical story like this, Brian would have gone on to seduce the other people he mowed lawns for, teachers, and maybe wound up with a harem of women all hungry for his prowess. Modern day Brian certainly has many women (and men) at his beck and call, but 15-yo Brian isn't there. Nor are most 15-yo.
And certainly what Janet (and to some extent, Nathan) did to Brian was wrong and illegal, and wasn't going to work out in the long run. If it weren't for Cindy, he would have probably broken -- not that he isn't scarred. Exactly how that all works will have to wait on the second book, "Senior Slave" which I'm currently plotting.
I'm also working on some additions to Modern-day Brian's story, which is posted under the name "The Cuckolder" That will be up in a few weeks, if my production keeps up like it is.
In the meantime, I'll be posting something that's incomplete -- and which I'd like to finish, if there's interest, called Girl #16180. It's far future sci-fi, set in the same universe as Sir Tortuga's Fucktoy Blog. Most of it was written before that, so I'll need to dip into the world building there to tie it in, but the six complete parts are fine as they are.
That will start next week.
Hope to see you then!
So now Brian has a better clue of what is going on, and Cindy has her problem solved, as well. I'm very happy with the two of them, Brian and Cindy. Two things about the last couple of chapters:
1) In researching what movie they were going to watch, I realized I couldn't use my idea of watching a Disney Animation (which is what we did when our girl was 8) -- because the renaissance of Disney Animation didn't start until the Winter of 1989, with the release of The Little Mermaid! I also couldn't find any good references for what HBO was showing, or when such movies went to VHS. I had to tap into my memory for that, and hopefully if it's not accurate, it's at least reasonable.
Details matter, but verisimilitude matters more. OF course the wrong detail and the right reader can mash up against each other, knocking that reader out of the narrative, so I try to get the details right. One detail I had wrong was the Ford Fairlane, which I had grown up thinking was the Ford Fairmont (My mom drove the station wagon version) I corrected it in the narrative (or picked a similar but differently named vehicle). The Internet is good at chronicling our love affair with cars.
2) The Title of part 9, "Eternal Flame" was consistently the title of the next-to-last part of this story the whole time I wrote it. It started as the title for Part 2, and kept getting bumped down. Of course, when I started I had an outline and Cindy wasn't in it at all. I realized early on I'd need to have some counterpoint for Brian to compare his relationship with Janet to, and he had no experience to back it up.
Cindy is not your typical high school girl, but she offers us that. I suspect in later parts she'll have as much or more influence on Brian than Janet Cooke will. But you'll see more about that later this week as Summer of 89 concluded.
And next week we'll find out exactly what it is Cindy knows and why. The clues are there, though, so you may already know all of it. Brian, however, doesn't pay as good attention, I think. Too busy being confused and getting laid.
Being confused is, I think, pretty normal for someone who is 16. Getting laid, less so (at least in my experience;)
Next week, the last two parts will be posted, and Summer of '89 will be concluded. I hope you've enjoyed it so far, I know I've enjoyed writing and posting it.
Now there are only 3 parts left, and things are heating up, definitely.
This scene was the one that came to my mind while I was writing the "modern day" Cuckolder story. It's power (which I hope I've gotten across) is what drove me to write Summer of '89. Trying to get to it and figuring out how to resolve it -- that's why there are 10 chapters.
I hope you're still with me now on the home stretch.
Chapter six is sitting in the submission queue right now.
Things with Cindy are heating up a bit, and Janet has become aware of them. There's definitely a lot going on that Brian doesn't know about. But that will become clear over the final four parts of Summer of 89.
I'm working on plotting out the next major book, but it takes place while he's a senior in high school. The third part of the Cuckolder's origin trilogy takes place in college, but I'm less sure of exactly when. Skipping over Junior year and some of his Senior year seems odd -- there's definitely stuff going on and it's potentially interesting, but mostly it doesn't get me where I want to go narratively or really have a lasting mark on Brian.
On the other hand, it's when his relationship with Cindy deepens in an unexpected way, so might be worth looking at, as well. I can't quite seem to figure out how to get all that across in the second part without a huge infodump, and that's boring.
One thing about this story was that it grew on me -- I'm happy with its final shape, and length, but it was originally going to be about 6000 words, and it's nearly 5 times that. It needed time to develop, letting it simmer over a few parts until all the spices came together.
So maybe I need to step back and reconsider. I certainly don't want to do what others have done (and which I often enjoy) of tracing the characters life through every day and month of his life in school (or as an adult).
I don't want to be redundant, but I don't want to skip something interesting either.
| 2 3 | > |