Claudia Near The End Of The Road - My Commentary

I started this story after reading On The Road by Jack Keroac. I was fascinated by the language and poetry of Keroac's prose, and wanted to try something similar. So I set up a couple characters who were traveling around the country and tried to give it a go.

Of course I'm no Keroac. I think I lose voice frequently in the story, especially in the sex scenes. And I eventually ran out of energy for the story, so I doubt it has the amount of polish I like. The main problem, I think, is it ended up so long that it was hard to make an editting pass in one sitting. After three hours of sitting at the keyboard, I had had enough!

But I persevered. I think it's a good story, and I like the characters. My original draft had no epilogue, which I thought left Sam too unchanged by the experience. My first epilogue was longer, but gave away too much in the future. The short eiplogue in the final story was inspired by my honey, and I think it's just about right.

A decent effort, I think. Some people will probably like it, but I doubt it'll be my most popular work.

For those who are interested, I have turned this story into an entire series of stories featuring Sam and Neil on the road. They newest stories are "Nawlins" and "Denver Gwen" and are available, illustrated, on Ruthie's Club.