Anson

 

I’ve titled this post "Anson." It could potentially be a mistake, as Anson will arrive to make an impact later in the story (and I might wish to have saved that post title). However, the last line in this chapter is a tease, isn’t it?

Click here to read Hi, I’m Lance Meeting 75 [Chap. 27].

This lets me share various things.

We know a little about Jakob’s past. Now that his birthday has come back around, it has been almost a year since he decided to leave his horrible, abusive surroundings he was living in. Although he only lived out of his car and slept on a park bench briefly before moving to the shelter, Hi, I’m Lance has only shared bits and pieces. We know how Jakob left his home, and we know that Anson was his first boyfriend in high school. Once Jakob came clean with his family, he was forced to leave, and Anson’s family took him in (at least temporarily).

Sidestep here to … well, me. All these characters really just started as a creative writing whim when the pandemic started. It was a diversion. I would never have dreamed — or dared — to show it to anyone. I was enjoying writing Extracurricular, but I had to ask, even to myself, how was I going to end it? It’s not in my nature just to leave it unfinished. The “hopeful” but nebulous ending didn’t appease me for long. I wanted to keep writing. So flipping the narrative to a different perspective of another protagonist (but still the same story) intrigued me. Thus, Book Two: If It Weren’t For the Two of Us was born. Soon, I fell in love with writing Lance’s character. The more I dug in, the more interesting he became. I didn’t even wait to finish the second book. There was a clear divergent point for Hi, I’m Lance to start, so I did it right in the middle. Obviously, making sure both stories worked together was a bit more challenging that way, but story wise, it made sense. Extracurricular is admittedly shorter than the two books that followed, but once I finished Hi, I’m Lance, I figured it worked nicely as a trilogy and I was done.

Which brings us back to Jakob. Doggone it if I didn’t fall in love with him too. He had such an intense backstory, it needed to be told. So, a fourth book was written. Once I became a regular Nifty author, I wondered if readers would really even be interested in Jakob’s story. It is so different. At the core of each of my books is a love story. Jakob has to go through a lot. Would readers be willing to endure it alongside him? At least in their situation, they know that eventually life turns a corner, and he meets Lance. But it is a long process. Because he had to climb his way out of his situation, I named the book Ascension: Jakob’s Ladder.

Many of you just click on the Nifty links. You might not realize that the chapters of Hi, I’m Lance are not even numbered. They are all named for meetings. When Book Four is eventually posted this summer, you might notice the first chapter is “16.” Each chapter will be a year in Jakob’s life. It will go from the pivotal years of high school to a few years beyond how we know Jakob now. Like I said — it’s really different!

So when Anson arrives in a few chapters (spoiler), you will begin to know him. When Jakob’s book begins posting, you will be able to flashback and see Anson in his teens as well.

Maybe it is a selfish conceit, but writing my stories where all the characters overlap but still have an opportunity to tell their own story is enjoyable. New characters come into play, but working with established characters and further fleshing them out is fun.

I’m appreciative that you are following along.