I am pleased to say that I'm completely indebted to a loyal reader for this week's post. When Extracurricular concluded in May; the ending was rather nebulous. For those readers who might have stopped there, one could hope for the best, but ... it ended. A reader — who felt left hanging — implored me to write an epilogue or something to bring it to a more satisfying conclusion. Unknown to him, the story did continue, just through the eyes of the younger protagonist in If It Weren't For the Two of Us.
That planted a seed. At the time, I thought it might be fun once Trent graduated to look back and see how Mike dealt with "the pause," because we had only seen it from Trent's perspective. I intended to do this over the summer while the graduation was still fresh. I thought it would be like "bonus content" on DVDs, much like deleted scenes.
Well now the characters are well into autumn in If It Weren't For the Two of Us and Hi, I'm Lance, but this was something I still wanted to do. I hadn't written with Mike as the protagonist in so long, and this was quite enjoyable. It caused me to go back to the first 18 chapters of Book Two. Ages ago for us, right?
Read Extracurricular Bonus Content here.
Nothing here is really going to be too new for readers, but it works with what I've done recently where events overlap in two books. (Expect that for the holidays too.) We all saw how Trent was dealing with things while the relationship was on hold; now we can live it through Mike.
Extracurricular still officially ends with Chapter 13, but I hope you enjoy this additional material.
This was interesting. We are so far into the two other stories that it is almost hard to remember it all started with Mike. I didn't realize I had missed his "voice." He is allegedly the "older" one, but as someone in my 50s, 30 isn't old at all. I can attest that whether it is 30 or 50 or whatever, we all have insecurities. It's part of being human. And Mike seems the most human of your characters to me.
ReplyDeleteT. B.
This is great. Recognized some of the scenes — word for word — but really enjoyed getting Mike’s perspective.
ReplyDeleteParticularly amused by the graduation pizza lunch — 50, 60, 70, 80.
I know you have become very enamored of Lance as the story has continued, but this confirmed my preference for Trent.
— L.
Not an essential chapter in the saga, but a good read nonetheless. It served as a refresher to me of how the relationship progressed in the early stages.
ReplyDelete…and I loved it! Thanks for keeping me engaged, which you do very well. I love the insight into Mike through his point of view.
ReplyDeleteM.
I read the "bonus" chapter you wrote for Extracurricular. Wow! It was so good to re-visit the events from the early months of Mike and Trent's relationship. You gave a sweeping overview and a few new "puzzle pieces" – which I'm sure will make further reading of your stories even more interesting.
ReplyDelete