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….
Category: Behind the Scenes
LBDG Commentary 6: A Trio of Dueling Suitors
Another non-song chapter title, invoking a musical trio while foreshadowing a few different dueling duos. We’re hitting the crossroads where the story loosely outlined in my head for years takes a hard turn in a different direction. In hindsight the breadcrumbs were there (they always are…), but this is the spot where the lost adventures…
LBDG Commentary 5: Piano Man & The New Plan
Not exactly a song title, but here we invoke Billy Joel’s pseudonym plus a snippet of a Paul Simon lyric. No need to be coy, but why not? History repeating in a similar but not exactly the same manner when LBDG becomes LGDB is another bit straight out of the original years-old outline. Having this…
LBDG Commentary 4: Where Has The Music Gone?
Chapters in the original Timely Persuasion used songs with numbers in the titles. Local Boy Done Gone mostly (but not always) sticks to songs but skips the numerics. Here we have a semi-lost non album Mason Jennings track, sticking with the stolen/missing song theme. Another thing I tried to do while naming chapters was segue…
LBDG Commentary 3: How We Met
Skimming the archives, I normally start these commentary posts with some fun facts about my state of mind leading into a particular chapter. Today I’m stumped. This one just is what it is. Never let the truth get in the way of some good tidbits… Some Good Tibits: Check out Local Boy Done Gone
LBDG Commentary 2: If Only No One Won
Easily my favorite chapter title. Could’ve also been the subtitle of the book (and is now the subtitle of this blog…). Chapter 1 closed with Local Boy running off to write “If Only” even though the first book told us this was supposed to be when he wrote “Won One.” The chapter merges both titles…
LBDG Commentary 1: October 1969
Kicking off my traditional series of author’s commentary posts for Local Boy Done Gone with—wait for it—Chapter 1! Before we go there, a quick origin story: There was always an idea for a sequel to Timely Persuasion, but I never thought I’d actually write it. Years later came a completely different concept of a companion…
New Novel: Local Boy Done Gone
Four leap years ago today I started this blog the same day my first novel Timely Persuasion was released. Now that 2/29 has come around again, I’m proud to announce a sequel to Timely Persuasion titled Local Boy Done Gone. Picking up in 1969 at the point where folk rock superstar Local Boy goes back…
Remixing Heartman & Songstress
L Extreme plays out in album order as a track-by-track adaptation of A Love Extreme, but ironically following the song sequence generated a non-sequential narrative that loops back on itself in a series of flashbacks. Keeping score at home? Excluding framing devices, re-arranging the chapters into chronological story would be along the lines of: 21, 3, 8,…
Benji Hughes, Agatha Christie, Anne Rice, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut…and me!
One goal I had for L Extreme was to capture the genre crossing styles Benji Hughes uses on A Love Extreme the album through the various song/chapters. Recently I remembered this old I Write Like text analysis website and wondered how well I did at mixing things up. Let’s see… In 15 chapters, I write like Agatha…