I’ve been thinking about writing something similar to absman’s thread, but now that I’ve brought Change of Attire across the finish line it’s the perfect time to go ahead with it. So let me first thank jockboi51 for giving his support to my expansion of his original story. We exchanged messages back and forth sharing ideas about our respective works and those conversations help move the work along. He’s gone MIA for while, but I still appreciate his support and I wouldn’t be able to have finished Change of Attire without those conversations and his encouragement.
I also want to thank all the readers who commented and gave a thumbs up to the work along the way; those actions really were a big encouragement to keep going. I wouldn’t be here without your comments, questions, and support; I’m so grateful you support along the way.
So the characters in Change of Attire are not done and there are more stories in the pipeline. I’ve got another set of stories I’m calling “The Arc of the Spiral” which will have the characters appearing and more people coming into slavehood. I’ve also got another chapter I’m calling “Big Man in Japan” which has Brian becoming an exchange student teaching football in Japan. So that takes me to talking about the character that is Brian Fulton.
So where did Brian come from? He’s actually based on someone I met in my years wandering around academia. In the university that came to be my second home, I actually rang into a football player studying Japanese. I ran into him twice; the first time he was with my friend in the lobby of the East Asian building as I was coming down from my office; the second time he had been injured and was sitting in a golf cart he used to get around campus. We never actually spoke to each other, but I hadn’t met an athlete who was actually taking Japanese as a course. Once I started writing “Change” that football player came back to mind and I incorporated those things into the character that became Brian Fulton.
Brian’s solo story will draw on my own experience as a high school exchange student to Japan and the 1980’s movie “Mr. Baseball.” One scene that is already in my mind is Brian going to a school uniform shop and actually trying on a Japanese uniform. Of course it involves Brian sending pictures and footage back to Hakeem, but that actually draws on my real experience of getting a summer Japanese uniform for the exchange program. Hopefully I can at long put some Japanese centered content up to sit along some of the other stories set in Japan that I’ve given my blessings and support to.
A story line that I’m excited about in “The Arc of the Spiral” is my version of Part III of jockboi’s original story. Part III is the party and I’m going to do my own take on that with the dynamics that have been laid out in the final chapter of “Change.” I won’t reveal anything more as I am an adherent of the “Spoilers” rule from Dr. Who.
The last thing I’d like to talk about is the older stories: “Army in Black,” “Bargain: Rank and File,” and “Soldier Slave.” I haven’t forgot about these stories; in fact, I have story lines for all three. I’ve been thinking through them and have the ideas for the stories to play out. The thing that was stalling them was writer’s block. Making it through “Change of Attire” has shown I can make through the writing process and inspired me to go back through them. I can say that for “Bargain: Rank and File” the problem was too much detail; I was trying to express everything and it was getting overwhelming. The solution is to jump through some of the action and thereby it won’t feel like I’m drowning myself or the reader in details. But sometimes you have to step away from a work to see the path forward. So hopefully you see some of the new chapters of these older stories in the near future.
So with the conclusion of “Change of Attire” the writing future is bright…not so bright that I gotta wear shades…but bright enough that I can see the way forward. I hope you will enjoy what comes out of the light shining over my works.