Category: Behind the Scenes

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…

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…

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)…

Two people. Both talkin’. Sometimes talkin’ makes you sound stupid, but they manage to pull it off. Especially the gal with the red hair. Lucinda Williams didn’t have red hair, but people still talked about her. —Remixing the opening lines of Local Boy Done Gone Chapter 22 in the style of the dreamy non-dreams from…

For no particular reason except to see if I could while still respectin’ the greats, all of the chapter/song titles in Part IV contain words endin’ in apostrophes. Due to either a fun coincidence or my future self havin’ fun with me, the first two were Dinosaur Jr. and Weezer doin’ the singin’. If “Start…

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…

Originally this was part of the previous chapter, but a desire for shorter sections with cliffhanger twists earned it a number (and title) of its own. The namesake Sublime song is fitting, with “Wrong Way” coming on the heels of the “wrong girl” reveal. The scene here is mostly an internal rant debating the right…

Remember when I said my favorite chapter title was If Only No One Won? This one is right there with it and another piece of the AWAB redemption arc. Title rankings aside, it’s one of my favorites from a story and writing standpoint. Four weddings were promised in the part title. You’re about to get…

In the last commentary I mentioned an aversion to albums that share their title with a song on the record. I prefer album titles to come from lyrics or overarching concepts vs. having a title track. (See: Nevermind, Skittish, A Love Extreme). On the other hand, I’m a big fan of cheekily naming a record…

I almost called this chapter “Fourth Time Around” but I’ve never liked when an album has the same title as a song on it. (Yes, I already sort of did this earlier…) “New Age” is fine, but I considered it a placeholder of a scene title until I was agonizing over where to set the…