Mushroom: Blog

I have already gotten a lot of feedback from this one, and thought I should make some comments on this story. More than I had in the notes at the end.

One thing I love to do is play with styles. And if one notices, there is not a single line of dialogue in the entire story. I was inspired by movies like "Stand By Me", and shows like "The Wonder Years". An older adult, looking back at their youth and things that happened. And their sometimes musing adult narration at things in the past when they were kids. What was said was not important, the important thing was their experiences and what happened. Not what was said.

If it helps, imagine somebody like Richard Dreyfuss or Daniel Stern actually narrating it. Or for the younger generation, Don Cheadle.

Also, ultimately what happened with Kim is not all that important. She did live, and had not died in some tragic accident. Maybe she met somebody else? Maybe she had an encounter that went past their rules and was ashamed after that? Maybe she just thought that a long distance relationship would not work? We all have people in our lives that simply "vanished" for one reason or another. That is simply life.

And in even "Stand By Me", at the end the narrator said that he had drifted away from his friends of that summer. One being later killed the week before and he had not seen him in "over ten years".

However, Kim is alive and well. And like Keith, has moved on and led her own life. And likely also looks back at those summers with fondness, maybe even wondering sometimes what had become of him in the years since then.

But the slightly bittersweet ending is also intended. Sometimes things are not all wrapped up in a bow at the end, with everything explained. That is simply how life is.

To answer some questions of what I have had the last few months.

I have been battling depression the last several year, which has actually made it hard to continue my "Night of Madness" series. I am still working on it, but more slowly than I like as it does tend to be a tad dark. So instead I decided to go ahead and do some much needed revision to other stories.

I have finally completed the revision and clean up of the "Country Boy" saga, as well as "Valley Girl". And both are now posted. It should now be much easier to read, and has notes at the bottom of the appropriate chapters telling when and what chapters of "Valley Girl" to read at the appropriate times.

And currently, I am doing a major revision to one of my oldest stories, "Okinawa". And as this ties into CBCG, I am making this a bit more obvious now. I will also be expanding it, as what was considered a "long story" when I wrote it (223k in 1996), is now very small.

And some things that were considered more acceptable back then are not so much now. Like having a girl who was a prostitute at 13. So that is one of many things I will be changing, to make it less objectionable to more modern readers. Many things have changed over the last 25 years.

Once I finish cleaning it up, I will then be expanding it, adding in a lot more that I had been thinking of since I first posted it on Usenet a quarter of a century ago. But for fans of the original "Okinawa", I decided that this time, I would leave it in place. And likely post this under something like "Okinawa - Revisited".

Well, I finally finished the rewrite of "Country Boy - City Girl". And while once again there are no major changes, there are many more of them in Books II and III than there were in Book I. Including a scene that had somehow been lost when I originally posted it, which included Pete actually proposing to Linda. That has now been returned.

And I made it a bit more obvious that it does indeed connect to my "Okinawa" series. Also, as I was doing this I returned to making "Author's Notes", as I had more than a few ask me where they were on the last two books. That part is entirely optional, but it does explain some of the things I was thinking as I was writing, and sometimes describes the real world places and people I based these on.

And included will now be notes, saying exactly where and what chapters of "Valley Girl" should be written, if somebody wants to read both of them at the same time. That is about to get a rewrite next, but it is a much shorter story, so should take nowhere near as long.

I have had many ask me how I got the inspiration for what the area looked like around the ranch that Peter and his family owned in "Country Boy, City Girl". The fact is, I for the most part used real life.

One of the advantages of the modern era, is that we can easily pull up maps and satellite views to use as reference or inspiration for our stories. Myself, I spent some time with Google Maps, as I was starting the second story, until I found an area that resembled what I had described. I already knew that the very basic description from the first book was not enough if Pete was going to buy that land back. I needed something much more accurate if I was to keep all the future details straight.

Now it is not exactly the same, but it was close enough to what matched the story. And when I was in Book 3, I then expanded on it even more. Now granted, the dimensions and exact layout is not the same, but by looking at the photo and what I described, it is easy to see what exactly is where. The original ranch, the "Black Farm" across the highway, even the quarry and old pits filled in with water.

Roughly the area north and east of W. Siphon Road and N. Laughran Road is where the ranch is, but with a small bluff a hundred yards or so North. And south of that would be the "Black Farm", with the triangular spot of land, with the canal running through it. Not exact, as that did not match what I wanted for my story, but close enough that it is recognizable. Bordered along the Portneuf River. But once again, the river expanded to about twice the size as it really is. Make the river the size of the current river bed, expand the bed twice as much, and that is roughly what the story describes.

As well as the "Henderson Farm" on the other side, and the small trench made to go to the swimming area inside the Scout Camp (which in real life really is a Scout Camp). And if followed to where the Portneuf funs under Interstate 86. the area just north and west of the river where Hainji Net and Gem Computers is located (much of it today a storage facility). Where across the freeway and a bit west the remnants of the old WWII era air field runway can still be seen.

I know that what I describe is very different, but the general layout can be seen, even if the dimensions are nothing like what it is like in real life. But doing things like this helped me in my mind remember what went where, and how I would expand things as the story progressed.

And something I have encouraged others to do when writing a story. Find something at least close to what you want in real life, then use that as a template to write around. Helps keep things straight in your head as you can refer back to that if needed. In addition, give more inspiration for things to add to the story. The flooded gravel pits were only added once I saw that at that location there really were flooded gravel pits, in almost perfect locations.

I spent many hours in these images as I was writing, both to keep descriptions straight, and to get further inspiration.

https://i.pstorage.space/i/oykJJlwmm/original_Casa_del_Mañana.jpg

I just posted the new and revised CBCG Book I story.

Reading it again is not required if it has already been read before. Primarily, it was condensing some of the short chapters into longer ones, so that is why it is now only only 47 instead of the 69 chapters it was before.

There were a few name changes, and standardizing some of the spellings , as I used "Little Buck" in some early chapters instead of "Littlebuck", and would occasionally flip between "Kimmy" and "Kimmie". Some scenes were changed a bit, but nothing major.

Book II will have some more changes however, as some of the names will be spelled differently to avoid confusion in later parts.