Little break from the story... to talk about the story.

I wrote this 18k word monster while living back home in NYC during 2002. I was working in the dull job as counterman in a coffeeshop then a deli and I couldn't help but think. A lot. And write, a lot. Then, bam, like a magic trick, the longest story I ever wrote appeared.

I like the characters, I hope you do, too. "H." was similar to hundreds of models I saw wandering around during that half-year. My work was right next to the Fasion Institute of Techonolgy in the Chelsea district of Manhattan and I would get off a stop or two early to walk past the school. It was the summer.
(*blush*)

"Hayden" is my character lost in an Angela Carter novel. I was starting to read her at this point and his character and voice were totally steeped in her kind of reality. The religious stuff was mostly me, though.

"M.C" is very much like me. Kid from the Bronx - skewed perspective on life. You get that in a big city like NYC. You're always surrounded by all these different kind of realities that it's hard to fit in anywhere. He's a loner - but he's open to others, whether to love or admire to hate. These are all very easily accessible emotions for him. Violence, drugs, they aren't glamorous, they are the business of the day. His reality is based on HBO's "The Wire" series which I loved during this period of time. That show is a tough, real look at street life, cops, and drugs. I tried to do it justice.

And the less said, especially at this point, about "Messenger" the better. I'm just glad I never showed this story to anyone in the faculty of my school.

:)