Mitch's Christmas

Holy cow, there is so much to unpack with this chapter.

If you are a fan of long chapters ... ta-dah. If not, I'm sorry. I didn't expect this to be quite the huge chapter it turned out to be. Sometimes the story takes on a life of it is own. There are easy places to break this chapter into pieces.

Click here to read Chapter 24 of Say Goodbye to Sparkleland.

But I love it. Coming out of therapy, Mitchell is open and ready and vulnerable. He's all sorts of emotional uncertainties, and he is hit with so many things in December. Some people may think of it as "moving on," but he thinks of these temptations as tests.

I could have written about him taking Lorenzo back to his place. And if I'm honest, when I made the outline, I DID pencil in a three-way with Arlo and Seager. I knew it would be hot to write. But I thought the narrative would be more engaging with him wrestling with what could have been ultimate sex (remember Chapter 8 with Arlo?) and what he felt he needed to do. I think the story is stronger as a whole this way. (Many of you may be cursing me that I didn't write that scene! I get it.)

This chapter lets us see a different side to Logan too. He's been "professional" up to this point. Now we see him from a "personal" perspective. Do you have thoughts of how Mitchell has impacted his friend's life?

Ohhh, and there's Laramie. We all love him, but as much as Mitch dreaded seeing him, I thought it was interesting to write in how Laramie felt about it. Put yourself in his shoes. If you were the victor in a love triangle, you had to understand the loss of the one who wasn't as fortunate. Do you feel I portrayed him as authentic?

And finally, after almost a year, Mitch finds himself in the arms of another man. Do you approve of Layton? Do you want him to be Mitchell's new love? Or is he just a step toward Mitch's future? We have a few chapters left.

People wonder if I put myself into my stories. Maybe bits and pieces. The Christmas card silliness is totally me. My other half and I send out more than a hundred. We have the cards we received taped down our staircase each holiday season. I love it. So ... yeah ... that's me.

Threads of Mitchell's (Cruz, Arlo, Kenneth) past are now interwoven in the second arc of the book and him finding what his future is. You, as the reader, have seen small glimpses in my other stories.

The important thing is that Mitchell has finally worked at forgiving himself and is making steps to move on.

Carter Has a Secret

In a recent post, I noted that in future books I don’t want to have to “catch up” to established passages. Jakob, Laramie and Mitchell all have backstories that had to catch up to chapters in previous books.

Much to my surprise, I found out something odd with the  this last chapter.

Click here to read Say Goodbye to Sparkeland, Chap. 22.

As I was working through the last few chapters, I knew I had to go back and research a scene. In Chapter 19 of Laramie, we find Cooper picking up Laramie from The Black Stallion. It is actually Carter’s first appearance. I was trying to recall when all that happened. Much to my surprise, the point in time was right where I was in writing Sparkleland.

When I wrote Laramie last year, I had no idea how Book Seven would unfold. Since Mitchell has become a regular at The Black Stallion, Carter would have figured out who Laramie and Cooper were from things Mitchell has shared in recent weeks following his sessions.

See Laramie, Chap. 19.

Carter has a secret!! He knew Cooper and Laramie had a fight. Was he keeping out hope for Mitchell? Obviously, he didn’t say anything.

On the humorous side, I’m going to try to avoid moments like this in the future. Not that Carter knowing about Cooper’s and Laramie’s argument changes anything vital, it was just important for me to know as I developed this story.

So, you might ask, “Why keep writing books that overlap?” The answer is easy. When writing one, a character comes to life for me. Their story feels like it needs to be told.

Mitch was a trickier subject. I figured most of my readers just didn’t like him. Period. For him to have a compelling story, I had to make him human. All my characters are flawed, but he needed redemption more than anyone else. Cooper’s story was about being a good father. Laramie’s story was accepting oneself. Mitchell is a tale of self-forgiveness.

We have several more chapters to see if Mitch will find what he is looking for.