Previously, on Hidden City...

10/31/1999: scary stuff

So we've registered a domain name. It would be the proper thing, I imagine, to talk a bit about how we labored for months, agonizing over the decision to use hiddencity.net as our first formal site. But those would be more than just lies, they would be damnable lies. Truth is, we waited too damned long, and all the good, easy names are taken by squatters. HC isn't too bad, though, and I suspect it'll grow on me.

For the curious, here's how we arrived at the name. We wanted to use something fictional, and literary. We also want to cover a lot of territory here, so a city metaphor seemed appropriate. Off the shelf comes our battered copy of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, to provide a little inspiration. Sadly, while it was inspiring (and a great way to kill a few hours), anything in that temperate zone between "literary but obscure" and "recognizable but banal" was already registered. Secret City turned out to be a porno site, so it was Roget's to the rescue. A legend is born...

I'm really rather astounded that Hidden City has survived so long. Death and divorce, heartbreak and hospitals, love and loss and magic and marvels and all the other components of our complex lives — it's all been a part of the City. I could no more stop writing than stop breathing, and I consider myself fortunate to have found a channel to bring me such a marvelous audience. Unfortunately, the self-imposed obligation to keep writing — to put something out there as often as possible for those of you generous enough to visit — well, it's been an emotional drain sometimes. There have been plenty of times I've wanted to hang it up, shut down the site and move on to a more normal life, just working and watching television and drinking, to finally give up on this muse-spawned madness.

And you know, seven years is a long time, almost forever in Internet years. Perhaps this is the right moment to start driving away, watching Hidden City recede in my rear-view mirror.

But no. I would be fooling myself to think letting go of the site would change anything. The same restless curiosity and relentless creative urge that make a shambles of my attempts at a normal life won't evaporate with a final sign-off here. At best I would get a brief reprieve from my sense of duty, but it wouldn't take long for my in-born and unquenchable story-telling drive to start keeping me up nights, searching for a way to spin yarns for the world.

So I'm staying put. Whatever industrial-strength weirdness may come a-calling, where ever my nocturnal wanderings may take me, you'll be able to find me here, in Hidden City.

Thank you for being a part of it.