"Leaving Moorestown"
I recently decided to revisit a novella (too long for a short story, too short for a novel) I wrote during college, mostly to see what was on my mind thirteen or so years ago (just how angsty of a teenager was I?) and how my writing style has changed since then.
The novella is about five friends who spend the night before their high school graduation driving around their hometown in suburban New Jersey to revisit their familiar haunts and to simply spend time together before they go their very separate ways. Because I was reading a lot of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf at the time, I decided to convey the memories and anxieties of these characters through stream-of-consciousness, which I hoped would allow readers to get to know these characters intimately by letting them in on their deepest, most private thoughts.
Thirteen years later, I'm surprisingly happy with how "Leaving Moorestown" has held up, so much so that I decided to throw it up on the Kindle Shop in case anyone is interested. I had to do some stylistic clean up in a few places, but I'm still satisfied with how the stream-of-consciousness works in allowing you to get to know these characters I loved writing about so much. Their griping about Moorestown, an upper-middle class town (and yes, where I grew up), seems a bit "first world problemy" to me now, but the issues these characters face--racism, homophobia, depression, sexism--certainly are not.
What's most fascinating and worth the few hours it would take to read this novella (it's only 65 pages), is how the characters worry that the internet is crippling our ability to communicate in genuine ways. "Leaving Moorestown" is set in 2004 (I wrote it in 2005), so they're mostly talking about AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), which is incredibly quaint by today's standards and doesn't even exist anymore (it was discontinued last year). At the time, I had no idea that smart phones were just around the corner and that communication, as we know it, would change forever--for the worse I would argue. I can't remember a single time scrolling endlessly through Facebook or Instagram brought me any kind of happiness or satisfaction, and yet, how many hours have I wasted on them when I could have been writing, reading a good book, or going for a hike with my wife?
At a certain point, in talking about the internet, a character says it's so human that we created something with so much potential only for it to screw everything up. I couldn't help but think of the ways social media has been inundated with endless and mindless political memes, disinformation, and hate speech. I'm sad how right I was all the way back in 2005.
In any case, please check out "Leaving Moorestown" in the Kindle Store and enjoy. I apologize I couldn't make the price any lower than $2.99, but you can also read the book through Kindle Unlimited if you are a subscriber.
Thanks for your support, everyone!
Leaving Moorestown: A Novella
The novella is about five friends who spend the night before their high school graduation driving around their hometown in suburban New Jersey to revisit their familiar haunts and to simply spend time together before they go their very separate ways. Because I was reading a lot of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf at the time, I decided to convey the memories and anxieties of these characters through stream-of-consciousness, which I hoped would allow readers to get to know these characters intimately by letting them in on their deepest, most private thoughts.
Thirteen years later, I'm surprisingly happy with how "Leaving Moorestown" has held up, so much so that I decided to throw it up on the Kindle Shop in case anyone is interested. I had to do some stylistic clean up in a few places, but I'm still satisfied with how the stream-of-consciousness works in allowing you to get to know these characters I loved writing about so much. Their griping about Moorestown, an upper-middle class town (and yes, where I grew up), seems a bit "first world problemy" to me now, but the issues these characters face--racism, homophobia, depression, sexism--certainly are not.
What's most fascinating and worth the few hours it would take to read this novella (it's only 65 pages), is how the characters worry that the internet is crippling our ability to communicate in genuine ways. "Leaving Moorestown" is set in 2004 (I wrote it in 2005), so they're mostly talking about AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), which is incredibly quaint by today's standards and doesn't even exist anymore (it was discontinued last year). At the time, I had no idea that smart phones were just around the corner and that communication, as we know it, would change forever--for the worse I would argue. I can't remember a single time scrolling endlessly through Facebook or Instagram brought me any kind of happiness or satisfaction, and yet, how many hours have I wasted on them when I could have been writing, reading a good book, or going for a hike with my wife?
At a certain point, in talking about the internet, a character says it's so human that we created something with so much potential only for it to screw everything up. I couldn't help but think of the ways social media has been inundated with endless and mindless political memes, disinformation, and hate speech. I'm sad how right I was all the way back in 2005.
In any case, please check out "Leaving Moorestown" in the Kindle Store and enjoy. I apologize I couldn't make the price any lower than $2.99, but you can also read the book through Kindle Unlimited if you are a subscriber.
Thanks for your support, everyone!
Leaving Moorestown: A Novella
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