A couple of writers I like, Artie and Wiseguy, have done this--little 'explanations' behind their stories. I get questions in e-mail and such, so I thought I'd do this, too.

You probably don’t want to read these little essays before you read the stories they’re about.

DANCE OF A LIFETIME The magnum opus <G>. First, the answer to the first question I always get about DoaL: No, it's not a true story.

Mostly. <G>

The plot is complete fiction. I don't ice skate particularly well (I am a huge fan). I didn't have a girlfriend when I was 14. There's nobody like Sophia in my life, and there certainly wasn't back then, by a long shot. Sophia is a mostly fictional character--her party-hearty lifestyle (at the beginning) and parts of her 'look' come from a girl who I did work with at a donut shop when I was 14. The 'beaten by boyfriend' part comes from another old friend. The rest of Sophie is complete fiction.

Warren's mostly fiction. Some of his 'biographical information' stuff is me: my Birthday is in January, I did start school early (so I was just 17 when I graduated HS, like Warren), I grew up in a town remarkably like Oceanview and I went to a HS remarkably like St. Michael's Prep. I had a 'neighborhood crew' remarkably like Warren's and my best friend's nickname is Crash <G>. But Warren himself--his personality, his attitudes, some of the things he does--are completely unlike me. I only wish I had his study habits in HS <G>.

The neighborhood crew, Crash, Jessie, and Papa Bear are based on real people.

Some of the skaters are based on real-life skaters. Not all. (W&S aren't, Evan and Shawna aren't. Ryan isn't, but Courtney is. Christine Arsenault isn't. Brett and Andrea aren't, nor is Tom Bellamy.) The 'based on' with these skaters is obviously tenuous, since I don't know these people personally.

This is the first story I ever tried writing, partially as an exercise to see if I could. Sophie--no lie--came to me in a dream, and said, "I have a story for you to tell." You ignore Sophie at your own peril <G>, so, I did as she asked. Little did I know it would take over my life <G>.

Projected ending? Hopefully, by early 2004. And it will be 175 chapters--including an epilogue--give or take one or two.

THE PERFECT SIX The first short story I wrote or posted. I came up with the idea for this while starting DoaL, which is why they're both about figure skating <G>. One of the (very tenuous) inspirations for DoaL was the movie "The Cutting Edge". That movie's influence on The Perfect Six is more overt.

ALEXANDRA The one story of mine with some basis in truth. Alexandra is a real person (that's not her name). She was my next door neighbor. And we did go out, although for a shorter period than Alex and Chris. I did go away to college, and she did cheat on me while I was there (though not to that extent, as far as I know she was a virgin on her wedding night.) However, I wasn't as mature as Chris, and her cheating ended the relationship.

Many of the plot points--the prom, the Springsteen concert--are fiction. However, the surprise blowjob followed by my first cunnilingus experience is absolutely as true as 20 years memory will allow. And my memory of that experience is quite vivid <G>. Being the King and Queen of Oral Sex and Mutual Masturbation--we were. 'Alex' was a virgin when we parted, but putting tab A into slot B was just about the only thing we didn't do.

'Alex's' family was as I have described, though 'Cheryl' was never that much of a bitch <G>. And 'Alex's' little sister 'Andrea' was also the inspiration for Jessie of DoaL <G>.

Everybody has 'the one that got away', unless you're Warren and/or Sophie and meet your soulmate when you're 14 <G>. Alex is my 'one that got away'. I've been in love with two people in my life, and Alex is the one I didn't marry. Except in fiction, which is why I wrote the story <G>.

THE RESULT OF THEIR AFFECTION Written while my wife was pregnant with our second. Somehow became a cheating story in the execution <G>.

CHANGEUP Not a true story, but it could be. Exactly something my wife would do, but we'll have to wait until Pedro does throw a no-hitter <G>. As I write this, the Red Sox have just beaten the A's to stay alive in the 2003 playoffs, and my wife was nice enough not to drag me to the bedroom until after the Sox won. Of course, this is the playoffs. If it were the regular season, she might not have been so patient <G>.

THE ORGASM GAME A bizarre twist on the college-truth-or-dare-game concept. Also, one of my first verbal assaults on BMOC jock-types. Though Dan's not as bad as some. <G>

I may at some point write a ‘sequel’ to this—not the same characters, but another story involving the Orgasm Game. And if anyone else would like to use this particular game in a story, feel free—as far as I know, I invented it. If I didn’t, someone will tell me, I’m sure <G>.

DESTINY DELAYED Based a bit in truth so far as I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist, and I have played in bands. Unfortunately, I never had the good fortune to share a stage with any female players. "Hold Me Down" is an actual song, which I also write. This was also an experiment with writing from a female POV—something I now seem to be doing with alarming frequency!

THE AGREEMENT I have absolutely no fucking idea where this story came from! <G>

OLD FRIENDS Falling back again on the hot chick with geeky guy concept <G>, but this story was another challenge--trying to write something where the consensual aspects of the sex are in question.

TRANSCENDING THE ROLE No, this isn't that same concept--Josh is not a geek, nor is he meant to be one. Another one that I can't really pinpoint the inspiration--and, no, Meredith isn't based on any teen actresses.

FINDING A PLACE This was written because of a discussion about the 'sappiness' of my writing. I decided to write something really sappy. <G> Most of my stuff at least has 'character torture' detours, so I decided to write something that didn't even have that. Just a slow procession to a sickeningly sweet conclusion <G>. Brendan is as close to me at 18 as I've ever written. Sheila just came to me, and I loved her from the moment she introduced herself to me.

Yes, there is a sequel to FAP planned, as was hinted at in chapter 139 of DoaL. Since it runs concurrent to a ‘year’s time’ of DoaL, I won’t be writing it until that year’s time is finished (which is at chapter 153 or so) as there would be DoaL ‘spoilers’ if I wrote it before.

LETTERS TO BRIAN An exercise in writing a story based on nothing but letters. Not sure if it works <G>, but I enjoyed writing it. Also an excuse to allow Rhie to act as my spokesperson about Dubya's Folly--oops, I mean The War In Iraq. <G>

THE NAKED IN SCHOOL SERIES Karen Wagner, of course, started the whole NiS concept, but it wasn’t her story that inspired me--it was PeregrineF’s, about Carl and Beth. That’s where I got inspired to take the whole NiS thing on.

The ‘Buddy System’ is mine. As I said, I liked PeregrineF’s things, but I decided to see what I could do with a guy and girl in The Program at the same time. So, I came up with the Buddy System. I like the way it worked. NiS was also an experiment by switching points-of-view between two characters. I was worried about pulling that off, but I’m really happy the way it turned out.

Jared and Amanda NiS was supposed to be a stand-alone. In the middle of writing that one, Lily came to me--still my favorite character I’ve ever written. And her dilemma, about trying to try out for the baseball team while naked--I found very intriguing. In the middle of writing that one, Michelle’s story came to me. And, while writing Mike and Lily, I discovered Ed Bauer, and realized I had to give him a story. And on it went, and before I knew it I had seven <G>. There was almost an eighth, but I realized, while I had a setup, I didn’t have an ending--so the setup, which still intrigues me, is going to show up in my forthcoming Naked High novel, where it will fit better.

Some readers have tweaked my fascination for happy endings, and have challeneged me to write a story that didn’t have one. Well, I almost did--I had a story that, when I first started it, was not going to end with the characters together. But I realized about halfway through that my characters, Missy and David, had other ideas. They weren’t supposed to be together--in fact, after David helped her out, she was supposed to ‘revert to form’ and they were going to end up hating one another by the end. But Missy had a moment of true altruism and gave David that handjob. Once I wrote that part, I realized that everything had changed. That was the moment that Missy stopped being a bitch--and I found she didn’t want to go back. Everything else flowed from there. Sometimes the characters take on a life of their own.

One of these days I may write a story that doesn’t have a happy ending, just to prove that I can. Problem is, I’m not quite sure I can <G>. I read stuff like the collected works of Alexis Siefert. Alexis is a marvelous writer, she has a real feel for words and for setting a scene. All of her stuff is emotional, thought-provoking, outstandingly presented—and, for the most part, depressing. I love her writing, she’s fantastic, but every time I read one of her things, afterwards I have to go read Finding A Place just so I don’t start looking for the razor blades <G>. So, I’ve asked myself, can I write something like that? I don’t know if I can. I probably should, just so I don’t get typecast—though it’s probably too late for that <G>.

Maybe I should challenge Alexis. She’d have to write something sickeningly-sweet in Frank Downey style and I’d have to write something in her style. She’d probably win <VBG>.

Anyhow………

 BRICK Inspired by the Ben Folds song of the same name, which Ben has related is a true story—he got his girlfriend pregnant in high school, and she had an abortion. I took off from there—take two characters in the same situation. What if the aftereffects of the abortion killed the relationship, and what if they met 15 years later?

WHAT DO YOU DREAM OF? Not sure where this came from. It’s not based on reality, at least not my reality <G>.

I WAS A TEENAGED PET Yeah, it’s silly <G>

CURSE OF THE BAMBINO This was remarkably fun to write—well, until the final chapter. That chapter just about killed me, but I managed to make it work despite the fact that I was more despondant than Mitch was about the Red Sox blowing it again. But, before that, I was having a blast. It was an interesting experiment, trying to write a story revolving around a real-life event that was happening while I was writing the story.

The only thing, by the way, that was planned out more-or-less in advance is that I figured that I’d get Mitch and Callie together at the end—but I wasn’t even 100% sure about that. Nothing else was planned in advance. There was no outline for Curse—I watched the game—as much as I could if I was in work that night—get up the next morning and check the ‘gamecast’ on ESPN.com to make sure I had all my ducks in a row—and write the chapter. It was very organic, I just wrote what came to mind, which is what made it fun. Callie ‘conceding’ the bet and sleeping with Mitch absolutely just happened. Wasn’t planned. I was all set to write a blowjob scene <VBG> but Callie’s confession about a MM BJ turning her off pre-empted that (that just came out, too.)

I tend to be a stream-of-consciousness writer in the first place, but Curse really took that to an extreme <G>. It was loads of fun, and I’d like to do something similar if the opportunity ever presents itself. Since I’m an Olympic nut, the 2004 Olympics in Athens might present some opportunity—I’ll have to think about that <G>

TREATS FOR THE TRICKSTER Just a little teenagers in love at Halloween story. The folks at my discussion group, FDWritings, decided to have a little ‘halloween story’ festival. It was fun, and this was my contribution. It was supposed to be much shorter than it turned out <G> but I fell head-over-heels in love with Denise and Riley, so I gave more detail. I love the way it turned out. One of the things I wanted to do was take a (relatively) short story and still have my characters grow. Denise really grew, and Riley did, too. You could almost see Denise’s confidence grow by each section, which was fun to try to pull off.

SAMANTHA’S SECRET This little tale was inspired by an article I read in my local newspaper. There’s a girl at a high school in my home town who’s one of the best soccer goalies in the state. The article detailed how she managed to do that, plus be a fine student—while battling epilepsy. The article also went on to tell how she’d tried to hide her epilepsy from most people, but had finally decided to talk about it. She wanted to make the point how a person with epilepsy could lead a normal life and have a social life and be a star for a high school soccer team. She talked about the stigma, and how she was trying to circumvent it.

This also made me remember an old aquaintance, a guy I knew back in high school when we worked at the same grocery store. He had big seizures—what used to be called Grand Mal—and, in fact, had one right in the middle of the produce department, collapsed and spasming on the floor. And, when he was done, he calmly sat up on the floor, looked at the knot of people that had gathered, and said, "It’s OK, I have epilepsy, I’m fine, it happens." We talked about it once, and he told me that (luckily) he only got them very infrequently—which was a good thing, considering how big they were—but that he just refused to be stigmatized about it. And he knew lots of people that were, but he wasn’t going to apologize about having what was basically a disease he could do nothing about.

Thus, due to that story about the soccer goalie and memories of my old co-worker, Samantha was born. I wanted her to end up where my old friend and that soccer goalie are in dealing with her condition, but not start there. Of course, she’d need help. Enter Peter, one of my patented ‘good guys’, and, not coincidentally, named after my old high school co-worker. Thus, the story.

I researched this. Any real egregious errors, please let me know. One thing I did find out was that they don’t talk about ‘grand mal’ and ‘petite mal’ anymore. There’s a number of different types of epileptic seizures, you’ll find out if you read up on it. Like seven or eight, IIRC. Samantha has what are called Partial Complex Seizures—partial meaning they only affect part of her brain; but complex meaning that they affect more than one place on her body—hence the spasms in her right hand and left leg along with the general muscle slackness. But I did research this, including getting a good handle on what happens during Sam’s seizures. The whole thing about stress contributing to setting them off, I got from my research. And, yes, it’s true—epileptic women, most of them, can’t take the pill. Most anti-seizure medications render the pill ineffective. So, I tried hard to get the epilepsy part right—I hope I succeeded.

More when I write more crap <G>