Well, I am still dealing with writers block on "Country Boy in the City", but at least decided to use some of the time productively.
For the last two weeks, I have been going through the original "Country Boy, City Girl", and have just finished Book I. Fixed a lot of spelling mistakes, corrected some really wonky phrasing, and in general gave it a good cleanup. One that should have been done years ago. I did make some changes, but nothing major, just a few minor tweaks here and there to help it fit in a bit better with what I would write later on.
I am starting to work on Book II now, and here I am a bit undecided.
Way back when I started writing this, the backstory and what Linda was doing "off camera" was always in my mind. I had already pictured what she was like before she met Pete, and the kinds of things she would be doing when he was not around. One thing about this story, it that it was entirely from Peter Culver's point of view. If he did not see it or hear about it, as far as he and the reader are concerned it never happened. And even though Linda actually was a manipulative and cheating little slut from the very start, neither Pete nor the reader was aware of that at the time.
Until I was ready for them to know that part of her personality.
Now some of this was actually right there in Book I, but most (like Peter) completely missed it. Like how a tiny girl who was 15 and barely 5' tall could drink several beers or glasses of champagne and not show any affects from it. I know that many years ago my late fiancée in real life (who was also 5' tall) would be almost obliterated after two or three beers. In reality, Linda already had a drinking problem and was exchanging her favors for vodka behind Pete's back. Coming from a family of alcoholics myself, this is actually something I am familiar with. Where because of their built-up tolerance they could drink enough to cause most people to be "plastered", yet themselves barely show any affects (other than maybe volume). They are still drunk, but are better able to deal with it and hide the effects it is having on them.
And when things with her started to fall apart with Pete in Book II, I had a lot of people asking how and why she changed so fast once he went overseas. And the simple answer was simply "That is how she always was, Pete simply never saw that side of her". I had been writing it out as backstory, but only I knew that and not the reader. And eventually, I took the pages of notes I had written out and used those as the basis of "Valley Girl". A shorter companion story to CBCG, telling the same story but from Linda's point of view. And then updating future chapters of that each time in CBCG the paths of the two would cross. Showing the downfall, then the start of the redemption of Linda between her meetings with Pete.
And now that I am starting in on Book II of "Country Boy, City Girl", I am in a bit of a quandary. Do I give the next two books the same treatment and post them as they are corrected? Or do I actually integrate the two together? Actually adding the chapters of Linda's life into the actual story itself, to make them easier to read together?
I am a bit mixed at this, and know from the feedback when I wrote Valley Girl that many had no real interest in Linda's side of things at all. But I think in the end, combining the two stories will make it easier to understand who and what Linda actually was. A young gold digging slut from the start, who already had substance abuse issues who simply tried to change in order to hold onto her "sugar daddy".
At this time, I am leaning towards a treatment like what I did on "Okinawa". Doing and posting a complete rewrite that merges the two stories, and simply leaving the original as it is intact as a kind of "time capsule" for those that only want to read Pete's story.
But I still have a week or so to decide how I will ultimately handle this. But I am leaning towards integrating the two stories. Where once a chapter where Pete meets Linda again, the next direct chapter will be from Linda's point of view, covering her life since the last time the two met. And as I do so, I might make a lot more changes to the story and integrating them more often at the "start of the end" between them. The first chapter or two of Linda's story covered all of her from before Book I even started, until about half way though Book II. I am considering breaking that up a bit more, so some of the time between meetings shows the start of her downfall between phone conversations they have. Maybe her backstory, then her breakup with Kimmy and her new friendship with Melissa (which Pete was aware of but did not think anything of at the time). Then only with the crashing of his truck and sending the rings giving the "real story" that had been happening behind his back the entire time. I think in that way, the collapse of their relationship will be less of a shock to readers.
But no matter how I go, there will be no real major changes in the story in any way. It will be more about integration than anything else so the narratives fit together better.