Part IV of Local Boy Done Gone is titled “The Kids are Alright,” respecting the greats in The Who while signaling Local Boy’s two kids will be just fine even though the sequence of their births may have changed.
This isn’t the first time the Timmons family tree had some leaves unnaturally re-grafted. In Timely Persuasion meddling by Local Boy’s son transformed his own appearance while making his sister into his brother. The biological hypothesis there is same egg + different sperm = different body, same soul (or at least “same mind”). It’s a touch hand-wavy, but it is rooted in the actual Consciousness Field Theory. I’d not heard of this when writing the original TP back in 2008, but it aligns with a lot of the concepts of “in head” time travel explored there. Another place to give credit to my future self.
For the chapter title, credit half goes to my past self and half to J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. “Start Choppin” was one of Local Boy’s stolen songs in Timely Persuasion and made its way into this alternate timeline too. All the chapters in Part IV are song titles that end with an apostrophe. Please ignore the fact that even though choppin’ could/should have an apostrophe, the official song title doesn’t.
Tidbits:
- Last time I teased how twins was a retcon I didn’t love. So I immediately undo it here, writing it off to a faulty reading by a new-to-the 1970s ultrasound machine and/or a real condition called Vanishing Twin Syndrome. The eventual answer will be revealed as more timey-wimey–but what’s important for now is thinking there would be twins wasn’t just a cheap trick of a chapter cliffhanger.
- When the main plot became 27 Club focused I became obsessed with figuring out a way to have the sister character die at the same age to tie the books together, and eventually came up with this change that both followed the precedent of Timely Persuasion (“yes, the book allowed for some unpredictable copulation fluctuation mumbo jumbo…”) while giving it a different spin unique to Local Boy Done Gone. A win-win, won one if you will. The birth order switcheroo turned it into a fun plot point instead of retroactive continuity.
- If I (and/or Local Boy) was better at writing songs, I’d totally do the Ifsandsorbuts concept album for real.
- In Timely Persuasion the only character with a name is Nelson (and maybe Bowlingus if nicknames count), but the narrator does repeatedly refer to his sister as “Sis.” Revealing her full name as Sistine was a fun little “you always sort of knew her name” moment.
- Maxanne Sartori is a real-life DJ from Boston’s WBCN for the bulk of the 1970s. Her claim to fame was championing local musicians, so having her spin “Won One” isn’t too big of a stretch. Respect the great DJs!
Remember that version I recorded at Barnstormer Studios? Pulled it out of my personal archives and submitted it to every radio station in a fifty mile radius. Local DJ Maxanne Sartori started spinning it on her show and “Won One” went from gathering dust to climbing the charts as a minor local hit. Set a record for call-in requests—mostly from people I didn’t know.
- Writer’s confession: I used to (incorrectly) believe till was an incorrectly abbreviated version of until. Since learning it’s legit I still refuse to use it in favor of the more casual ’til. A great little primer on the history from Merriam-Webster ends with this awesome line: “And if you use till in writing and someone tells you that you have made an error, simply take the extra L off the end of the word and poke them in the eye with it.”
- The chapter title is a little on the nose here since Local Boy & Local Gal are not so subtly acting out the lyrics in their vaudevillian lead up to playing the song at open mic night, fulfilling the Start Choppin alternating singer duet version I’ve dreamt about for years. The acoustic version below isn’t a duet, but aside from that sort of mirrors how I hear the Local Boy version.
Check out Local Boy Done Gone