This was a good day because I put more of not only Adam's but Dair's backstory in without having him do it, himself. Dair's sister-in-law, Caroline, is nice to his face but undermines him in every way she can. When he has friends up from Seattle for his first birthday home after 2 years in Europe and she finds out some of them have children, she anonymously calls Child Protective Services on them.
What's fun is how Adam takes over and pretends he knows the CPS Crew and invited them to the party, and Marion (Dair's mother) goes along. By the end of the party, they're singing Happy Birthday to Dair and having cake and champagne.
That leads to Adam revealing more of his own history, because Caroline also suggests to visitors that they shouldn't let their sons take skiing lessons from Adam, that it would be better if her female instructor taught them...just to be sure. That backfires on her because, to my surprise, Adam's open to accepting money for sex...and he gets a number of closet-case husbands hiring him. Of course, that stops when he and Dair get together, but it's an interesting aspect to him that I wasn't expecting.
Adam's not going to be an easy character. At first, he sees Dair as a guy to get money out of...and then as a meal ticket. He's like a feral cat that's perfectly happy to let you toss it a piece of tuna but if you try to pet it...watch out. So part of the story will be showing how Dair inadvertently tames him. Makes him happy and domesticated. My hope is this will add to the tragedy of his early death.
Something that's happened, however, is it's changed how I see Adam. I didn't really like my earlier sketch; it wasn't alive...wasn't right...felt stiff...so I did this one up and it works a lot better for me. Finishing it helped me learn more about Adam's life. When he was kicked out of his home. How he survived on the streets of Montreal. Why he wound up in Vancouver. The way he began working for Marion, in Washington State. Everything.
I love it when this happens...when the story takes a shift and leads me places I'd never thought of. I especially like opening the story with him being a loving, caring man so in love with Dair, he sings him awake. But the layers peel back and we see him as human and not a romantic caricature.
I wonder where we'll go next?
What's fun is how Adam takes over and pretends he knows the CPS Crew and invited them to the party, and Marion (Dair's mother) goes along. By the end of the party, they're singing Happy Birthday to Dair and having cake and champagne.
That leads to Adam revealing more of his own history, because Caroline also suggests to visitors that they shouldn't let their sons take skiing lessons from Adam, that it would be better if her female instructor taught them...just to be sure. That backfires on her because, to my surprise, Adam's open to accepting money for sex...and he gets a number of closet-case husbands hiring him. Of course, that stops when he and Dair get together, but it's an interesting aspect to him that I wasn't expecting.
Adam's not going to be an easy character. At first, he sees Dair as a guy to get money out of...and then as a meal ticket. He's like a feral cat that's perfectly happy to let you toss it a piece of tuna but if you try to pet it...watch out. So part of the story will be showing how Dair inadvertently tames him. Makes him happy and domesticated. My hope is this will add to the tragedy of his early death.
I love it when this happens...when the story takes a shift and leads me places I'd never thought of. I especially like opening the story with him being a loving, caring man so in love with Dair, he sings him awake. But the layers peel back and we see him as human and not a romantic caricature.
I wonder where we'll go next?
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