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The Lost Boys


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[Special Note: The new website is now live. As a result the links throughout this thread are invalid except for the latest posting to the thread. All of D’Artagnon’s stories can now be found at D'Artagnon]

NEW STORY!

Prologue and Chapter 1 posted at http://www.castleroland.net/library/author/dartagnon

Edited by Zach Caldwell
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Small towns have secrets, and secrets within secrets.  Sometimes, those secrets need friends.  A gathering is beginning, just days after Max's awakening, other boys in Canterbury discover that there is more going on than meets the eye.  Lost Boys chapter 1 - Sammy the Kat starts us off.

 

It's not all exactly what it seems.

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It is not torture if done from love.  I should point out, it's not bondage either, LOL.  If any author just gave you the map and said, "Here's whats gonna happen, here it is happening, here's what you just finished reading, now go away, son, you bother me!" it wouldn't be that much of a thrill ride.  The waiting should give you time to consider alternatives, look for the "what ifs."

 

Also, I should mention that I hide stuff in my stories.  Not anything mind blowing, mind you.  As many of the writers here will tell you, there are subtleties to the craft.  For example, I threw in two anagrams to my pen name in Coupe.  Mitch and Kenny's last name is Tannagord, and the Countess' sidhe name is Donna Trag, both are scrambled versions of D'Artagnon.  I tried like hell to figure a way to insert "tan dragon" but nothing made sense, story wise.

 

In Lost Boys, there was originally a sort of competition between myself and another author who I had a casual friendship with at the time.  His pen name was Grasshopper (Just Hit Send series, it'll leave you giggling and in tears).  We were trying to spurn on other writers at the time by seeing what sort of creative stuff we could throw into the things we were working on.  I was also writing Lost Boys for one of the named characters in the story and several of his online buddies, most of whom appear as the main characters.  So I tried to put things in there that they'd recognize as personal.  Look for the use of the word "seam" (it was a running joke among them because one of them kept spelling it wrong in IM's, posts and text messages) and the phrase "break free," as I believe I manged to weave those into each of the original chapters.

 

Sadly, when Sammy died, i lost a lot of interest in this story.  I had been writing it for him, one of several ways of keeping his spirits up, keeping his warrior spirit into the game as it were.  Sammy lost his battle with a rare and difficult to treat bone marrow cancer, and in a lot of ways, it wrecked my world.  He was probably the closest thing I'll ever have to a son of my own, and the brief 2 year period I was his mentor, teacher, care giver and "bonehead" was an experience I would never have traded for anything, other than to trade for him to have lived, loved and showed us all the right way to face not only death, but life.  He touched a lot of lives.

 

I wont go into details, but it was through Sammy that I met, got to talking with, fell in love with and am now living with my ashke, Benji.  It was Benji that really helped bring me back from the edge.  Depression, despair, defeat, all these weigh heavily upon you when you lose a child.  Benji helped ground me again.  He'll probably deny it, but he gave me a reason to go on living, and to get back into writing.  In case I haven't said it today, I love you very much, BabyKat.

 

It was at Benji's gentle insistence that I found the will to pick up Lost Boys again.  Sammy would have wanted this story to have an ending and a home.  It may take some time while I'm still going over my original notes on this story, building the plot and characters into my own head again, to get chapters done on this one after the originals run out at chapter 6.  I ask that you are a little patient with it.  There are memories from about 10 years ago that I sometimes have troubles with.  The ghosts don't always say why they hang about, but they often let you know they're there, still waiting, faithful and smiling.

 

Anyways, I encourage readers to look deeper into the stories they love, here and in other sites and in those archaic things called books (often the only things left with spines anymore, lol).  I also encourage writers to challenge their readers with hidden clues, subtle subplots, use of literary tricks and devices, character based trickery and other such ploys to not only give the stories some internal cohesion, but to also up your own game.  Like any good magician, musician, comedian and story teller will tell you, it's not the ones you see coming that affect you the most, it's those ones that come out of nowhere.

 

Keep passing open windows, my brothers, and...

seeya on the other side.

 

Robby 

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This has the makings of a great story. Off to a good start. Looking forward to more.

 

Speaking of things "hidden" in stories: wasn't it Christopher Stasheff who took an entire chapter in order to create a tornado in a chrysalis (a "cysted twister"), the spoonerism of "Twisted Sister," a heavy metal band of the 70s? Actually, that wasn't hidden very deeply.

 

Better than easter eggs!

 

David

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oh awesome.  In an online superhero game I ran for a while I had a villain character named Sister Twister who had spinning powers.  She was a punk in both senses of the word

 

.post-109-0-98364800-1423842605_thumb.jpg

 

Mister Sinister's Varsity Club.  From the left Fireball, Sister Twister, Touch Down, Jam, Caliope and Rad, with Mister Sinister himself standing behind.  An older picture that I remember rushing to get done before the next week's game session.

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Sometimes a talent can become a prison, a joy can be perverted into a personal hell.  When everything around you crashes inwards, you have to question if you have the strength within yourself to find a way out.  Lost Boys  Chapter 3 - Kyle the Coon    is next.

 

 

The fiercest fires come from the coldest hearts.  Game on!

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D'Artagnon, not sure if it is a typo or you actually created a new word in last post, "chrushes", but the visual I get when reading it is, "crushingly rushed" and I like it. Did you patent it already, grin...

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One of the hidden things woven into this story is prominent here, and it has to do with the town as well as a certain famous comic book title (or series of titles).  I invite people to look into the history of your own town.  Sometimes you find things interesting, unexpected and culturally significant.

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