John Goode

[John]

Howdy everyone, wanted to make a folder here so I can update when new stuff is coming out and answer any questions people might have.

[Octobercountry]

Glad to have you here! (I raved about your Foster High books.)

Wow, I have lots of questions, should you happen to stop by here again. But I'll begin with---is there a release date set for the third book in the Lords of Arcadia series?

[John]

Not at the moment, there is a Foster High book about Tyler and I am in the middle of the last Foster High Book now. As soon as that is done the third book, which is called The Unseen Tempest, is about a third done already. So hopefully by the end of the year.

[John]

And if it helps the next trilogy is already plotted out. The first three are called as Lords of Arcadia, the second three will be War of the Realms.

[Octobercountry]

Wow, seems like I have a lot to look forward to! I had no idea that you were working on another Foster High book, nor that your fantasy series would expand to a second trilogy.

Regarding the Foster High books, I have another question... My introduction to this series was Tales from Foster High, which was a collection of three previously published shorter works combined into one volume. I heard that there were changes made in these stories when they were collected together.

If this is the case, I was curious---what sort of changes did you make when putting together the longer book, and why? If I went back and read the shorter individual works, would I find them to be very different than the versions which appeared in Tales from Foster High?

[John]

No not really, there was some more sexual scenes just I felt uncomfortable with being in a YA novel. when they were written there was no YA imprint for Dreamspinner yet so i felt the need to try to put some sex in there and wish I hadn't. There was also an analogy that pretty much consumed the second part of Kyle's story in Maybe with a Chance that only one out of every five people seemed to like so I pulled it out because it didn't fit with the collected material.

[Rick]

I thought Tales from Foster High was fantastic. A definite 5 star read and one that would have been seminal reading as a teen myself. I'd love to give a copy to every young person thinking about their sexuality and the perception of difference. Hell, I'd like for it to be mandatory reading in all Australian high schools!

I then read the free short To Wish for Impossible Things and moved on to book #4 End of the Innocence. Somewhere along the way, I became a huge John Goode fan boy (man?).

I'm excited for future work in the Foster series. Next up seems to be Tyler's story. In preparation, I read the short The Boy Behind the Red Door, which includes the most beautiful description of first infatuation, a description that had me reminiscing about a similar experience of my own 30 odd years ago.

It won't be long until I've read through all of John's published work. Following last night's bedtime read Last Dance with Mary Jane, I'm off to start on the Lords of Arcadia series.

John is offering sneak peeks of the forthcoming Tyler's story on his Goodreads blog.

[John]

Wow thanks Rick, those are humbling words. I'm glad you liked Foster...and I think we all have a Boy Behind a Red Door somewhere in our past.

[Dave]

I would like to appeal to John Goode - well that sort of sounds wrong :) - make an appeal then :).

I think that a serial novel (such as Tales from Foster High and all its components) creates a sort of contract between the readers and the author. We, the readers, become wrapped up in the story of the characters and their lives. For this to work, it all has to become real for us - and, therefore, you enter as well into an agreement - unstated but real - to move the story line along until it comes to some logical end.

At The End of The Innocence Kyle asks - "How do I fix Foster?" That question demands an answer - to say that there is a literary reason/rationale/excuse to leave that question unanswered is like a network cancelling a series abruptly - it violates a trust in the readers/viewers that can't be gotten back.

Can you offer us a hint - throw us a bone if you will (pun sort of intended) - about your intentions for Kyle and Brad and how they resolve this most perplexing of issues - How Do They Fix Foster. In addition, Kyle drops a sort of time-bomb - he states he only has six more months in Foster to do that before leaving forever (implied) to go to college.

This also puts on the table their shared future - to have them graduate and walk away from each other might be something that would happen in "real life" but we are creating our own "real life" here (the author and the reader) in the space that fiction/fantasy/desire occupies. It is what addicts us to reading your work, and therefore part of what makes it successful.

Please then - send an assurance here - the tale is but half (or less) told - don't abandon us - gay life is too full of abandonment as it is - we and you - together - deserve more fidelity and faithfulness than that.

On another note, the order and actually even the presence of your whole opus and saga is missing on Amazon and desperately needs a make-over. Following your various series and sequences on Amazon Kindle is a bit frustrating - would you be so kind as to publish here a concise chronology and annotated bibliography of your work and ensure that it is available to be read on Kindle? it would be so very appreciated.

Oh, and by the way, in case you hadn't divined it from this post - I am a huge fan - an admirer of your work and appreciator of your art. Far and away Kyle's dialog in the beginning of Tales from Foster High is some of the best writing I have seen in this genre ever.

So, for what it's worth - from me to you - Many Thanks!

[John]

Well the answer to Kyle's statement comes out March 20th and is called https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
and the answer to their future and the possibility of other books is answered there. As for the order. Tales From Foster High, To Wish For impossible Things, End of the Innocence, Taking chances, Dear god and then 151 Days. and thank you for reading, it is always incredible to hear.

[Dave]

Hi John and thanks for answering - Dear God and 151 Days don't seem to be on Amazon Kindle. None of the links for e-books work for those titles. I wonder if you can do anything about that - as we (or I) don't have any other way to read them online. How are we supposed to get them?

Many thanks.

[John]

151 Days comes out march 20th and Dear God can be downloaded from the publisher for free.