Peter Charming, a 15 year-old socially anxious boy from Queens, joins an online game and meets Evelyn Tiger, a strange 16 year-old girl from Cleveland, Ohio, 404 miles away from him, who shares his same interests and passions.
Through late night Sky...
First and foremost, I'd like to thank some real life friends of mine. I'd like to thank who read this all thing from start to end, and I'd like to thank those who only read the first few chapters, or just the prologue, and gave me their opinions.
And, then, I'd like to thank you, whoever you are. If you've been here since the start, if you stopped in the middle and binge read the rest of it, if you just picked this up and devoured it, if you had this in your library and it took you twelve years to finally finish it, thank you.
I really can't thank you enough for taking some time from your days to read my work.
Now, for some final considerations. I know how most of you really wanted this to be a cute love story with good triumphing in the end and the magic of a fairytale conquering the real world.
So, I guess some of you might be disappointed. Well, that was kind of my intention. If you go back all the way to the Prologue, I started off by saying that I wanted to tell you a real story. About how things turn out in real life. And this, right here, was exactly that.
"Long-Distance Calls" is the story of an extremely lonely boy who falls in love with a girl's Internet personality. He's so lonely he invented a friend for himself, who he talks to every single day. And the other boys at school are mean to him, and his cousin, who is also his best friend, dies in an accident. All of this breaks him, and he almost gives up, even on life.
And, though the ending itself might not seem too happy, you have to consider Peter's strength to fight through all this to reach his dream, which ends up being just a pipe dream.
As we said, he fell in love with Evelyn's Internet persona and so he shaped her personality, he created his dream girl just like he created Belle. So, as soon as they met, reality stepped all over him.
But, in the midst of this misery, I wanted to give you a glimpse at a little light at the end of this tunnel. Peter meets new friends at the new school, a new girl even, so there might be something good coming.
So, here's what some of you may be wondering: will there be a sequel?
Why, yes, of course there will!
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"The Struggle of Being Charming" will kick off exactly where we left. But it will be different, and I'll make it so that new readers won't need to read "Long-Distance Calls" to enjoy it. So, it's kind of a soft reboot. Some of you LDC readers might find some of its elements repetitive, but keep in mind it is a new story.
After all, we still have to see who this Dr. Straczynski is, and what role the new friends will play in Peter's life. What role Africa will play in Peter's life. And how long will Peter's relationship with Evelyn keep on living.
So I hope I'll see you there, too. In the meantime, thanks again. And ta-ta for now, as always, not forever.
