Chapter 23 is posted.

You can read it here.

This story doesn't end when you probably think it will end.

I wanted to explain a little bit about the structure of what I'm writing.  Somewhere around Chapter 10, the whole shape of this story came together in my head, and I've been pacing it pretty strictly according to that design.

A lot of people understandably seem to be under an impression that this is going to wrap up at the end of senior year.  Given the title and how invested I am in the setting, this would make sense.  That assumption would guide your expectations about when things fall into place, how much more is left to the story and how I'm pacing it.  But if this were in paperback, you'd be able to thumb ahead to see how many pages are left, maybe skim ahead for the dirty scenes, and have a summary on the back cover telling you what it's all about.

So it only seems fair to flag that the story won't end at graduation.  And while I'm getting closer to the kinds of scenes and sequences and plot developments that you'd expect, the heart of it won't come together until later, post-graduation chapters, which will involve almost every character who's had a line of dialogue.  And man, it's going to tie up.  There won't be a loose thread.

And now you may be thinking, "Jesus Christ, JPM, you're driving me fucking nuts.  It takes you 10 months to write one chapter, and now you're talking about shit happening years after college."  So, yeah, that's kind of lame of me, but I wanted to flag it now so that when we get to graduation and not everything is resolved, you don't think I was a tease.  It's part of the plan.  And hopefully we won't have another ten-month lull between updates.  I'm trying to be better.

If you're still rolling your eyes, trust me, this wasn't what I had in mind when I wrote the first chapter, back when I thought this would be kind of a gay "American Pie," only with a little more heart.  This has a life of its own now.

The good news is that Chapter 23 should be posted fairly soon.  It's kind of a stand-alone short story about one of the secondary characters.  Chapter 24 will end junior year.  Chapter 25 will be set in the summer of 2004 -- it's going to be long and pretty and is something I've been looking forward to writing for at least a year.  And then it'll be chapter 26, we'll be in senior year, and there will be consequences.

Last thing: Occasionally people seem to worry that this will have a tragic arc.  I'll just note that I hate how so many depictions of gay guys, even the good ones (Brokeback, A Single Man), seem to require one of the characters dying.  That's not my jam.  But I've already reassured you on this front.  If you worry that I'm setting up for something truly sad, just go back and re-read the first sentence of Part One.  It'll still be true at the end.

Chapter 22 is posted.

You can read it here.

Chapter 21 is posted.

You can read it here.

An open thread while we wait for Chapter 21.

Yo! I know that several of you are waiting for more of the story, and, as always, I really do appreciate your interest and enthusiasm. Wish that I thought a new chapter was imminent -- this stretch really is a monkey on my back -- but after putting down a few thousand words, I kind of don't like what I have, so it's going to require some more thinking and work.

In the interim, you can leave any questions, complaints, love letters, etc., in the comments. I can't promise that I'll respond, but I'll definitely read them.

Here's an e-mail I just sent to a somewhat demanding (if complimentary) e-mailer who aggressively asked me why the hell I'm not updating more frequently:

Dude! You have to understand that I'm a just a guy with a demanding job, an active social life and lots of interests that tend to demand my time, too. Working on the story is a really cool activity that I enjoy, but it's not like I'm getting rich or famous from it -- I'm just some guy doing it because I like it. I also try to resist the urge to post a chapter just to meet demand. Last chapter, I had several thousand words written before I decided that it sucked and went back to square one. Something similar is happening with this one. I've got a plan and structure in place for the whole story, but there are certain sections that I knew were going to be kind of hard. This is just one of those things. I'm not a professional; I have to do the best that I can with my time and my ideas.

That said, thanks so much for your interest and enthusiasm. I really appreciate it, and feel very lucky that people take an interest in what I'm doing. I've got to think that by the end, we're all going to have a better time if I just try to enjoy the writing and do the best that I can, and not rush it just to put a new chapter out there.

W.H. Auden was very, very dirty.

Who knew? I mean, whoah.

If you're bummed that I haven't written a crazy-hot sex scene in awhile, here's The Platonic Blow by W.H. Auden.

Chapter 20 is posted.

You can read it here.

Familiar-ish

I definitely got a kick out of reading this, and the ensuing responses.

Title: I'm a guy whose bromance has turned into a gay relationship, yet neither of us admit it.

Also: this

Everybody's probably seen this by now. Even so: whoah.

Seriously, I've been writing.

Just not the next chapter -- more like portions of the final five chapters, and some sequences in between that I really like.

I mean, I don't want to oversell my stuff. I've got my own criticisms of aspects of the story, and the fact that I like where it goes doesn't necessarily mean that you will.

Anyway, as of now, the too-long-awaited Chapter 20 still has about 5,000 words down, which is long, but I have more to write before it all ties together. Time should free up after this weekend, so I'll have no excuse. By the time it goes live, we'll probably all be disappointed and mildly frustrated that it took so long for that, and it will seem a little anticlimactic. Thanks for your comments and e-mails and sticking around. And if Chapter 20 does, in fact, seem anticlimactic, further down the road we're going to have fireworks and special effects and we're all going to go kind of crazy, I think.