Author's Address

The Townsquare Affairs – Author’s Introduction

This is a story that I haven’t touched in quite sometime. There’s probably a good reason for that. I like to tell myself that I’m a serious writer now, and serious writers do not write something like this. This is pulp noir, for that is the only title I can come up with to label this piece. But, like most pulp noir, it was fun to write, and consequently fun to read.

I originally published The Townsquare Affair chapter by chapter through email, hoping it would set off a chain letter affect and end up bypassing the slush pile of an editor somewhere and score me an publishing contract. It didn’t. But, it did draw in some readers, and I did strike up a correspondence with several people I’d never have met otherwise. So, in that regard it was a success. On top of that, I was given some helpful advice, my writing was very visual, somewhat cinematic. I was urged by a reader, who’s name has been lost in the events of the last two years, to start to write movies. While my career as a screenwriter hasn’t gotten as far as I’d like, it has taught me a great deal.

As for the story itself, I’ve written the first sixteen of what I originally planned to be twenty-four chapters. So, what I have on hand is essentially the first two acts of a three act piece. All notions of pulp aside, I did do some things with this work that I am proud of, each “Part” was eight chapters, and each eight chapters had significantly more characters than the previous. This, of course, means that the unwritten “part” has the most characters of all. Luckily, I’ve still got my notes. And also, since I’ve been so busy doing my “serious writing” recently, the prospect of writing something fun seems like a wonderful escape. And after all, that’s what writing is about, isn’t it? Writing is merely the act of escaping.

So, without further adieu, the introduction and first chapter of The Townsquare Affair.

-Brad