This is a story I started writing 20+ years ago, now. I graduated from college, moved to New York City's Chelsea, got a job, and suddenly didn't know who the hell I was or what I was doing. I started typing one day because not writing down what was in my head was getting to be more painful and annoying than just giving in. This story is what came out of that experience. It's me as a much younger writer, living in a now-vanished New York.
It's not a complete story. It's a couple hundred pages, I think, but I warn you - there's no grand resolution (something that would, it should be obvious to anyone who reads my stuff here, continue to haunt me). I used to have it hosted on a website, back in the early 1990s - hosted with hyperlinks to other stories I'd written, and some artwork I'd done. I was right chuffed when the Washington Post read it and gave me an awesome shoutout (read the last paragraph) - even if it was by the 'technology' columnist. Unfortunately the last copy of that website was on a server in a colo facility which ate itself some months ago. Upon investigating, I discovered to my horror that the backups I had been maintaining of that website were, in fact, corrupt. The website was indexed far and wide, as it was up in the early days of the World Wide Web, so you might run across indexed ghosts of its presence out there if you look, not that there's any reason to do so.
Later, I discovered that although I hadn't a working backup of the website, I had one of the central novel itself, thank goodness. While I was meandering through it, re-reading, I realized I should probably put it up here to join the rest of my stuff, since there's zero chance it'll ever get published. Finished? I don't know. I'm not sanguine - it's been a long, long time since I was the person who wrote this, and I write by feel more than by art or by craft. Perhaps, once it's all here, I can re-read it and recapture enough of the characters that they'll oblige me by continuing their shadowplay in my head. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to get it down, and their story will continue.
One of my other stories, posted here, is fairly tightly linked to this story. If you run across it, you'll know which it is.
Thanks to everyone on this website who has ever /msged or written me telling me that they enjoyed or appreciated or even read and hated work I've posted here. That's the only reason I keep writing. I'm stuck in what has been a fairly epic writer's block, lasting months; and this post doesn't mean it's broken (of course). But hopefully I can trick myself into reading this stuff, and editing it for posting, and maybe (just maybe) that'll help.