Jagged Angel

Afterword

It's rare that I find myself inspired by another story on the Net to want to actually try to improve on it. That happened to me awhile back when I read an early draft of Roman Genesis' intriguing novel, On Earth As It Is in Heaven (available in book form from https://www.iuniverse.com, ISBN #0-595-19103-7). Roman's story was a relatively straightforward one, where a popular high school football player falls head-over-heels in love with a smaller boy at school, only to discover that the latter has psychological problems so profound, it plunges the story to a fairly shocking conclusion.

I began thinking about a new story that used a similar basic situation as a springboard, but with several major dramatic twists: What kind of pressures affect high school athletes today? What if a high school athlete got into a relationship that threatened to unravel his entire life? How far would a popular teenager go to hold on to his reputation - with his parents, his friends, and his school - to retain a straight-appearing identity?

I also stirred in some more disturbing ideas: what would a potential serial killer be like as a teenager? In this day of school shootings and other shocking crimes, where kids as young as 13 have been tried (and convicted) of murder, just how bad could a kid be?

Pretty goddamned bad, as it turns out.

I also wanted to acknowledge up-front three other influences: Stephen King's “Apt Pupil” (one of several novellas from his fine 1982 collection Different Seasons, and far superior to the 1998 filmed version), which dealt with a disturbed high school student who becomes a murderer; Maxwell Anderson & William March's melodramatic novel (also a hit Broadway play and a classic 1956 film) The Bad Seed, which presented the idea of an apparently-innocent 10 year-old girl who just so happens to be a budding serial killer; and Mark Roeder's novel Someone Is Watching (iUniverse.com; ISBN: 158348616X), which concerned a gay high-school athlete who's being blackmailed. While Jagged Angel shares some minor details with all three, believe me, mine is a very, very different tale, with enough twists and turns that I hope have kept all of you entertained.

Special thanks to Keith Mystery, Jayne Finn, Rick Beck, and Luz Rojo for much behind-the-scenes consulting, input, and advice. I recommend all of their stories (on Archerland.net, Nifty.com and ASSGM.com) very highly; Rick's Discovering Gregory, Keith's The Boyfriend, JFinn's Human Condition, and Luz' Teen Baby are all particularly entertaining. Thanks also to Sean M. of the Gay Writers Guild and also to Richard Lyon, who both helped with some editorial decisions, to Ed Wooten (aka “Ed the Editor”) for catching numerous unseen typos, and to Mark Roeder for providing input when it was needed (and to plead successfully for Lady the dog's life, despite my murderous intents). And my eternal gratitude goes to British author Dave MacMillan, who helped illuminate several important editorial points for the final draft.

My devotion as always to Roddy, without whom I probably couldn't make it through the day. He also proved to be a great sounding board on many crucial story points - even when he wasn't aware of it.

I'm the first to admit I'm a total moron when it comes to football. My thanks to Brian Johnson and Rickdog for providing much-needed input on the world of high school athletics. Brian also made considerable suggestions to the story's dramatic side as well, and for that, I'm extremely grateful. Don Schnake's Football's Simple Six provided some terrific background information on high school offensive plays, as did Howie Long's Football for Dummies and Joe Theismann's Complete Idiots Guide to Football (2nd edition). The late Daniel Duchaine's Underground Steroid Handbook was a good source of information on steroid use and bodybuilding.

I found Jimmy Lerner's remarkable autobiography, You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish, to be a rich and remarkable source of information on day-to-day prison life. And I freely admit to basing my character of “Kansas” on the “Kansas” in Lerner's real-life story - it was just too good a name to pass up. Also used for background details for the jail scene was Jim Hogshire's You Are Going to Prison. I highly recommend both Lerner's and Hogshire's books to anyone anticipating (or imagining) a life behind bars.

Finally, I respectfully encourage all readers to consider the plight of chronically victimized students like Charles Andrew Williams, to whom this book is dedicated. Although Andy wasn't gay, he was tormented by teenage bullies as if he was. On the morning of March 7th, 2001, Andy used a gun to stop the bullies once and for all at Santee High School, with tragic results. Please check out the website at friendsofandyw.org and support his cause.

-John Francis

johnfrancis@yahoo.com

Chatsworth, CA

Additional Copyrights

Time magazine® is a registered trademark

of AOL-Time-Warner Communications.

CNN® and the Cable News Network

are registered trademarks

of AOL-Time-Warner Communications.

excerpt from “Sympathy for the Devil”

Music & Lyrics by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards

excerpt from “Jaded”

Music & Lyrics by Steven Tyler & Martin Frederiksen

excerpt from “Devil in Disguise”

Lyrics & Music by Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, & Florence Kaye

excerpt from “Jailhouse Rock”

music & lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

excerpts from For Whom the Bell Tolls

If you enjoyed Jagged Angel,

you may also enjoy these other

Gay romantic novels by the following authors:

Keith Morrisette

The Boyfriend

Little Secrets, Little Lies (Winter 2003)

published by iUniverse.com

Mark Roeder

Do You know That I Love You

This Time Around

A Better Place

The Soccer Field Is Empty

Someone Is Watching

The Vampire's Heart

Keeper of Secrets

Someone Is Killing the Gay Boys of Verona

published by iUniverse.com

Ronald Donaghe

Common Sons

The Blind Season

The Salvation Mongers

Uncle Sean

Lance

All Over Him

available from Amazon.com and iUniverse.com

Mark Kendrick

Desert Sons

Into This World We're Thrown

Stealing Some Time (Books I, II & III)

published by iUniverse.com

Rick Beck

Antiques and Homocide (published by Aventine Press)

available from Amazon.com

Roman Genesis

Earth as It Is in Heaven

published by iUniverse.com

The above books can also be purchased from Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com,

or your local bookstore. (Availability was current as of Fall 2003.)

• A NOTE ON THE TYPE •

This book was prepared for publication

with Macintosh G4 and G5 computers

using Adobe inDesign 2.0 for page layout,

then exported to Adobe Acrobat 6.0

for final pre-press as a PDF.

The body typeface for this book

is Adobe Jenson Pro,

an Open Type font selected

for its readability as well as its

graceful, refined, and elegant design.

Adobe Jenson Pro captures the essence

of Nicolas Jenson's 15th-century roman design

and Ludovico degli Arrighi's italic typeface designs.

The combined strength and beauty of these two icons of Renaissance type

result in an elegant typeface suited to a broad spectrum of applications.

Adobe Jenson Pro is part of the family of

Adobe Originals historical revivals.

Adobe designer Robert Slimbach

went to the Plantin-Moretus museum

in Antwerp, Belgium, to study the original

Jenson typefaces. These served as the basis for the

design of the Adobe Jenson romans; the italics are based

on types by Robert Granjon, a contemporary of Garamond's.

The main title typeface for the book is Papyrus,

and the chapter headings are in Hoefler Text.

I wish to fuck I could've used Hoefler Text

for the entire book,

but it's just too damned fat.

Book Design

by Ponsonby Britt

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