Thanks 300,000 times for reading An All-American Teenage Sex Life. The book has been downloaded that many times, and I hope the completion of the book will spark even more downloads.
The final chapter is in the hands of my editors, and I hope to be able to publish it sometime Friday or Saturday. It's been one hell of a ride!
When I set out to write the darn thing, I had no idea about several things. One, it would take me months longer to finish than I anticipated. Two, the feedback would be so positive and rewarding. Three, so many things would come up to slow down the completion of the book.
Things were rolling along at a good clip at first. I wrote shorter chapters. I was intertwining two time periods and it was going well. Then chapters got longer. I had a lot to say. A lot to cram into each chapter. A lot to explain. A lot of dialogue. Chapters got longer and longer. Finally, things came to a boil at chapters 24, 25 and 26. I felt like I hit the big reveal out of the ballpark. I wanted to finish the book with 4-5 more chapters and finish Book 1 so that Book 2 could get going.
A funny thing happened along the way. Real life was busy, and I felt Jake should have a fun summer. Combining those things slowed progress down. I felt like I had even more to cram into each chapter. Weekly updates became bi-weekly updates. I hope not to do that to my readers again. The plan for the next book is to get it at least half done before releasing any of it, and I will know in advance that winter chapters get written at twice the pace of summer chapters. I'm going to try hard to keep chapters in similar bite sizes and make sure each one has its own satisfying arc. I know that's hard to do, but I think that can only improve my writing.
Looking back, each book should start on July 4. Book 2 might just end July 3, we'll see.
I should also mention, I never expected so many personal notes of gratitude for the book. Chapter 25, in particular, drew a lot of notes about how emotional it was for folks to read and relive something similar in their lives. I was touched by every single one. I also never expected my first work to bring in a score north of 8 on this site. There are some works I find incredible with scores hovering above and below my book. That really means something to me as well.
Truly I thank you all for taking the time to read my story, to give it a score or to take the time to send me a note. I really do appreciate it.
What's next? Well, you should know that I'm going to be writing for the next couple of months, but I don't think you'll see any work until late winter or early spring at the earliest. The gaps between chapters were too long toward the end of this book, and I plan to keep it to weekly updates next time.
For now, farewell. We'll pick things up in the fall of 1991 with Jake starting his sophomore year. I already have much of it all mapped out. The bones just need some flesh. It's going to be another wild ride!