Part II of Local Boy Done Gone is called “A Van & A List.” The list we’ll get to in a bit. The van was teased at the end of the last chapter, which ended on “It’s always about a girl” as a segue into “About an Encore.”
I loved how this came together structurally. Part II picks up exactly where Part I left off (ala BTTF II, but unusual for a novel). We ended on a Nirvana song title, transformed into a riff on that song title in an encore where a Nirvana song that isn’t actually a Nirvana song gets played in a manner just as gratuitous as Marty’s “Johnny B. Goode” encore in BTTF.
Tidbits:
- When revisiting Timely Persuasion with new commentary in 2020 I mentioned weaponizing Local Boy’s love life didn’t age well. It fit with perceptions of life in 1969, but with a modern lens bordered on cringey. One goal here was to explore the complexities of his conquests and assigning a moral code—imperfect but explainable.
- I gave myself an out on anachronisms having Local Boy sometimes cite “future greats” like he does with Michael Bolton (1984) and David Ford (2013) here. He’s writing this account at least 45 years after it happened—around the time he’d be the old man.
- The frenemies aside is another “not an anachronism” play.
- “The redhead” was a significant minor character in Timely Persuasion — as the narrator’s girlfriend in the early 2000s. What’s she doing in 1969?
- To be clear, Local Boy never did say that tour part out loud.
- “She gave me a look I could not believe.” / “There’s nothing that the road cannot heal.”
- When I first came up with “take this road on the show” the only Google hit was a comment on a circa 2005 Will Wheaton post. A few more have popped up since. (I also imagined using it in a story about documentarians chronicling interesting locales for a tv series—so “take this road on the show” wouldn’t be a flubbed sentence. Oh well.)
- “Wherever you’re going” is a misremembered nod to the film Singles (the real line is “anywhere you’re going”), as is the response of Washington. “We have four hours” refers to an M. Ward song and the title to Chapter 4 of TP1.
- In an older draft, the redhead says “we’ll have to improvise,” grabs Local Boy’s arm, and they instantly time travel into the next chapter. As the book progressed, I made a rule that Local Boy should only be manipulated by time travelers and not time travel himself. I didn’t completely stick to it, but paired with it not feeling right to abandon the open mic night mission just yet it got revised.
- An even older draft involved Local Boy taking an express train to Washington DC thinking he needed to be there in 4 hours before realizing it was the wrong Washington. It was convoluted and sort of ridiculous.
- In a final callback to TP1, Local Boy reveals it’s a tan van he’s meeting the redhead in—same color as the one from the creepy time travel hospital he’d try to help his son escape from & strand Nelson in. If we get really technical, you could argue adult Local Boy could/should still be in that creepy hospital. (I’m not arguing that, but just saying…)