This week, I’m taking the lazy way out again. Instead of writing a blog post about writing, I’m going to lick my own butthole and just talk about my own work without really giving you, the reader, any actually useful information. It might entertain you, but I doubt it will enrich your life in any way.
You’re welcome? :::laughing/crying face emoji:::
So, as most authors will tell you, there are little facts and pieces of trivia about all of their books that fans of the work might appreciate knowing. It’s like a behind the scenes glimpse of a piece of media they enjoyed. Today, I’m presenting some of the subjectively interesting things about my books that I’ve never told anyone–other than those closest to me in real life.
Some of these facts no one, besides myself, might know.
Enjoy!
I outlined this entire book – A MILLION LITTLE SOULS – in one night, sitting on the floor at the back of my bedroom closet, a notepad propped up on my knee.
A MILLION LITTLE SOULS was inspired by The Breakfast Club and The Pagemaster.
I got the idea for A SURPLUS OF LIGHT when I was reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and read the quote: “One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
After reading that quote, I wrote down: “A story about two boys from different sides of life who can only be friends during summer.” The whole story flooded into my head immediately.
The creek locale was fleshed out with help from a friend who told me stories about his time hanging out with friends at the creek in the woods behind his grandparents’ house in Texas.
A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF NORMAL was written as an homage to two different people. My writing hero and a loved one I miss very much every day. The writing hero is Salman Rushdie. I’ll always be profoundly moved by The Satanic Verses.
When Will talks about his love of pumpernickel bread, that’s a little “Chase Connor” creeping into his characters.
Enzo is, traditionally, an Italian boys’ name. However, it has become increasingly popular in France (and other) countries.
Unsurprisingly, I ate A LOT of donuts while reading this book.
The restaurant, The Lazy Duck, mentioned in the book, does not exist in Montreal.
BULLY originally had the title SLAVE TO A BARELY LEGAL BULLY (THE GAY BULLY TRIALS) and was written as a “serial” for an erotica story website. When I decided to cut ties with that site, I moved the individual sections to Amazon, and then eventually wrote a conclusion chapter and turned them all into the novel you know today as BULLY.
GAVIN’S BIG GAY CHECKLIST was my grand homage to “fathers and sons.” I love healthy relationships between straight fathers and their LGBTQ+ sons.
The character of Eli was very important to me to include in this story since I wanted to put a religious character in the spotlight of tolerance, acceptance, and love.
All of the poetry in GINJUH was written by Allen T. St. Clair. He graciously gave me permission to use his poetry (since I’m not a poet) so one of my characters could be a poet.
One of my favorite parts of writing GINJUH was examining how deep, dark family secrets can ruin lives. However, with a little bravery, those things can be brought to light and dealt with appropriately.
JACOB MICHAEL IS TIRED (the 5 sequels and the Omnibus) all started out as a regular LGBTQ+ story. It wasn’t paranormal romance at all! However, when I first started writing the character Esther Jean Wagner/Oma, I could hear her so clearly in my head and I knew there was something “special” about her. I knew I had to make the book paranormal romance.
The character of Lucas was based on a guy I dated, though they look nothing alike.
JUST A DUMB SURFER DUDE was the first full-length book I ever wrote. And it took over ten years to finally publish it. When I published it, I was a totally indie author.
The entire first draft of this book was written with pen and paper – I still have the notebooks that contain the first draft.
Cooper’s father was an important character to me because he wasn’t the normal absent parent you see in YA books. He was very present and welcome in his son’s life. And even though Cooper is brilliant and capable of being independent, he values his father’s wisdom and guidance. Showing that parents and their children can actually love each other’s company was important to me.
This gorgeous cover was created by Dean Cole. I cannot recommend him as a person or creative nearly enough. He’s a dream.
THE GRAVITY OF NOTHING was my first ever NaNoWriMo project (2018) and was fully written from beginning to end in 22 days. The research beforehand was about 6 months of work.
Of all the stories I’ve written, this is the only one that haunts me.
THE GUY GETS TEDDY has four main characters, Teddy, Rufus, Chastity, and Travis – and all of them are based on people who are near and dear to my heart.
I love musicals more than air. When I thought of the idea of an LGBTQ+ summer camp as the setting for a story, I knew I had to make it a musical/performance arts camp so I could geek out over musical numbers.
A sequel is in the works, centered around the characters of Rufus and Chastity. No idea when it will be done, so don’t ask! LOL
Tremendous Love & Thanks,
Chase
Chase Connor Books 
sO mAny bOoKs
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