Something Like Summer was originally published back in 2010, although I started work on it a few years earlier than that. At the time, I didn’t have much experience as an author. That’s not much of a detriment. Most people prefer a good story over impressive pose, but it’s nice to have both, when possible. That’s exactly why Something Like Summer is now available in two new editions. The idea started because I really want to get Summer into schools and into the hands of young people, but the explicit content has always made that difficult. That’s why I’ve created a school-friendly edition with “fade to black” sex scenes. During this process, I quickly realized that I’ve grown as a writer. It’s easy to forget that I wasn’t always cranking out Something Like… books. Between Summer and Winter I wrote three other novels and a few short stories. I learned a lot of tricks and how to avoid certain pitfalls. To my authory eyes, Summer no longer fits in with the rest of the series. At least from a technical standpoint. So while working on what I call the School Edition, I decided to update the standard version as well. Nearly every paragraph has been changed in some way. Ideally you won’t even notice the difference. It’ll just be a smoother read for you and others. I did make some noteworthy changes, which I’ll outline below. For now, if you are a school, library, outreach shelter, gay/straight alliance, or anything else that supports young queer people, then I would be happy to work with you on getting the School Edition of Summer to where it needs to be. Or, if funding isn’t an issue, it can be bought from Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. If you’re interested in the Second Edition of Something Like Summer, it’s possible you might be eligible to upgrade for free. I’ve set up this page on how you can do that, or where it can be bought.
Changes in the 2nd Edition of Something Like Summer:
–Ben’s mother, June, is now named. At the time of writing, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to call such characters Mom and Dad and leave it at that, or give them proper names. All the subsequent books name the parents, so now this one does too.
–Stacy Shelly is named again, as she was in early drafts. Another small change. I deleted her name originally because she played no role in the story, and I never envisioned a sequel. She’s my favorite of the popular kids in Winter, so this was mostly for self-gratification
–Two small changes were made to fit Something Like Infinity into the continuity. Annoyingly, there were a couple throwaway lines in Summer about how the normal Spanish teacher was back and such. Now it fits in seamlessly.
–Other small continuity problems have been fixed. I’ve done pretty well considering how unwieldy this series is, but there were a few lines that didn’t mesh with what came later. A good example is during the epilogue, when Ben is surprised that Tim knows where his house is. As we see in Winter and other stories, Tim actually hangs with Ben and Jace at their home, so no need for surprise. Nothing I had to change in this regard came at the expense of the established plot.
–Marcello is now named and has a few speaking lines. I couldn’t help myself! Marcello was in the original book, but he went unnamed, and we don’t get a single quip from him. His part in Summer remains as it was, but now we get a little of his personality as well.
–Areas with too much exposition have been broken up somewhat with dialog. When I first wrote Summer, there were sections that bothered me, but I couldn’t figure out the issue. Now I get it. Too much telling, not enough showing. I love writing dialog (and needed to change very little of it) so this was a simple fix. It’s nothing major. Just a little more banter between characters here and there.
–Jace’s last name has been sprinkled throughout the book. Previously it was never mentioned. Not until Something Like Autumn. That’s no good!
That pretty much sums it up… Except for one big change. Did you ever feel like the end of Summer goes by too fast? Yeah, me too. I like it that way, to be honest. We go from Jace’s death straight into the epilogue and get to see Ben and Tim’s reunion while still feeling emotionally raw. I didn’t change that, don’t worry. But I did feel like a vital aspect was missing in Part Three of the book, so I wrote some new scenes for Chapter Twenty-seven. They deal with Jace’s recovery from the first aneurysm, and more importantly, let us see how Ben loves Jace in return. Ben makes plenty of mistakes in Summer, and Jace is wonderful about them, but I didn’t want the book to end with people thinking that Ben is a brat. I haven’t really gotten letters from readers who felt that way, but it was still important to me. And it just so happens to even out the pacing a little too.
That’s it! As stated above, you can find out where to get the 2nd Edition of Something Like Summer here. Be sure to visit again next week for the next installment of the series, Something Like Hail, which will be pattering your windows on September 6th!