Cast

Cast of Characters

Brock Miller – The Outsider

Jennifer Miles – Atlanta, mathematician

Melanie Miles – Nashville, attorney

Tara Wyatt – Indianapolis, newscaster

Susan Simpson – San Diego, child advocate

Chastity Durant – Miami, women's soccer player

Meredith Van Landingham – Los Angeles, student

Leslie (Miles) Davis – Corbly, Jen and Melanie's mother

Sam Van Landingham – Los Angeles, Meredith's father

Erin Wyatt – Corbly, Tara's mother

Randi (Darby) Raver – Los Angeles, singer-actress

Al Perez – Los Angeles, veteran outfielder

Esmi Perez – Los Angeles, Al's wife

Emmy Reyes – Miami/Los Angeles, grad student/research assistant

J.C. Michaels – Brock's landlord

Louisa Bond – Miami, women's soccer player

Tia Barnett – Miami, women's soccer player

Zoe Brewer – Los Angeles, sheriff's deputy

Josh Hart – Los Angeles, veteran catcher

Mandy Hart – Los Angeles, Josh's wife

Zack Duffy – Los Angeles, rookie pitcher

Chris Gomez – Los Angeles, Randi's primary bodyguard

Cynthia Lu – Los Angeles, Dodgers chief of security

Stan Balsam – Manhattan, Brock and J.C.'s agent Author's note

Author's Note

As with any work of this size, I think it's best to explain some things out of the gate. The last thing I want is for someone to get a dozen chapters into this story and decide that I had misled him or her about the content.

In my mind, "The Outsider" was a self-contained story. It was about a young man starting over without the comforts we all take for granted: a home, a family, people who care about him. When he left for North Carolina, it was completed. There was nothing more to write. He was no longer "The Outsider." He was part of a circle of friends.

Apparently many readers thought there should be more. After a few months of contemplation, I decided to acquiesce. There were more places I could take the characters.

One place I didn't take them was to North Carolina – at least not in written form. Their college years are alluded to in this story but it is not the focus of this story (nor will it be the focus on any other story I write). There is nothing new to write about the relationships that couldn't be summed up in the hundred or so sentences in this story.

Instead I moved the story six years into the future – and I split up the group. Nothing grows to its full height in a crowded garden. The only way I could move the characters into original scenarios was to send them off on lives of their own.

So please don't write me an e-mail lamenting the loss of the group dynamic.

The most frequent complaint I receive from readers about my recent works (outside of my decision to post my stories in serial format) revolves around the number of characters I use.

This story has an expanded cast. As with "Daze in the Valley," it is unavoidable. That story comprised 165 chapters. This one is 90. I am not a good enough writer to cover as much ground as I cover without having the lead characters interact with the world at large.

I don't know of any writer on SOL who can write a decent novel-length story that has only a handful of characters without repeating the same plotlines a hundred times. I have read some works on this site that tried – and they failed. The same slightly-altered scenario takes place three or four times during the course of telling the story (and that's two or three times too many).

As with other stories that had a lot of names to remember, I have included a cast list at the front of the story. I hope that helps and I hope that keeps the complaints to a minimum. I don't include every person in the story. The cast list only contains the main characters.

Chapter 1 »