Exile: the Camp NANOWRIMO project, Part 1

It stands out in my memory as the first time I went into a store specifically to buy a notebook for a specific purpose. I was driving from Boulder to Littleton. It's a long drive. I took HWY 93 out of Boulder to Golden. In Golden, I got on 6^th, and then took a small jog to Colfax staying there briefly. I went through Morrison, got on C470 to Bowles, maybe, I can't really remember. All I know is that I lived in Boulder and I worked in Littleton. It was on this long drive that I first conceived of a story that consumed the whole drive. When I got to work, a franchised picture framing outfit in a strip mall, I went into the Kmart next door and bought a notebook. It was a cloudy day, I remember that much. It was the spring, late April or early May 1993.

I can't remember much more about all of it. What happened was that I started to write this story in a spiral notebook since this was still three years before I discovered the composition notebook. Shortly after I began to write this story, I left the frame shop and started working at the Health Department. I wrote on this story at work, if I can admit to it. I wrote a lot during the two years I worked a the Department of Health. It was a very boring job and no one seemed to check up on me. I loved writing there because it was without distraction and I really felt like I was getting away with something. And the story I began while on a drive from Boulder to Littleton, I later named The Exile and for years I considered it a novel.

Funny thing, it isn't a novel, nor was it ever. Another funny thing, I never read it. Yet another funny thing, I bought a computer sometime later and it sat on a desk in the dining room of an apartment I shared with my girlfriend at the time and she typed the story. I didn't even do the second draft.

I have opened up and updated the file over these last thirty years, even if I have never read it. It was typed in WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. I later updated that to MS Word. And years later when I left Word for Open Office, I opened the file up and updated it again. To the best of my recollection, I have never read it. It's about 17,000 words, 76 pages, double spaced and in courier 10pt font. And that's all I know.

Due to the success of the April Camp NaNoWriMo project, The Cataract I decided to rewrite this story as well. It's my desire to triple the size, make it a complete novel, something I can really call a novel. And I hope it proves to be a fascinating look into 1993.