Thank you for downloading “Eleven Miles from Home.” I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you liked it or got something valuable out of it (all writers hope their works reach a chord with readers beyond just simple entertainment), please leave a review for it on your preferred retailer’s website, and tell others of its existence and tell them what you thought about it, and let me know what you liked about it (or didn’t like). I appreciate all feedback and support from readers. Thank you.
A Brief History: Like “Shell Out,” my previous ebook, I started “Eleven Miles from Home” late at night while on shift at the local hospital sometime in 2002, then temporarily derailed production on it due to lack of focus, then put it back on track in 2006 after several false starts and finished it for the collection of short stories, poetry, and essays I had self-published under the title Seven-Sided Dice: The Collection of Junk Volume 3.
I had originally written it as an experiment in POV narrative, to see how well I could separate my voice from the voices of the two main characters and see if I could separate their voices from each other. In the process I managed to come up with a story about miscommunication and missed opportunities, which I don’t think was my original goal. In fact, I don’t recall having an original goal. I think the story was supposed to explore the consequences of being a jerk to the people you supposedly care for, but, like all stories, it took a life of its own, and now we’ve got a story about misguided love and regretful choices. I made the decision sometime during Rachel’s first confession that it would not have the traditional happy ending. I’m not necessarily a fan of tidy endings where everyone gets what he or she wants, and that’s especially true when I’m channeling some of my own dances with bad luck during the writing process. But I’m not a fan of tragic endings or total loss, either, so that’s why the story ends how it ends.
So, that’s a brief background on “Eleven Miles from Home.” If you have questions about it, feel free to contact me and ask. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.