Jashley13

Happy New Year everyone Here's hoping for another great year with more adventures to come. I'm headed home now and my wife and I should be back by the end of the day.

Hey guys. My wife and I arrived safely at our destination. Miss writing already. Hope you are all doing well

Hey everyone! So, I'm sorry I won't be getting the Reality Check out before my wife and I leave but we had a much longer Christmas yesterday than expected (not a bad thing, obviously) so I didn't get a chance to work on it. My wife and I are just packing the car now and we'll be headed out here soon on our road trip so it looks like I won't get a chance to work on it until we come back (which will be next Friday). Sorry about that but I promise to get right on it when we return. Hope you all had a good Christmas and I'll probably post when we get to where we're going, just so you know we didn't get swallowed up by a sandworm or something along the way. <3

A very Merry and heartfelt Christmas to all of my wonderful readers and fans. Thank you for helping yet another year of writing be such a happy and rewarding experience. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas

All right! Chapter 46 is up! Wow...the last chapter of the year. Feels so weird that I've spent the entire year working on this story and haven't covered as much as you would think. I know where the story is going and kind of how it's going to get there, but...yeah, we've still got a ways to go and I'm still surprising myself. I'll be posting various messages and everything, of course. I'm not going dark until the end of the year (I gotta wish you guys Merry Christmas, after all!) but this is the last time I will be working on the story until the New Year. I just need a little break to relax my mind and allow the creative juices to start flowing again. Hopefully, I'll come back just as strong as ever. Reality Check to come before Christmas. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter and thank you all for making it a great year!

Hey everyone! Quick update: the next chapter should be out by Monday. If not, then definitely Tuesday. It's going a bit longer than I thought so I'm going to estimate some extra time.

Hey everyone! Time for the Reality Check for Chapter 45: - My wife and I did not go to the same college initially (long story short, I went to two different colleges), but Jack and Kayla's conversation is based on one that she and I had where we wondered if, had we known each other in high school and what would happen to us, would we have gone to the same college? The answer? Who knows? - My parents were both Iowa State Alumni so Jack's conversation with his parents is most fictional, but Amanda's reaction is very similar to the reaction my brother had when I told him I would be going out of state for college. - The Shannon-and-Binyam bits are taken almost verbatim from real life. - Ms. Locke's turnaround is, again, based on real life...as is what comes a bit later. - One of my friends reacts to the word 'cunt' the same way Becca does. She's never told us why (and we don't want to ask) so I kind of theorized based on other things I knew about her. - The exact circumstances are ones I'm going to keep to myself but Joe and Jack's conversation is based on one I had with a friend of mine (who's no longer a friend, but for different reasons). That section took me the longest to write, mainly because it kind of forced me, like Jack, to realize just how wrong I was as well. It's something I've accepted but it's never easy to go back to. - Rhona's offer was one that was made to me before, with the exact same attitude. Well, that rounds off the Fracture Saga. I had initially planned to wrap things up a bit more but then I realized that I wouldn't be leaving a lot for the next Saga. Granted, I know what's going to happen in the next Saga, but it kind of helps if there are some through-lines to help connect everything. Otherwise, I might as well just be writing episodic stories-of-the-week. Work on the next chapter is going well and I will definitely have it up before Christmas. Hope you're all doing well and I'll see you next time, when we start the Voyeur Saga.

Hey everyone! For those of you curious about the ending of the last chapter...don't worry. It will be explained in the next chapter. Trust me, I wouldn't overlook something like that

Hey everyone! Chapter 45 is up! End of one saga, the beginning of another. I was going to let this one close out the year, but we've still got the better part of a month to go and, frankly, the end of the next chapter is, to me at least, a better close for the year than this one, even if it is only the first chapter of the next saga. So there you go. I'm gonna be working on it super hard to get it out before Christmas, especially since the wife and I will be going out-of-town the day after Christmas for a week. Don't want to leave you guys hanging! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new chapter and I'll be back with the Reality Check and the name of the next saga soon. See you then!

New chapter will be up tomorrow morning

Hey guys! Hope Christmas shopping hasn't driven you crazy yet! Chapter 45 should be out either Sunday morning or Monday morning. Depends how much I can get done but, as always, I'm shooting for as early as possible. Hope you're all doing well and I'll see you soon

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are comfortably digesting without putting yourselves through too much stress for holiday shopping. Didn't do any shopping myself, if only because I still have nightmares from when I worked retail on Black Friday. Anyway, it's time to do the Reality Check: - Craig talking with Jack after a period of silence happened way more often than I would have liked in high school. Personally, I absolutely despise the silent treatment and always did my best to talk out anything bothering me with my friends...which put me in the tiny minority of people who actually did. As such, I basically had to wait for them to come to me. - The character I based Rhona off of actually did have a 'title' she liked being referred to as, although I never did. Like Jack, I once called her by her 'title' to basically placate her and she immediately jumped down my throat. I thought she would have liked it but apparently it wasn't 'me'. - My cousin just recently got a boyfriend (different name) and the conversation went pretty much exactly like how Jack and Tara's did, with some slight alterations. - Jack's conversation with Amanda about trying to get Joe back as a friend was based off a similar one I had with a female friend of mine when I asked her if it was okay to still be friends with her ex-boyfriend (he hadn't cheated on her but it was a nasty breakup). Originally, I had planned for this conversation to be with Belle, but...well, the story didn't turn out that way (much to my surprise). It's always kind of nice when the story can surprise you. - My family never had a Thanksgiving get-together the same size as the one the Hannigans did in this chapter (my family lived very far from our nearest family member), but the topic of my college choice was one that dominated the Thanksgiving of my Junior year. - Jack's use of the website, it's content, and it's result are all exactly how I chose my college, though I actually made my decision back in 8th grade and never saw a reason to change it. Work on Chapter 45 is going well and I'm hoping to get two more chapters out before the end of the year. Just so you all know, Chapter 45 is going to be the last chapter of the Fracture Saga, but the first chapter of the next saga (whose title I will keep to myself for right now) is a necessary one to get out as soon as possible and I think it's a fitting chapter to end the year on. Also, I will be taking a road trip with my wife at the end of December for a week, meaning I will not be able to write or update. Just figured I'd let you guys know. Hope you're all doing well and I'll see you again soon

Hey everyone! So I was making my yearly list of the things I'm most thankful for and the shortlist basically goes like this: my beautiful wife, my friends, my health...and all of you. As much as I love my story, I doubt I'd have been inclined to continue it without all of you here to read and support me. I never thought, when I started this series, that it would go this long, nor that it would get the response and support that it has. You are all wonderful readers and it's such a joy to read your thoughts and theories, even if they are completely insane. It's the greatest feeling an author can have to know that his fan scan stick around so long after the story has started and still enjoy it just as much as they did when it started. So this Thanksgiving, I'm giving a big shout-out to all of you. You're all wonderful fans, amazing readers, and close friends. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope you're all spending it without someone important to you. Love, Joe

Chapter 44 is up! So glad I was able to get this out in time for Thanksgiving. I was a little worried towards the end that I might need to redo a particular section but everything came together very nicely. Not a long message since I'm posting this just after getting off night shift so I'm headed to bed. Hope everyone enjoys and hope you're all doing well. See you again soon!

Tomorrow

Hey everyone Next chapter is almost finished and should be posted by this weekend

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates (again) but I've been working like crazy. My wife and I are planning to take a trip to visit the Midwest at the end of December so I've been working extra to save money. Hasn't stopped progress on the story but I am sorry that the updates here have been lacking. Hasn't stopped me from reading all of your posts and theories. Always a treat! Anyway, onto the Reality Check for the past two chapters: - Jack's voyeuristic streak is somewhat of a personal confession. I haven't experienced it the way he has but I am self-aware enough to know that I probably would have reacted the same way were I in the same situation. It was difficult writing about it but it has introduced new dynamics for the character. - The prom night (sans the sex parts) is almost exactly like how my Junior prom was. - Jack dancing with Rhona is based off of something I did with a high school coworker of mine at my last job (she was 17, I was 22 so there was no funny business). She'd been unable to attend prom so I gave her a short dance to the music over the PA system. Wasn't great music but it was something, at least. - What happened at Craig's party is a combination of something that actually happened at a Halloween party I attended and something that happened with a couple of guys I knew (their reactions were identical to Joe and Sam's) - Likewise, Jack's fears of how the school would react once they heard all about it were very similar to my own. - The way Jack described Catcher in the Rye was exactly how I described it to my English teacher after we were done reading it. My feelings on it have changed since then. My teacher was delighted with my response. - I had a blowup like Jack's when I finally had enough of my campaign buddy's obsession. It may have been almost word-for-word, come to think of it. Hope everyone's doing well and keeping warm. I know the winter is coming on fast (Winter is Coming) so hope you're all bundled up and ready for the holidays. I'm going to endeavor to get the next chapter out before Thanksgiving. See you all soon! On a more sober note, please send your best thoughts and prayers to the people of France. I don't know if I have any French readers but I have had a couple of friends in France (they are safe) but let's come together just for a little bit and keep them in our thoughts. <3

Hey everyone! Chapter 43 is up! First of all, thank you Chester57 for noticing that discrepency. Don't know how that slipped past me, but it's been fixed. Second, sorry this one took a little longer but it just drained me. Every time I wrote it, I had to stop every few pages and just take a breath. Yeah, this was another emotionally taxing chapter. Hopefully that doesn't sacrifice quality. Sorry for the lack of updates but, in addition to being emotionally drained, I've also been physically drained. I've been working more to save money for the holidays so I've been having less time to sleep and...well, in addition to the emotional drain, I've been feeling twice my age. Ugh. Still, I've been perservering through it, though I may take a couple of days off before starting the next chapter. Hope you're all well, hope you all had a good Halloween, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates but there's been a huge surge at work and I've had a couple of six-day weeks with 11-hour shifts xP Needless to say, it's been wearing on me. However, things have started to stabilize and I'm catching up on sleep. The next chapter is nearing the end but there's a few big plot points I still have to hit and I can't just hit them without proper context and atmosphere so I will hopefully have it up by this weekend. Also, no Reality Check for the last chapter since I want the events of last chapter and this chapter to meld together so I can talk about the whole picture. Hope you all are well, hope you had a great Halloween, and I'll see you soon.

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you all have a great night!

Chapter 42 is up! Wow...I'm actually surprised I was able to get a chapter this long out as quickly as I did. Sometimes it all just flows together. Hopefully that same speed translates to all my other chapters because I'm feeling kind of on a roll. I know I said I worried a bit about burning out and, even though that's still a legitimate worry of mine, I'm not letting it deter me from my work. I will work my hardest to give you the best I can. You guys are the best readers/fans ever and I'm so thankful that you're enjoying this as much as you are. Hope you all enjoy and I'll see you again soon

Tomorrow

Hey everyone! So apparently I've been visited by the Writing Fairy, since I've been writing like crazy the past week or so, averaging about 8-10 pages a day. If all goes well, I should have the new chapter posted on Thursday morning...kind of a tall order since I still have a ways to go in the chapter but that's the goal. By the way, I don't want this to alarm anyone, but I've recently acquired a nagging fear of burning out. I've been churning out these chapters on kind of a regular basis and, honestly...I still don't feel any fatigue. I can't make myself rest; I just have to keep writing. No fatigue or anything but I'm constantly worried that it'll hit me and it'll be a month before I can recover. Should that happen, I promise to let you all know. I'm doing my best to avoid that possibility but... Anyway, here's hoping I can plow right through to the end!

Hey everyone! With perpetual lateness, here is the Reality Check: - Jack's confrontation of Joe and Sam is based on a confrontation I had with a friend of mine when I caught him cheating on his girlfriend. It was not with another guy but it was almost word-for-word the same confrontation. - The website Belle used to suggest colleges is based on the one I used to find my own college. Which one did I choose? You'll just have to wait - Think Craig's campaign talk is a little repetitive and annoying? I'm slicing down what I had to deal with with another buddy of mine who wanted to run. - Jessica approaching Jack is actually a reverse for me: I was the one who approached someone I'd been kind of a dick to and offered friendship. They didn't exactly accept me right away, but gradually warmed up to me. - I want to make a special note here, especially based on one of the reviews my story got: I don't hate Catcher in the Rye. All of Jack's feelings towards it are how I felt while I was reading it in school. I've since read it again and, even though I still think Holden is spoiled and whiny little brat, I really enjoy it. - Are the bleachers a little cliché? Absolutely...but the people at my school never got the memo. Seriously, they were doing so much stuff under there, I figured the janitors were getting a little bonus just to have to clean it up. I'm plowing through the next chapter but it looks like it's going to be a long one. A long one. Like, Chapter 15 long. So I'll try to have it up by next week but I can make no promises. It's an 'event' chapter with two separate long sections. I tried splitting them into two chapters but couldn't find a way to do so naturally, so together they go. I'll try to get it out as fast as I can. Sidenote: nivek_88 is one chapter away from finishing An Incest Birthday. As someone who was reading it from the first time it came out, I'm sorry to see it end. Granted, I have many issues with the story, but something that has been going for that long certainly deserves recognition. I'll be sorry to see it end and I kind of hope he posts a subsequent story of their future together. Hope to see you all soon! And don't worry...this series is nowhere near over

Chapter 41 has been posted! Holy crap, how did I get this one done so fast? I mean, relatively speaking. I can't forget that, initially, I had Chapters 1, 2, and 3 all up in a matter of four days so I'm not working at my peak efficiency, but I'm still stunned I was able to get this one done this fast. Hopefully nothing has been sacrificed in the way of quality. I don't want to promise that all chapters will be coming out this quickly but...well, frankly, I'm really enjoying writing this part and I can't wait to see exactly where it's headed (I kind of know, but the journey will write itself). Sorry for not updating much but I will be making my best effort to fix that. Hope you're all well!