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To whom it may concern, (especially to those who stuck with 23) For the last few months, 6-12 pages of a story called 23 popped up on the internet more or less every week. There are about a hundred places I could trace the germination of 23 to, but I think there are only three real reasons why I'm sitting here at my iMac the day before my birthday, inexplicably writing a letter to hundreds- nay, now thousands of readers. The first is the culmination of twenty three years of thought, bad moves, good moves, what could have been and what might be. There are plenty of "real " experiences in 23. I don't care to point any out. Some are things I needed to deal with, others I didn't. Some happened to pop up along the way. Suffice to say that there was a startling ripple somewhere in my head that signaled a need to write, and a need to think over some things that had happened in my life. It was an early need to reevaluate, and the idea hit to think and write at the same time. In March I visited a dear friend of mine in Philly. On a subway ride I babbled about some grand idea I had to stop play writing and try my hand at a novella. About 1/4 of what I wanted to do conceptually came out of it, but much of its roots began there. Did I think I'd do it online? Nope. Did I think I'd even get past the first five pages, much less make it past seventy-five? No way. The idea needed fuel. And that fuel would be an audience. The last reason 23 even got made started with a really silly name for a graphic design company. Screaming Jack Ass Graphics was the first web page and name I took on for my side work as a designer. It dawned on me that instead of writing a bunch of pages and emailing or printing them out for feedback, I could just start the darn thing online. I needed to learn the ropes of web design anyway, and this would give me a neat look into serial publishing. Well, it did that and more... As Screaming Jack Ass Graphics evolved into the more potent Skewed Perspective, and the process of uploading an already written segment went from 2 hours to 20 minutes, the whole landscape changed. 23 had a plan, and the first few segments lead up to the larger segment on Allen's death (which was perhaps the only real plot point). From there it became a different creature, as I found myself not knowing what would happen until I wrote it, letting instinct grab the feelings and ideas for each segment. There was an audience that I could count on (so the statistics of the website and letters told me) which made the whole process really gratifying and slipped in some quality control on my part, making it less like a rough draft like it had been in the beginning. And so now it rounds out, partially because the story is told, and partially because I made a promise to myself and others that I would stop by the time I was no longer 23 myself. I have no idea if we will see these characters again. I thought I might continue with a second story from another point of view (such as Tammy's) but that might be beating a dead horse. I still want to clean up what is already here. Nip and tuck some, add a bit here, slice a bit there. Maybe create a comic book of the story. Who knows. What I do know is that this has been incredibly fulfilling for me as a writer, and I hope you stick with Skewed Perspective to see what other authors have to say. Whatever form 23 is revisited in (such as the comic idea, or the soon to come addition of more notes) you'll hear about it from this site. But for what has already been done, thank you for reading. Please drop an email and let me know what you thought of any part or the whole of 23.
See you soon, 10/22/2k |
