PUNKS 2025

This is my year-end close-out and New Year resolution blog post with a punks bonus chapter linked at the end. If you don’t like my author-note blogs you can skip to the bottom.

One rule I’ve cast in stone is this; I will only send email notifications to the punks readers group if it’s content-related. It will be a simple link to a blog post that has a chapter link like this one, or news related to online publishing.

I promise I will never give readers a survey via email again. I created a mess for myself with replies coming at me in one long thread causing me confusion. I fell behind on replies and had to play catch up. I respond to all emails but sometimes I’m late.

If you’re one of the few who received a confusing, head-scratching email that didn’t make sense, that was me replying to the wrong reader. One guy got an explanation that Joe’s mother was based on my grandmother, the Super Catholic. Another reader got a Boston sports rant he was not expecting nor did he deserve. Sorry.

Going forward, the email list will be used sparingly.

I will post here regularly. Aside from my November writing hiatus, I’ve posted 11 times to this badcomma blog. That’s a reasonable number I can maintain, one or two per week if the urge strikes. Most will be writing related ‘This is what I’m working on’ posts with updates.

Besides that, I have two blog posts up about film. I have a Punks survey-related post coming soon. I also have one in the works called Anti-Social Media that explains why I don’t do Facebook, X, or TikTok. There will be some of that musings-crap but mostly this is my writing blog I will use to link the platforms I’m test-driving. 

None of those will be sent to your email. If you care to check in here from time to time, great. If not, I understand. Writing is my hobby. Reading is your hobby. That’s where we intersect. None of this crap takes priority in the real world.

It’s been over two months since my divorce from Lit and I’m no closer to finding a home for my writing after kicking the tires of two platforms. Watching The Detectives on Wattpad and Sons Of Providence on Royal Road have been awarded with deafening crickets.

Royal Road outperformed Wattpad on one major metric, the number of views. Those numbers are hardly worth bragging about. The disappointing part is I have zero ratings, zero reviews, zero follows, zero favorites, and one comment after FOURTEEN chapters. That one comment came from Corky, one of the punk readers who migrated over to see what I was doing. 

I posted the final chapter of Joe’s years in Providence hours ago. That might be the end of the road for me on Royal Road. I’m taking a break to think it over. I went into that test drive knowing RR was a fantasy and Sci-fi dominated community. I’m now seeing that it’s so heavily tipped towards fantasy and litRPG that RR may not have an audience for my writing… either that or my punk writing simply sucks.

I’m also considering the RR readership is likely much younger than me, a BOOMER, and may not give a fuck about a 20th-century punk tale based on the real world and not some fantastical fairy paradise under threat by the forces of dark magic. When I take that generational angle I realize this is the digital landscape I’m working in. It’s no longer our world, boomers. Kids these days prefer comic book heroes, superpowers, aliens, zombies, and magical thinking over real-world drama.

None of these thoughts are condescending. Those genres are billion-dollar profit machines across all media: film, gaming, and literature. I’m simply not interested in the fantasy genre. I find reality and human relationships far more interesting and I prefer writing with the laws of physics and balance of nature in place. 

What sucks is this; Royal Road is a great publishing platform with tools and features that make me want to contribute there. For example… every Sons of Providence chapter has a music link to YouTube videos of punk bands. That’s cool. I want it to work because I like the website so I’m undecided, weighing my options.

Wattpad is not as good as RR in my opinion. It’s so simple and easy to use it’s actually too basic without the tools and potential of RR. The stats on Sons of Providence are weak. WTD on Wattpad has pathetic stats. Maybe my detective writing sucks too.

Another rule I’m using is not letting these blog posts linked to your email turn into chapter-length ramblings that make you want to skip to the end for the punks link. One thousand words is a trigger for me. Once I hit that number I’m looking for the exit before you do.

During my holiday break, I did some punk writing and published all the Providence chapters of Joe’s life to RR. I stopped as the band packed their gear in the alley behind the Living Room preparing to leave for New York City. Randy Hein, the real-life proprietor of the best club in the city says to Joe, “Don’t forget where you came from.”

There’s a brief discussion about all the people he knows who’ve gone to New York and never come back. I changed one line. It’s kinda corny but it works.

“We’re sons of Providence. We’ll be back.”

That may be the last chapter on Royal Road. I may not take the band to NYC on that platform unless I get some indication that I have a following. I cannot justify the work of publishing into a black hole with no feedback.

The other thing I’m working on is the transition between The Venice Scene and Punks. They currently overlap. I rewrote the final two chapters of Venice and the first five chapters of Punks which is now called City Of Angels. They are now stitched together. For example; Cassie and China now appear in City Of Angels after Joe and Tina reconnect.

Because I am the punk writer-god, Joe does not have to lose China. Yeah, I kept all the drama of him losing his cat and devised a clever solution that provides a happy feline finale for Joe and Ines that spans multiple chapters in two books.

My punk writing is like a puzzle I do by creating new pieces and finding where they fit - and then changing those pieces later to make room for a new piece that may have been written years later in a rewrite. Joe's life is a living and breathing work of literary art...

Ha! I need to get over myself. I'm fucking with you. Or am I?

This is my PUNKS 2025 plan.

The repackaging of my punks universe will cut my two longer series in half. All The Young Punks - Sons Of Providence contains all the chapters with Johnny. After he gets tossed into the trunk of his dad’s Cadillac and is taken to rehab, Joe decides he’s done with Sal and Nate and he’s moving to New York. All The Young Punks - NYC is Joe trying to find musicians to start a new band with Simon and the years that lead to the end of the Young Punks, Joe, and T.

Postcards and Venice will remain as they are, one book each, with a light rewrite (fixes). 

The first half of Punks is now City Of Angels. I will stitch in new writing that covers the reunion idea I had. As Joe tours the world with CoA he will reconnect with old friends and lovers from the previous books. The new version will not be so dominated by Joe and Tina's long-distance extramarital affair. 

The CoA book ends when that band breaks up which conveniently coincides with Jasmine leaving Joe and Jenna ending their brief affair. It's spring of 1996, only eight months before the train ride in this NYE bonus chapter, Joe is in the dumps again and must decide if he should continue to pursue Tina or move on with his life.

The last book, not yet named, is the Plan B plot Jenna hatches to break up Tina’s marriage. That's the timeline these holiday chapters fall in. The final book begins with music and culture reporter Mila Carerra interviewing bartender Joe at the Surfside. Rolling Stone and Joe's public affair with Mila is one of my favorite stories within the punk universe. Tina immediately recognizes the threat and devises her plan to collect her VIP Rewards and divorce the Wall Street criminal.

None of this info is a spoiler if you’ve read the entire Punks catalog. My story is changing as I write but the outcome will still lead to my White Wedding writing, years in the works.

I don't rush things.

My goal for 2025 is to repackage, rewrite, and republish Joe’s story SOMEWHERE. That writing is mostly done, aside from the Tina cheating years and Joe's reunions. I will find time to work on my crime stories when I get sick of Joe. On occasion, I’ll throw bonus chapters at you like this one. Some of this writing will find its way into the future rewrite.

Here's a link to the bonus chapter. Midnight Motown

Happy New Year.

Cringe, 1350 words.