Alured de Valer: Blog

Chapter 10 of Best Summer Ever has been posted and we're slowly, inexorably getting into the story as I envisioned it. We finally meet one of Gary's friends, but there are still a lot of major characters who haven't taken the stage yet.

I'm trying to keep thing as balanced as I can where Gary's relationships with Kacie and Morgan are concerned, but Kacie has the advantage of living under the same roof.

There are still a lot of questions to deal with. Will Gary be driving the girls around in his mom's minivan all summer? Will any of the other girls make a serious play? How long before someone gets busted by their parents? And was the pineapple juice fresh or canned?

Chapter 9 of Best Summer Ever is up. For once, a chapter went pretty much as I originally planned. No surprises or dark secrets exposed, although I am intrigued by the idea of Ruby's granddaughter visiting a cabana at the pool.

Again, thanks to all who have been reading, voting and reaching out. I've received a lot of encouraging words in just my first week of doing this. I hope I can maintain the pace of a chapter a day.

Chapter 8 of Best Summer Ever is up for your reading enjoyment. Again, the reader response has been amazing with more than 16,000 downloads since Monday. I can't thank you enough.

The evolution of this story continues to surprise me. I had no idea Holly Moseley even existed until Kacie said the name. Makes me wonder what other secrets Gary has lurking in his past. I think he dodged a bullet there.

Things are moving along a bit quicker than I expected. Chapter 9 is in the can and 10 is under way, but I'm scheduled for my second COVID vaccine today. Who knows if there will be any side effects, but don't be surprised if I fail to check in over the weekend.

I'm going back through the first nine chapters and finding little things to fix, a typo here, a comma error there. I'll repost everything probably later today or Saturday, but there won't be any changes to the story. If you've read it already, you won't have any catching up to do.

Chapter 7 of Best Summer Ever has been posted. Sounds like an eventful day for our hero. Hopefully, he'll learn to leave the onions off his sandwiches.

And a big thanks to everyone who's checked out the story so far. More than 11,000 downloads in three days is amazing. I'm thrilled to already be in the top 10 of the ongoing serials list. It does my ego good to see that.

As always, feedback is appreciated. Feel free to tell me what you like or don't like about the story.

Chapter 6 of BSE has been posted. Also, the neurologist said I still have a brain in my head.

This story is getting longer all the time. My original outline went pretty much straight from the opening scene to the Memorial Day picnic. It's taken me six chapters just to get through the first weekend, there's still a week to go until the picnic and most of the supporting cast still hasn't been introduced.

There's still a lot of plot points to be worked through and more keep cropping up. I mean, Claire (Mom) taking on the job of running the country club pretty much came out of nowhere. I wish my characters would check with me first before making such life-altering decisions.