The Road to Amazing (28 page)

That's when I thought:
maybe Amazing
wasn't
something over the horizon, something off in the future.
Maybe it wasn't about the beauty of the struggle either,
appreciating the journey
to
the destination.

No, maybe Amazing was all around me, a
constant thing, part of every molecule of matter, present in every
second of every day. But for some reason, I couldn't see it, except
in glimpses, except in moments like this one, lying in bed in the
dark with Kevin.

It was a nice thought, the idea that
the place I was going to was the place where I already
was.

I tried to cling to that thought, even
as I held tightly to Kevin. But it had been a long day and I was
exhausted, and before I knew it, I drifted off to sleep.

BOOKS BY BRENT
HARTINGER

Russel Middlebrook: The
Futon Years

(Adult Books)

*
The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know
(Book 1)

*
Barefoot in the City of Broken Dreams
(Book 2)

*
The Road to Amazing
(Book
3)

The Russel Middlebrook
Series

(Young Adult Books)

* Geography Club
(Book 1)

* The Order of the Poison
Oak
(Book 2)

* Double Feature: Attack
of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies/
Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies
(Book 3)

* The Elephant of
Surprise
(Book 4)

Other Books

* Three Truths and a
Lie

* Grand &
Humble

*
Shadow Walkers

* Project Sweet
Life

* The Last Chance
Texaco

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brent Hartinger is an
author, playwright, and screenwriter.
Geography Club
, the book in which
Russel Middlebrook first appears (as a teenager), is also a
successful stage play and a feature film co-starring Scott Bakula.
As a screenwriter, Brent has a number of other film projects in
active development.

In 1990, Brent helped
found the world's third LGBT teen support group, in his hometown of
Tacoma, Washington. In 2005, he co-founded the entertainment
website AfterElton.com, which was sold to MTV/Viacom in 2006. He
currently co-hosts a podcast called Media Carnivores from his home
in Seattle, where he lives with his husband, writer Michael Jensen.
Read more by and about Brent, or contact him at
brenthartinger.com
.

If you enjoyed this book,
please consider posting a review wherever you typically share your
opinions about books. Also,
sign up for the author's newsletter
(and receive a free ebook),
like him on Facebook
, or
follow him on Twitter
.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks, as always, to my husband
Michael Jensen, my editor Stephen Fraser, and my agent Jennifer De
Chiara.

Thanks also to Philip
Malaczewski for continuing to create great book jackets
(this one's my favorite so far).

I had a great time co-writing a
real-life version of Otto's song, "This Time and Place," with my
friend Danny Oryshchyn, and another friend, Jeremy Ward, did a
terrific job helping me record and sing it. Look for it online (but
keep your expectations low: I'm a writer, not a
singer!).

Early readers who
generously contributed their time and extremely helpful opinions on
this book include Matt Carrillo, Paul Chiocco, Nate Edmunds, Erik
Hanberg, Michael Higgins, Wes Jamison, Brian Katcher, Bill
Konigsberg, Brad Lane, Nate Leslie, Mark MacDougal, Joe Muscolo,
Tim O'Leary, Peter Orem,
Lucas
Orosco,
Robin Reardon, Tim Sandusky, Lais
Santos, R.J. Seeley, Gregory Taylor, and Christopher
Udal.

Copyright © 2016 Brent
Hartinger

All rights reserved.

Song: "This Time and Place"
Words by Brent Hartinger,
Music by Brent Hartinger and Danny Oryshchyn

The events and characters of this book
are entirely fictional.

Any similarity to events or
people,

living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

No part of this book may be used or
reproduced

in any matter whatsoever without
permission

except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in

critical articles or reviews. For
information, contact:

BK Books
PO Box 30542
Seattle WA 98113
www.brenthartinger.com

Cover design by
Philip
Malaczewski

ISBN-13:
9781310704239