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Exile is a story I have been working on for over a year now. It's strange how it came about. I started with a story called Seasons of Love that would feature only four chapters following this guy named Justin Stone who lived in Latara City and meets up with the new guy named Tyro and they become friends. It focused on relationships with different people and how they changed over a course of one year.

Well, unfortunately the story was too fast, characters were flat and hollow, and thing just weren't what I wanted them to be. So I stopped right at the beginning of the Spring chapter and started thinking of a new story. It would be like Seasons of Love only darker. It all came to me when I heard this song by Brenda Russell called "Piano in the Dark." It wasn't too much the words more than the melody. So sad and alone. So taking some of the characteristics from Seasons of Love I began working on the story Exile. Instead of Justin Stone, you have Quinton Steele and instead of Tyro, you have Ali Stone (names seem to flip flop). Also, now the main character is the new kid instead of his new friend.

Something about Exile made me continue to write it. It isn't rushed, in fact it has been about a year and a half and I am only half way finished. It's hard to describe it because if I did, I would give the major problem away, so when people ask what it is about, I just give them the first two chapters. They aren't long, but I think after you read BOTH of them, you will want to read more.

Chapter I: Quinton begins his senior year at a new school.

Chapter II: Quinton has a little secret that could hurt his future.

One of the characters in Exile started to call for my attention. Yanikos, who appears later in the novel, has his own problems that Quinton tries to help him with. One day, my friend Cole challenged me to write a scene. I thought, what would be better than to use Yanikos. Since Exile only follows what Quinton sees (first person POV), what would be better than to make a scene out of what happens to Yanikos outside of the story? Here is the first scene, but there is more to come.

Because so much work went into creating these characters, I figure, why not give a little bio of them, including their origins?

Quinton Steele: Quinton is kind of based off of myself, but just barely .I used my small case of social phobia to show how he is around people he doesn't know. I would be very afraid of what people thought of me. I hated going into places where I didn't know people, so I took that fear and amplified it. Quinton has my fears except with Quinton, it almost hinders him from doing things. In school is he very reserved and seems like a quiet kid. Throughout the story, however, people try to take advantage of that and we learn that he isn't as innocent or helpless as we think. He gets into a few fights throughout the story. I don't know what Quinton looks like. There is a description in the story and he shares some of my accessories, such as my four hoop earrings, but by no means does he look like me. As far as his name goes, I have a think for soft first names and hard last names. I think that came from this movie called Iron Will where the kid was named Will Stone. Ever since then, that is how my characters are named. Stone, Locke, Steel, and Night are some of the last names I have used. I love Quinton because he is growing like a real person. I like writing him.

Ali Stone: This guy has gone through some names. He originated in Seasons of Love as Troy, but then turned into Tyro. After that story was scrapped I kept some of his qualities such as his dominance over the main character, not that he pushes the main character around, but he always seems to be in control or the one with the most knowledge. The rest of this guy I made up from this guy from my High School. His name was Kenneth Evans and I used to just watch this guy and think up a story for him. Ali has all of this guy's looks, but that is probably it. Kenneth had a body like he played football so I made Ali an ex-football player. From there, I made up the rest. Kenneth was new to our school, but I tried to imagine what type of reputation this guy might have had he started school in the 9th grade. Kenneth had sort of a high voice and spoke somewhat proper, but I made Ali have a deeper voice and more of a street way of speakin'. Ali is definitely the one in control and his often acts a big brother to Quinton, but Quin becomes the same thing when Ali has problems. Ali is a cool guy. He is popular in school, but he doesn't act like most of the popular folks. He will talk to anyone, which is one of the reasons he and Quinton became so cool.

Jasmine: Now this girl has gone through some changed. Physically she has stayed the same though. She has always been a light skinned girl with a gorgeous... everything. She has long black hair that goes down her back and some nice curves. She is based off of this girl at my school named, Wanda, I believe. She has some of her sassy qualities, but I didn't know her well enough to put everything into the story. Now, in Seasons of Love, Jasmine was dating Justin's friend and Jasmine was trying to get with Justin. In Exile the friend is gone and so now it is just Quinton and Jasmine flirting. Jasmine is intrigued by Quinton. Probably because he is so quiet and she sees that as him being mysterious. Quinton likes her a lot too, but can get very shy when she is around. I don't know what lies in their future though.

Yanikos Syler: Another guy based off someone I knew in high school. In fact, the guy's name was Yanikos (probably a different spelling though). He and I were friends throughout 11th grade so the guy I'm writing is a little closer to the real thing than the others. I came up with Yanikos' character one day in class. Now, if you ever saw Yanikos in real life, you would think that he was one of the best looking guys in the world. I mean this dude had the prettiest eyes I have ever seen on a guy. He had long braids that weren't nappy and had this flawless light skin. To go with that, he had a pretty nice body. Only thing was he was a little short and his voice was a little high and nasal. Not annoying, but fair from that deep Barry White voice that girls seem to love. You would also think that this guy was popular, but he wasn't. He was just one of the little runts running around the school. Strange huh? Well that is the same case in Exile. Quinton wonders how the hell this guy could not be popular and he finds out soon enough. Now if you ever have the chance of reading the chapters that he is in or if you read the scene, I want you to know that it isn't him exactly. He was not found in Seasons of Love. I like this guy because he is dealing with some real problems too and just like Quinton, they are realistic. I also like the stubborn way he tries to handle them.

Tony (Step father): When I thought up Tony, I knew I needed the ultimate jerk in the world. So who better than the worse boss I had ever had? This guy was evil to me. While the female workers got to do office work, I handled supplies and cleaning. Not to mention, this guy seriously hated me and I hated him. Any time he had a problem, instead of telling me, he went to my aunt who he was friends with. One thing I will never forget about this guy was his cocked eyes. Well, Tony is this guy minus being horribly fat and cock eyed. He seems to hate Quinton because he feels that Quin lacks manhood.

Elizabeth (Mother): Physically, she looks like my old friend Willie's mother. She is kind of smoky, if I had to give her a color. She is dark and round. She is also rather lazy. Whenever she needs anything she calls up to Quinton to do it for her. It's strange because the question of rather she really loves Quinton has come up to me as I continued to write this story and eventually I found out. I guess you will have to read it to figure that out. Elizabeth was just hard to figure out and still is that way.

 

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