And I guess I'll kick it off:
“Nobody’s Wife” was inspired by/a retelling of the Leonard Cohen song “Famous Blue Raincoat”, with a twist for Fantasy Feeder. If you’ve never heard the song, the conceit is that the writer is up at four in the morning, writing a letter to his (literal or figurative) brother. It tells a melancholy story that suggests a love triangle involving his wife and this other figure, with maybe a redemption at the end.
The story picks up where the song ends, with Lawrence and Jane living in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1970/1971. They don’t speak much about the season that Jane spent away from Lawrence, living with the enigmatic Paul in California. She came back to Lawrence, that’s all that matters. She came back happier—and heavier. Their marriage had a spark again, but as winter grew long and the days grew shorter, Jane became distant again.
If Lawrence brings Paul back into their lives, will Jane return to him again? And will she gain again? That question fascinates him.
I really loved writing this story. I had wanted to write something based on Famous Blue Raincoat for a while, since it asks so many questions and doesn’t give any answers (which is what makes it such a great song). I think it’s just such a great mood to write in. I also loved writing in NYC in the early 70’s. I had some touchstones through other books, music, and movies (Patti Smith’s Just Kids was probably the biggest help, and I was able to get Patti and Robert Mapplethorpe into a scene in the background), but I did a lot more research than I thought I was going to. It was all fun, trying to find out if certain buildings were there or built later, planning out some walking routes and what you would have seen 55 years ago, stuff like that. Fashion was fun and tricky.
The characters are all pretty broken, but in different ways. I guess that’s what I write, though. Paul was fun to write, something of a bullshit artist who probably used to be better at selling his bullshit. I think there’s something interesting about Jane, too. She has scenes where you see her passion and sensuality, and other scenes where she’s tired of it all. I think that’s human.
So, I hope you check it out and all the other stories! To plug something I’m working on now, I have a premium story called 🔗“
The Wind Blows High”🔗 that I’ve been working on for WAY too long (I’m sorry to everyone following along!). It’s another period piece, just more recent. Summer/fall 1996. It starts off at a Phish show where the MC is spun out and separated from her pack. She ends up on a cherry red bus, getting talked down and preached to by a slick character who takes in troubled tour kids like her. The seeds are planted for her to give up her old life and join their commune. It’s primarily a horror/suspense story. Trying to do weekly chapters, it’s more like every 2 weeks.
