The longest chapter title started as a placeholder too good to leave holding a place. Is someone crossing the street twice, or getting hoodwinked prior to doing so? We open with a Carter lyric, follow with a callback to chapter 29’s opening line on a time travel fake-out, find ourselves back in the van—and most…
LBDG Commentary 30: A Denial, A L3DG(edly)
I probably don’t have to tell you how much I love this chapter title. It mirrors A Wife, A Butterfly, quotes Nirvana, uses the l33t speak variant of Local 3’s band name and throws in a parenthetical for good measure. What’s not to love? It also illustrates the internal fight between hitting 27 chapters exactly…
LBDG Commentary 29: Lyndon B. Goode
I can’t not start with these images… We now resume our regularly scheduled commentary, already in progress. This chapter fully embraces the “use the gifts you gave yourself” method of writing in general and especially sequel-ing. Almost every trope in the TP universe gets up on a familiar stage for a final curtain call. Local…
LBDG Commentary 28: Under the Covers
This chapter title was 100% chosen to rile up Brian Ibbott from Coverville. (Maybe I’m glad I ended up with more than 27 chapters…) It also worked well since it is all about Local Boy & Cousin Jimmy forming a band and learning covers from the 27 Club members they have awareness of circa 1976….
LBDG Commentary 27: Doo & Dum
By completely unplanned coincidence, both Timely Persuasion and L Extreme have 26 chapters. Seemed to be the way my brain naturally plots novels, which made me think it would be neat to aim for 27 in Local Boy Done Gone—my normal endpoint plus one more to tie to the 27 Club theme. Somehow I ended…
Additions to the LX Hughesniverse
L Extreme is billed as a novelization of the album A Love Extreme by Benji Hughes, though it actually pulls from his entire catalog through early 2021. January 31, 2025 marked the release of three new Benji Hughes jams via the soundtrack to the film Home Free. Since I spent years mapping out how to…
LBDG Commentary 26: Lyin’ Eyes
Our apostophe’d segments come to a conclusion with this chapter. That’s the truth. Eagle Scout’s honor. Much like the ends of parts 2 & 3, this is a coda chapter designed to ease Local Boy back into his present day with newfound confidence from the future before pulling the rug out. Early readers were mixed…
LBDG Commentary 25: Livin’ In The Woods In A Tree
Nerdy, encyclopedic musical knowledge comes in handy when you have a chapter set in a treehouse in need of a song title containing an apostrophe. Bonus points that it’s also the title of Sybil Rosen’s memoir of her life with Blaze Foley (though she and/or her publisher added the missing G back in). After recreating…
LBDG Commentary 24: Hoverin’
This change of pace chapter switches up the time travel dynamic—or does it? More overtly Quantum Leap inspired than what we’ve read so far, Local Boy occupies the body of his future self while the redhead takes over a future version of his wife. He lives the original history described in Timely Persuasion from a…
LBDG Commentary 23: Ain’t Misbehavin’
The list of 27 is key to the plot and has an iterative behind the scenes origin story worthy of its own blog post. Thankfully it’s pretty much the singular focus of this chapter, allowing time for a deep dive here. My list twist was to originally have Local Boy (and by extension the reader)…