I keep returning to my late afternoon walks of last year.
Let’s rewind.
I have a new story out, one I’m pretty proud of, called Goodneigbor.com, in the current Dark Moon Digest #44. This was written at the beginnings of my exploration of what I like to think of as my own personal genre: suburban horror. Menace hiding in the guise of the trappings of everyday life, and seemingly ordinary objects.
The story is a parody of the Nextdoor app, a social media app that allows homeowners living in the same area to exchange information and interact socially. Most of the posts concern lost pets, HOA rules, suspicious characters in the neighborhood, offers of work.
I like my neighborhood, and I like my neighbors. I like suburbia.
The story is built on a simple premise. What if you noticed something larger going on in your neighbors’ posts? A phenomenon that is not revealed by any one post, but one that only rears its head after reading several posts, deep into the threads, over a period of months. What secrets hide in the everyday rhythms of suburban life?
An interesting quirk I noticed in trying to ape the style of social media on Nextdoor is this: everything turns into an argument. Almost against my will, when I started to create a fictional social media thread, I’d start with the post, and immediately I’d start writing fictional responses that were hostile and argumentative. At first I thought this was a flaw in the story, until I workshopped it a little and discovered this was everyone’s favorite part! And not only was it liked, but as I perused Nextdoor, I realized it was accurate: most posts DID devolve into arguing.
I instinctively made the Goodneighbor.com posts argumentative because I had so ingrained those social media dynamics they emerged naturally.
Which brings me full circle to my walks of last year.
It was a weird time. My Dad had died earlier in the year. I’d been diagnosed with a very mild heart condition and told by my doctor to take walks. I’d applied for early retirement but I was still working. Covid was in full bloom, no vaccine, the mask culture wars raging. Most importantly: the 2020 election was months away, and sucking all the air out of the proverbial room.
Trump flags everywhere. American flags everywhere. No Biden flags, or even yard signs. And as I’d shut down my work computer, grab a bottle of water and step out into the leaning suburban shadows of late 2020. I’d walk for at least an hour each day. I’d think about stories. I’d think about the election. I’d think about suburbia. All the while I had this sense of being on the cusp of some enormous, world-changing event. Nothing seemed quite real.
This is the mental landscape I walked through as I wrote Goodneighbor.com. And while no world-changing event has occurred in real life (other than the arrival of the vaccine and the fall of Trump), one does occur in the story.
And with that, I give you my August story: Goodneighbor.com, now in Dark Moon Digest #44.
Peace.
