Part 2 promised a van & a list. Here you get both. Musically a hit list is a ranking of top tunes—but there’s also a more nefarious, entertainment agnostic meaning. The list becomes Local Boy’s obsession for the rest of the novel. Tidbit List: Check out Local Boy Done Gone
LBDG Commentary 8: The Big Break-In
Local Boy bailed on his previous big break to take the redhead’s ride in a tan van. This break-in is even bigger—directly revisiting a scene from the previous book. I keep calling Local Boy Done Gone a standalone sequel, but in these commentary posts I also keep pointing out places where the two stories intersect….
LBDG Commentary 7: About an Encore
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….
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…
Still Right Here With You: 8 Shows with The Pink Stones at SXSW 2024
I’m known to engage in some unreasonable live music fandom from time to time. Following 311 on summer tours in high school and college on the MA-RI-CT-NY-NJ circuit in various orders. Flying to London for the “last ever” Carter USM show…twice (2007 & 2014). All four nights of the epic July 2010 Benji Hughes residency…