That day he just wished BAKA well. And didn't leave a message. It seemed like a good stopping point. The next morning Marc Love finally felt ready to leave. That's when Denver took him into town to a car dealership and the two of them bought him that Hyundai SUV.
The years of avoiding everyone and everything fearing for his life seemed fast behind him. Instead he felt relieved, for some reason BAKA leaving him was like a storm cloud gave way to a sunny sky.Ā
He felt lighter, he didn't really have any worries right now. Just to get...
Marc spent a few days at Denver's farm. His gal helped him buy a car at a used car shop in town. He decided on aĀ
Hyundai
SUV that fit in pretty much anywhere you went.
He was going to drive back toĀ
Westcity
. Where he met Denver for the...
Marc Love doesnāt remember falling asleep but he was jolted awake from a train passing.Ā It was dark outside so that made sense but he last rememberedĀ
Westcity
now he was in England.Ā
The only person next to him was a portly woman on her phone. The phones volume was...
"Who isĀ
Westcity
for? hell if I know." the barrel chested, pot bellied man in the cowboy hat said before leaning forward to take a shot. afterwards he leaned back again and took a drag off the cigar. "All I care about is that there's more people coming in every...
Marc didn't understand how he had arrived.Ā
Westcity
back again. He was a bit off balance. Dizzy even. The low lights of the bar didn't help, but another thought worried him more.
"How did I get here?"
He looked down a wood table held a dark liquor drink in a nice...
Marc Love walked into the bar. It was dark inside. Dark outside too. It was dark everywhre. He was sleeping in more. His schedule shifted. He wasn't aimless. He had come here searching for the man he used to have a telephatic connection to.
TheĀ
Blue Man
was on a boat. He let the thought swim around in his head. He hadn't thought of himself like that in awhile. Had been Marc Love. Marco to everyone on the trip. Through various means he managed to escape it all toĀ
Italy
the sun surrounded him...
Steve checked his GPS. The destination was only eight hours away now. It felt like he had been driving forever already. Strange to see that he still had a full workday left.
The longest drive he had taken back at home was a four hour trip toĀ
Chicago
. Other than...
Steve hadnāt been fromĀ
Westcity
but a smaller town. Just worked in Westcity, in some ways that was his big city. He remembered when he first got the job he was nervous.
The first class everyone was looking at him to give directions. The microphone wasnāt working and he had to...
They became like two boats passing in the night. Thats what Jack wrote now, he liked that. Thought it was good. When he got up from the desk it was time to brush his teeth and get ready to go outside. He cought sight of himself, he was older, and...
There's a kind of tired where even
coffee
doesn't work.
This was one of Imogen's favorite times to drink a coffee. So long as she didn't need to do anything. In this case she didn't. Jack -- acting as Keith acting as an Englishman -- was driving and seemed to have...
It was so hot that everyone in Jacks apartment complex had their windows open.
Jack and a fan that oscillated this way and that but it didnāt matter. The heat was relentless. He had to open one side of the house in the morning then the other at night.Ā
It was so hot that everyone in Jacks apartment complex had their windows open.
Jack and a fan that oscillated this way and that but it didnāt matter. The heat was relentless. He had to open one side of the house in the morning then the other at night.Ā
The park wasn't anything special. A bowl of green with a stripe of grey cutting through. Where joggers and rollerbladers went by. There was a playground and a pavilion. It was enough forĀ
Westcity
. Jack liked it, but still felt out of place.
Jack was doing overhead barbell presses when the text came. He felt the vibration distinctly. His phone now muted almost every notification so when it did vibrate it was impossible to ignore.
Plus it meant that it was one person. He had even muted Aaron awhile ago. They still texted all...
She didn't take the ring off because she was interested in Calvin. She took it off because she was embarrassed to say she was looking for a man named Keith. And of course Calvin would ask, is that your husband?
She would feel stupid saying no. I am married though. To...
Imogen Howe
Ā was worried. Keith hadnāt replied in a week, and his phone location just showed up as cannot find. Part of her wanted to go there, but she also didnāt know if this was him trying to tell her something.Ā
Keith had always found his upbringing sad. Over the couple days he told it to
Imogen Howe
, he realized it wasn't sad at all. Had he read a similar upbringing in another man's biography he wouldn't pity the guy. Would find it relatable. Nothing to be ashamed of.
After bineg shot at theĀ
Seaside Rest
, he never parted with theĀ
bulletproof
. Even slept in it.
How different would life be right now had he been wearing it. He thought to himself. Thought this a lot. But this always led to the realization that it wasn't just the...
The evening light fitlered through the dust. Few people were in the bar. Nobody caught Red's attention. They were all the usual crowd. Everybody except for one.
The man at the bar. Nursing a scotch. Hunched over. Deep in thought. Red knew the look of a man in rumination. He'd been...
They held a funeral for Dave. They couldn't risk exposure. The easiest thing to do was say he was dead, hold a funeral, but actually ship him two thousand miles east.
The killer was never found. Or never revealed. The blue group was able to figure out the shooter but they...
Alan fell asleep. Aaron looked over and checked, he turned the radio to his playlist. A techno one he made in college for studying for exams. Still pumps him up. He liked driving. All day he sits and goes no where, now he sits and he goes somewhere. Probably should...
Keith's apartment was the second story of a mixed commercial/residential brick building on a moderately busy part of town. The town wasn't big. The strip he lived on sat mostly empty past eight, unless there was some significant event taking place. Most of the foot traffic came during the day....
The water crashed and swelled in front of her. It smelt like the ocean on the other side she thought. It surprised her how big the waves were. How much the sound surrounded her.Ā
There was chaos but predictability. She just had her feet in the water. She liked how...
gas station
Imogen Howe
Westcity
town
gatorade
Gardetto's
She was at aĀ
gas station
called Chip's. Out in the middle of nowhere with nothing else around.
Imogen Howe
was pleasantly surprised to fill her car up at gas station that didn't belong to a franchise. She couldn't remember the last time she used any station other than Marathon,...
Alan searched the house for his keys. His eyes glued to her little dot. Moving further and further west. Could she be going to her parent's? That was an hour south more or less. No what the fuck.Ā
When he was home he retreated back to his former self. Aaron communicated with grunts and groans, and only existed in common spaces out of necessity food, or water. His Dad was fine with this accustomed to be alone most of the time. Adult life seems to pull at you...
The house was big, rooms on every floor except the basement where the show was. 5 or so bands Sean knew. It wasn't his house, but as they walked there he told Imogen that he practically lived there. He was an organizer, an ENFP he said to her. Alan could...
Alan doesn't remember much of the night. He remembered at one point coming too, and both Jack and Aaron were carrying by the arm. Then he remembers seeing the girls. Then theres a bush and he was puking again.Ā
Imogen Howe
was getting mad at Aaron and Jack for letting...
"You threw up on my shoes. And your own," Jack said. "That's bad luck. Because if you had only thrown up on your shoes I would let you borrow mine. But I don't think there's any chance you can fit into Aaron's shoes."
Ashley was still out in Chicago. When they spoke, Imogen would be confused as to whether Ashley would be back for the
new year
party. Sometimes Ashley would make it sound like she was definitely coming back. Sometimes she made it sound like...
"I gotta tell you guys something." Aaron said. The two waited. He took a long drink. They were on their third beers now at this bar. The plan was never to stay long. But it was decent enough. Plus they could smoke inside.
Alan was in the latter. One of the only bars heād ever seen where people still smoke. Aaron brought them three beers in ice cold glasses. Alan was particularly buzzed, and the beers flew by. None of them had had dinner and that might have been a contributing factor. Replacing...
A gentle storm came.Ā
snow
enveloped all of town. Alan took out the old shovel and cleaned out the driveway for his mom. He would be sore from that he knew as he drove to Larry's diner for breakfast.
"You must be hungry." the waitress commented at Alan ordering three eggs...
Alan's mom was happy, a little concerned, as Alan was paying rent inĀ
Westcity
, but it was nice to have him home. She thought about asking him the night before at dinner, but he was talking a lot, he was letting her into his life. So that was nice....
When he arrived at Alan's he could tell nobody was awake. There was only the soft night lights in the inside. But for some strange reason Alan's car wasn't parked outside. Had he already gone back to
Westcity
?
Jack thought of what he should do. He was so tired. But...
That light always took too damn long. During the day you noticed less because there'd be traffic you'd wait on. But at night when nobody was around the waiting became unbearable. They needed to turn that intersection into a blinking yellow on one side and blinking red on the other...
When he got home he couldn't to any of the usual things he would do. He was jittery. When trying to look at a screen he felt like puking. The only thing he could do was close his eyes and sit there. Eventually he laid down. He didn't fall asleep...
When Alan awoke he could tell by the sound and air that he was alone. His mom was probably at her dance class. But Jack? He had no clue. Alan didn't think Jack would leave without saying goodbye. thus Alan could only assume that Jack went outside for a walk...
He was happier than he should be just driving to get cat food, then going to a coffee shop. He was imagining what he'd say to
Imogen Howe
. Maybe he would pretend he didn't know her when he walked in, or maybe he'd just say the usual. He wanted...
He had five days left. Then it was back toĀ
Westcity
. Back to the eternal nothing. The dark version of happily ever after. Alan didn't want to think about that right now though. He was in his old bedroom at his mom's. She was watching TV in the living...
That other girl went toĀ
Westcity
Community College the first year out of high school. The plan was to apply again during that first year and transfer to a university. The plan then quickly changed to transferring after two years. She could save more money that way.
He read something last night. Maybe it was onĀ
Instagram
orĀ
Twitter
, where you donāt remember like the top writer or the top football player, but you remember a good teacher or a good coach. These people you read about donāt really matter itās the people who are close...
He awoke later and later each morning. Soon he realized that he was waking up at 11. He needed to get out of here. HIs parents house. It stirred a laziness in him. Maybe moving back with his mom would be impossible. He began to understand why some of his...
In the car he took a drink of his coffee. Damn, he thought, that was good. Way better thanĀ
Westcity
and cheaper, he checked his bank app 3.10 for that a scone, Jesus.
He drove back through familiar streets, he decided to take the long way. That was nice, he liked...
He turned the engine off and read the text before putting the phone in his pocket. It was his friend. They texted each other several times a day. But he didn't look at his phone when driving. He wouldn't respond to this text until later. There was nothing to say...
He went to Brooklyn next, not sure why just seemed like she would live there. He thought it was a funny thing he was doing searching for one person in a city of millions. Maybe inĀ
Westcity
you could do that. Plan to accidently meet someone. Like they were only...
At the coffee shop he hoped Mari would be there. Knew she wouldn't. She probably lived someplace further out. Probably didn't make as much as Jackie. Maybe Mari lived out in Queens or Long Island. The people in this coffee shop looked hip and rich. A world Joey didn't belong...
The door felt smaller now, almost minuscule so he couldn't really leave. Or he didn't feel like it. He checked his pulse. A habit he had back when the panic attacks were bad. He had to check if when he was feeling bad his heart was just beat fast. Then...
She pulled him out on the streets. Not that she was walking fast, she just wasn't taking everything in. Joey stopped bewildered and confused at each crossing.
Jackie's voice pushing him into action "Walk walk walk!" .
"Gotta move dufus, don't want to have to leave you." With this she smiled....
At the dinner he had been anxious to leave. Immediately after leaving the parking lot of motel he felt like he lost something. This phase was now over. It was goodbye to Sammy. The Motel. And those dance lessons he used to do. He would never see them again.
After Jimmy passed out Dick opened his laptop and checkedĀ
Facebook
. Alice had posted photos from the ski resort.
There were also photos posted by Casey. He was at some show tonight. Posing with the band. He was "in" over there inĀ
Westcity
. The respected musicians and venue managers...
Marc shifted his weight in his cot. He had been awake since 4am, now the first sign of light. Was trickling through the stain glass windows. He for the past 6 months felt good when he woke up, like he was part of these walls. He cleaned the glass, he...
When you have a car that's old enough to have miles under it's belt, but not too old that the repairs are getting costly, it can be easy to think that that car can go on forever. Can be difficult to imagine that one day theĀ
car
will become un-drivable....
In a glass covered hallway, a man draped in navy blue walked. The air outside seemed ready to turn over to late fall. For now the temperature was cool enough for a suit. But not cold enough to warrant a coat.
Navy blue was a more popular color over in Europe....
He gathered his thoughts. Reflected on what he had gone through the past six months. Finally realized that he had in fact stayed in this new town for six months. He had been going toĀ
Westcity
beforehand. Made a big rush to get there too. But once he found this...
There was another guy important in all this. He was in the bar with Dave. It wasn't Lenny's creator, the mad writer slowly drifting into obscurity. Nor was it Dave. It was the bartender. His friends called him Pete. For a long time he worked in a small town bar....
Marc thought for few seconds stopped in the middle of the parking lot. The sun beating down on his face, and forcing him to sneeze. Why the fuck am I going toĀ
Westcity
thats where they would expect me. This obvious thought scared him more than anything. He had been...
If he was being honest with himself its the first time Marc felt at home. At this church heaving all this furniture around. To what end? He just slept here, so he felt indebted. He couldn't shake it. For the first time in his new life he was being cared...
When he finally decided to drive toĀ
Westcity
he felt calmer. Linda would be there he thought. And if she wasn't, then her job was complete. She had been tasked to simply get him to return finally.
It would be at least 10 hours until he arrived. That would be if...
Mark Love always liked
Westcity
, while he had been avoiding it like the plague it was nicea nice place to live. Thats were it all started he thought, or where he ended.Ā
The Blue Man
,he wasn't really ready to go back, but all he could think about was...
The frazzled plea from inside stuck with Marc Love as he drove away from the sunset. He had knocked. Twice. In case she hadn't heard. Then he was about to go away. Sometimes people didn't want to answer the door. You couldn't wait forever.
Laying in the bathtub she had a thought. You can be anyone you want to be. She liked that, held on to it, like a small ball close to her chest. Then a knock came from downstairs. She was in the bath, when she was in the bath she had...
Lenny's creator inhaled the pizza. He had heard you were supposed to sit while eating. Otherwise you wouldn't enjoy it and your body would struggle to digest. He'd heard this on a
podcast
.
He had consumed countless podcasts over the past few years. There was a time when a new...
Westcity
reeked of marijuana or maybe that was just where Dave decided to sleep. A big house, at one time probably pretty nice, was decorated now with greek letters. The inside hacked and cut into seperate rooms for 30 men or boys. And thats where Dave's spontaneousĀ
Airbnb
was. Fuck...
dark
social media
McDonalds
Westcity
lifestyle
business trip
Although he drove all night, Dave was no where near falling asleep. The
dark
, being unable to see the details of the terrain, brought his mind to a corner of his past. Memories he had forgotten. One vivid memory was of how he had met a man named Peter.
Marc was having his coffee at the diner. They knew what he liked, the usual they would say, and beyond that just uhuhs and thats okay sweetie followed. Nothing else. They knew how he took his coffee, which before that was reserved to, well if he thought about it, his...
Manufacturers put scents into dish
soap
because research revealed that it made the washer think their
dishes
were getting cleaner than when using unscented soap. Technically the scents weren't required for the cleaning. Max knew this. But he still enjoyed scrubbing it into the plates. He also enjoyed wiping them...
It didn't register that Keith was going to die. The doctors told him it was the perfect storm, his mother smoked, his dad drank, and he spent almost a decade in space. His body had tried to adapt to all these things and everything else Keith through at it, but...
Joey left the bar, a little sway in his walk. A bit sadder than when he started the night. Joey looked at his phone again no messages. There was some likes on a picture he posted. The first picture in awhile. When he was with Carianne she would tell him...
When Joey Blau settled down he thought about Carianne. When he was with her he was a bit less nervous. He used to tell her she allowed him to be himself. She realistically didn't really follow his schedule, this he used to get mad about it. But other times would...
He didn't really get why, but since Monday morning everything was going good in his life. Like clockwork, he'd wake up to texts from his friends, memes he'd never think they would have sent.Ā When he went to the
Westcity
cafe
Ā it seemed like they knew he was coming. People...
TheĀ
software
Keith wrote automated the orderly guy's schedule down inĀ
Westcity
. Now all his food was delivered to him. Fake messages from his friends' phone numbers arrived at his inbox to which he would respond. Keith's script intercepted these messages, prevented them from going to the friends' devices....
That night Cal couldn't sleep he listened to Keith's theory. It wasn't particularly amazing, nor Cal would say useful, but Keith had done a lot of watching on one guy, and he was sure he could figure out what to make him happy. Cal sipped his espresso and listened as...
electricity
was free up here. They had solar panels facing straight out into the sun. And boy did the station eat up a lot of juice. So many computers and appliances everywhere. And the whole infrastructure that allows people to survive inside ofĀ
Spacecity
. the mechanism that taks the...
He looked out the window.
earth
was in view. He felt small again. Like that moment he realized how high the chewing mouth was above. Keith had tried to get the giraffe to recognize what he had just recognized. That the giraffe was so tall. But the animal gave no...
They could smell the
oil
while trailing them. The assistant grew nervous. Once they caught up with the blue man. Would it be as easy as they had planned? They'd been on the road all week. It seemed to soon for it all to end. But there wasn't much to...
Keith was in the public space outside of Marianna's room. His other friend just left to bed, and left Keith to find his way back home. He stayed on the couch in the public space. Scrolling through the most recent new's on earth. Then toĀ
Instagram
then toĀ
TikTok
and...
They hadn't planned a meeting spot before heading out. They agreed to call each other and triage live. But his phone was about to die. So he sent a text saying ' meet at the corner of Jacob and Penny '.
When he arrived at the intersection there were about seven...
The sign was JC's idea. Kindness indeed was free at The Blue Moon Cafe. In terms ofĀ
money
at least.
There was still something to be expensed though at the end of the day. TheĀ
employees
providing theĀ
kindness
paid something of themselves. A smile, or a sincere grin was free...
Kyle saw her. Wondered: what the hell is she doing here? Got out as quick as he could without causing suspicion. However he thought she saw her. They never met eyes. But he stood in that corner too long for her not to have seen him. The question wasn't whether...
He had a client. Who wanted aĀ
decentralized
version ofĀ
chess
.com built.
Jack didn't think it could succeed. But he took the gig on anyway. It paid the bills. Not that he had much bills to pay. He wasn't a dad and he didn't have any parents he had to...
friends
Death Cab for Cutie
Westcity
iPod
bookstore
Pitchfork
vinyl
Pavlov's Dogs
The first thing I did after hanging up was drive out to the ravine. Jesse and I didn't come here often. But when we talked about ourselves with other people we made it sound like we always came out here. Matter of fact, we didn't hang out much at all.
Carl waited at the cafe alone for about 20 minutes. Nervous.
He had a lot to tell his supervisor. He had researched at theĀ
Westcity
publicĀ
library
all weekend. Old newspapers. And now he had a thesis. But then ten minutes past. His coffee cup was empty. He wanted another, but...
I hadn't seen Imo in years. She told me she was in town for a
conference
nearby, but I was pretty sure she had signed up for the conference only because it was in my town.
We had been best friends. Even after we were no longer that, we had held...
I hadn't seen him in months. Used to hang out each weekend at the least. Was excited to hearĀ he had moved over by The Medical Mile. Where the fancy, new buildings were. I'd heard good things about it. How it was going to boostĀ
Westcity
's economy, bring new...
rain
coffee
school shooting
newspaper
Westcity
condensed milk
white people
superstitious
horoscope
People couldn't stop talking about theĀ
rain
. They couldn't remember the last time it had rained this much. Not that it had rained everyday. But that it had rained every week. Was it ever like that before? Rain at least once a week? Hop Tsing thought about this as...
Entering the
hackathon
was exciting in itself. Andrew Cook sat toggling between two browser tabs. One his email where he re-read the welcome
email
. The other the event
website
. An hour passed with him toggling these two tabs. He was seated at a table in his favorite
cafe...
His views dropped fast. He went from being the #1 watched
TikTok
influencer to being
homeless
in two weeks. The man in the nice suit who had been with him through his stardom abandoned him the moment any association with The Blue Man became inconvenient. The man with the nice...
Westcity
service industry
smartphones
hackathon
project manager
stairwell
glass
steel
monolith
information age
bubble
social justice warrior
Four miles west of where Andrew Cook received his 2nd coffee, James Sallis climbed the set of stairs that must've cost at least 2.5 million dollars to design and construct. He thought of the principle of spending that much on just a stairwell. Of course this was no ordinaryĀ
stairwell...
Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook
Bill Gates
Westcity
email
Harvard
oral fixation
hackathon
Thoughts of another drink swarmed the young man who sat at the table near the window at a cafe off Baker Ave. Usually the slim, hoodied figure got more coffees than his brain and nerves needed because he was procrastinating on some pending school deadline.
"Now I know there's a lot of
millennials
out there. So this next song goes out to you. You'll know what song it is right from the first line. If you don't then you must not've been rockin it in the 2000's. Keep it dialed here to one oh two...
girlfriend
Westcity
deep work
life
car
Ford
Travis Scott
food
trees
Walter met his first
girlfriend
after moving to
Westcity
because of his habit of taking afternoon walks. No matter how hot it got he vowed to take a walk during the afternoon when his brain would be fried anyhow. No point in trying to pull of any
deep work
during...
college
peanut butter
parents
House of Cards
coffee
Bialetti
Westcity
student
budget
Indeed
neoliberal
subreddit
He thought he could move in one day. He had always been able to move in one day before. This is not to say that he'd have his entire place unpacked, but everything from the truck would be unloaded into the new space.
internet
grocery store
millionaire
Westcity
British
weather
information
EveryĀ
British
person that he knew complained about theĀ
weather
back home. Most of the year was cold, wet, and gray. He couldn't know for sure, since he had never been there, and had not even bothered to ever verify this account by checking the weather of that small island....
AĀ
stoic
face, half covered inĀ
aviators
walked through theĀ
florescent
halls of theĀ
Westcity
police department laboratory, being led by a police officer in his middle age.
"Like I said, this one is a real doozie. Nobody at Oakwood could figure it out, so they called us in." he looked...
Georgie Wilcox
Westcity
drive
Subaru
fire
whispers
pattern
There was a non insignificant fire in the town she had just moved to. Was she already using the word 'move'? She would be there less than a month. She couldn't use that word.
The
fire
initially seemed like it wouldn't pertain to her case. But she decided to look more...
money
retire
abortion
Westcity
podcasts
mid-wit
debauchery
pride
women
homemakers
For years... actually decades by this time... Richard had a calm "fuck off" ready to serve his sister the moment his she would reach out for help. The two had been close before the
money
, and when he first began earning real money he couldn't be more excited, the...
rain
podcasts
Westcity
cafe
teeth
America
Georgie Wilcox
housewife
programmer
TheĀ
rain
had come suddenly. Sammy had not checked the weather this morning. It had seemed like one of those days where the weather was going to stay put the entire time.
She didn't mind the rain. Her car was built to handle wet roads and she felt safe inside of...
There's an imprisoning feeling that comes with the
American
car culture, although I bet when cars were becoming a mainstay of life, it was all aboutĀ
freedom
.
Drive whenever, wherever you want. Don't get stuck in crowds and be chained to public transit's timetables.
Westcity
aesthetics
Germany
flyover country
toys
Settlers of Catan
After the fog I saw what looked like computer chips. The layout of a semi large city in the middle ofĀ
flyover country
. As we flew closer the cars on the highway looked like toy cars. Those things would kill you if they hit you down there. But from...
He knew his way around Old Town that was for sure.
I remember when they came to get us his back was to the entrance of the cafe. So he didn't notice until I pointed them out. That's when a look changed in his face. In a flash.
Berlin
Westcity
coffee
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky
dopamine
Facebook
tea
Louvre
October
uncanny
popcorn
movie theater
seltzer water
St. Petersburg
As he grew older he found it harder to recognize people. He still could recognize everyone, but there was a time in high school when he couldn't imagine not being able to see and old classmate and knowing it was them right away. Even if they were to meet inĀ ...
Imogen Howe
college
cafe
Westcity
GPA
tea
depression
support group
white tea
graphic designer
V.
The first time around
Imogen Howe
didn't treatĀ
college
seriously. She blamed herĀ
depression
. This time it'd be different she said.
But she was still depressed. So she looked back again hoping for other reasons for her failure. With each recall she could't find anything unrelated to herself and...
barista
coffee
Facebook
college
beer
Imogen Howe
Westcity
service industry
blue chip
She thought she might be able to be aĀ
barista
forever. So long as she owned the cafes one day. Making 12 bucks an hour plus tips was just not going to cut it for the rest of her life.
The people and their tips were nice. They meant well, but...
Westcity
Jean Gras
cappuccino
coffee
cafe
Christmas Eve
So nice to see you, Jean greeted me with a hug.
After our pleasantries and a moment of silence where the both of us looked outside at the gentle snow fall she asked me something. Something real. Definitely the first real statement of our conversation.
Westcity
coffee
Matthew McConaughey
Hollywood
Austin
Matthew McConaughey
had an office in a building I helped manage right out of college. His was one half of the third story to an unassuming brick building in a quieter, yet still urban part of
Westcity
. It was one of those neighborhood urban spots rather than the main...
Airbnb
Westcity
cigarette
Imogen Howe
staycation
Chicago
Camel
She liked the idea of a stranger in an
Airbnb
in town. It felt more exciting than a local just doing a
staycation
, which was a word she'd never heard before. At first she thought she might want to do a staycation, but then she couldn't ignore just how...
Jeannie Hammond
cafe
Westcity
Imogen Howe
Zooey Deschanel
vegan
chili
After high school she sought to run her own cafe because of insecurities. She wasn't smart enough to go to a real university likeĀ
Jeannie Hammond
. And out of all the jobs she could think of, running aĀ
cafe
seemed the most respectful.
The first few times you go to coffee with somebody are almost always quite exciting. Both people listen to each other and it turns out to be an exciting exchange of ideas and theories. After a few times this excitement fades. You both begin to realize that in fact all...
The most interesting client was by far a man named Justice who lived in
Seoul
. By the time I joined the project, the team consisted of two Korean developers who had been working under Justice for an indeterminate amount of time and Pierce's two most senior devs stateside. I...
beer
cigarette
Westcity
Imogen Howe
Jeannie Hammond
Tuesday
Miller Lite
It wasĀ
Tuesday
night. Pitch black where she sat inside an orange SUV, the engine cut on the unlit parking lot across from the gas station. Jeannie was inside, picking up a 24 pack of
Miller Lite
using her cousin's ID.
Two things were on Imogen's mind as she listened to...
Westcity
John Cena
Peter Thiel
New York
Dodge Ram
BMW
Hertz
Enterprise
Zillow
The
Dodge Ram
didn't drive as smooth as the
BMW
. That's the sort of things you needed to do when you weren't in a big city like SF where you were surrounded by luxury cars everywhere so a sleek ride didn't attract any eyeballs.
It had rained everyday until Friday so the air was cool. The clouds didn't give us their all, she thought as she looked up. Or new clouds had simply formed already in their place after falling to the ground as rain.Ā
In the evening, the drive down 131 was remarkably different given the hour. One hour it would be magic hour, that perfect photographic lighting. Half hour later it would be twilight.
After a certain moment, small movements of time would no longer matter. Two or three hours could pass and the...
I honestly can't claim any horizon projects because I'm not working on anything at the moment that I have outcome based expectations for yet.
I do have general expectations for continuing to develop the world ofĀ
Westcity
and the characters within it... which I'm doing in the "I found the diaries of Greco" series, but even with that I see it more as practice than a thing I'm horizoning.
Let me know if I'm thinking of horizon projects different than you. I'm interpreting it as the biggest, active project that you are planning to complete.
---
Similarly to the saving hte best part for later fallacy that writers make, I think you should just write it through. Write it through because then the real part begins. Finding what's wrong with it and why it sucks.
Most writers seem to do a better job with fixing bad writing then creating bad writing. Most writers refuse to write bad stuff so they sit with their phone in their hands staring at
reddit
orĀ
Twitter
or motiviational
Youtube
videos instead.
Trust me, your story's going to suck really bad. No matter how great you think it is in your head. So get it out and then let's make it good.
I think this is why it's more important at our level to try many different projects rather than get hung about one not working out so well.
When you say slow projects mean something more to us... I'm reminded of long projects. Like my world ofĀ
Westcity
I've been working on for years. Or at least in the world for years, even though I might not write for it for months at a time.
but I wouldn't call that a slow project... more of a long proejct.
right as i wrote this i just realized... it is slow. Just not slow in the way the slow projects I was imagining in my previous comments were.Ā
Macro Slow vs micro slow.
I love writing forĀ
Westcity
... I love that you called it westtown that's hilarious. and no that's not justĀ
Lansing
orĀ
East Lansing
... it's kinda more Lansing +Ā
Grand Rapids
+ something else more imaginary.Ā
but because I love writing for it and it's the world I've been forming for so many years, I feel like it's sacred and I shy away from writing for it.
I think actually the next step is to not treat it as sacred and go all in on it in terms of execution. Wht do I have to lose? what do i fear i will lose?Ā
I'll tell you. I fear that I will lose my profound love for that world.Ā
BTW think it's hilarious you called Gabriel Gabe. Think that's the first time anyone's called him that here.
Westcity
Balloon House
cappuccino
My Bloody Valentine
It was after dropping off Sal for his afternoon Chemistry class that she had a day to spare. Just a few hours more honestly, but hours in the afternoon seemed to stretch on for her these days. Mornings and evenings would fly by but the liminal space of sunny, summer...
Against all expectations, we ended up at a
diner
. Cheryl had drove while John sat in the back of their red Jeep with me smoking hand rolled cigarettes. I was feeling a smooth type of wired from the matcha as Cheryl took us out of the lush greenery of...
It's very funny that you say that
Westcity
sounds like your type of place. Because when I first read that few days ago I immediately thought that can't be true. How could Keni belong in a place like Westcity??!!
I now read this again and I think. Of course. Yes. She would belong there. I can't put it into words right now but I do see such a place for you there.
Forgive me if I ever turn attributes of you into characters within Westcity haha.
Westcity
Instagram
arugula
coffee
Leo
Michael Douglas
devil's advocate
Ryan Gosling
Jonah Hill
Matt Damon
The error is nested so deep within the stack trace he feels cortisol flood out from his capillaries. After a few seconds of leg shaking he shuts down the laptop, shoves it into his messenger bag, and escapes.
Outside he is cast
Instagram
Blue. Bad day for perfect weather he thinks...
The kind of town I like's a busy one. That's why I'm glad to have left New York, where you would think everyone was busy but they really aren't. As in they can take their long lunches and coffees. Their schedules are booked for sure, but they can just move...
I lived in a town with afternoons wide open to things like coffees, long lunches, and most importantly drinks. Although every one of my friends were employed in a variety of industries, you would think they all shared the same goal. To get out of working in the afternoon.
There's a strategy I've seen mentioned independently by some of the most prolific writers.
John Swartzwelder
puts it best here:
But I do have a trick that makes things easier for me. Since writing is very hard and rewriting is comparatively easy and rather fun, I always write my scripts all...
