MY BONNIE: Here We Go Again

If you're going to make a promise in your blog, you really ought to keep it. I mean, even if only three people are reading it, that doesn't make it any less of a public declaration. Do the right thing. Be true to your word.

At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Which is why I'm here now to be true to my word. I said I was going to finish that book I was writing. I said I was going to start re-printing the first chapters, and then the new material would follow shortly thereafter. Well, dammit, I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. So let's do this thing.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present Chapter One of Dead Men Are A Girl's Best Friend.

The new page is still under construction, so with any luck, it'll look much better by the time we get to Chapter 2 or 3. But for now, it has all the words, so that ought to be enough.

Bonnie's story originally began unspooling in early 2003. Dave Gilley wanted to create a section of the old ImprovChicago website that was devoted entirely to the creative efforts of members of the Chicago improv community. I volunteered to write a serial novel, similar to the efforts of Charles Dickens or Stephen King's The Green Mile, except that I couldn't guarantee that kind of quality. I'm not sure what I had in mind, but it seemed like a fun challenge to tell a story where I wasn't at all sure of the ending. Dave agreed enthusiastically, and I was off.

The best part about this first chapter was that, among those few people who read it, they were really surprised. I think I achieved one of my goals, which was to write something that didn't seem at all like me. I haven't read nearly enough Hammett or Chandler to have the whole hard-boiled noir thing quite nailed, but I had my own little variation on it, and it worked pretty well.

I will try not to overburden these chapters with comment. After all, I should be spending my time writing them, not writing about them. But I'm proud of what has come so far (which you'll be seeing in the coming weeks), so I feel like I owe it to this story to see it through.

Happy reading.