weird. just got an email from a friend (slightly long-lost, but maybe more slightly misplaced for a time) who had read a story of mine that was 'loosely modelled' on a period of time we spent together.

i went back and read it. ouch.

this is the problem - i tend to loosely model most of my writing on actual experience...call me crazy, but it seems to work. not that any of it is strictly autobiographical, it's usually a pastiche of people, places and events. it gets tricky then, when friends identify themselves in my work and are not necessarily thrilled with the representation.

just rest assured, if it ever happens to you and i'm the one who wrote it, i'm sorry if i caused offence and i really understand that the event didn't really happen that way, and that you never owned a blue dress and that you don't even like coffee. you can take whatever cautionary lesson you'd like out of it, or just reject it altogether, I don't mind.

but what did you think of the story? :)

ah, j, i'm glad you read it. i miss sparring with you.