“Ready for lunch?” Dashiell asked.
“Shouldn’t we be interviewing your contacts, Dash?”
“Hey, they have to eat too,” he pointed out.
“Fine. Any ideas?”
He pointed across H at a set of stairs heading to a door about five feet above the street. The sign in the window said “Eat First.” It advertised a lunch special for $5.95.
Dashiell shook his head. “Not at all. Best deal in the city. Good food at a reasonable price. Never have to wait for a table and the service is fast.”
She shrugged. “Lead on.”
He headed across H and up the stairs, holding the door for her. She led the way in, indicating two when the hostess asked how many. They were seated at a table in the window and ordered drinks.
Having been here several times before, Dashiell knew what he was having. Same thing he always had. He was a creature of habit.
He looked across at
She finished reading the menu about the time the waitress came back with Dashiell’s Diet Coke. They each ordered. She had the General Tso’s shrimp with white rice. He had the sweet and sour chicken with fried rice.
“So you ever get tired of the gumshoe’s life, Dash?”
“Haven’t we covered this ground at some point?”
“No, actually. I don’t think we ever have.” She took a sip of her water. “I mean, I know you used to work for the Bureau, before they shut it down. But you could have transferred to another agency. The FBI for example.”
“No,” he disagreed, shaking his head. “They already had Mulder and Scully working their spook cases.”
She snorted.
“Seriously though, when they shut us down, it became apparent any work I did wouldn’t be dealing with the occult. And someone has to do that kind of work. Just because the current Administration doesn’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s going away.” He drained about half of his drink. “With the Government out of the picture, that leaves a thriving private sector.”
“You really like working for yourself?”
The waitress came up to the table and dropped off their food. Dashiell prepared to take his first bite.
“It’s great. But my boss is a real asshole.”
Next>
6 comments:
I was reading your blog and my thing there wasn't working, so I'm commenting here.
I like your tongue-in-cheek reference to Xfiles, that acknowledges the homage without making a big deal about it, and makes it seem like you're definitely going to do your own thing, which is smart/awesome.
I am pleased to be your "first reader" because that's one of the best things to be. Anyone can like something once it's popular, and jump on the bandwagon. But to be the one who knew before anyone else that it was good, well, that's made of win.
As a sidenote -- how did you pick No man an Island to put in your blogroll? I'm honoured, but until I suggested it you weren't leaving comments, and the ones you've left are mostly on early chapters.
p.s. You're not in my blogroll because I'm in yours, by the way. You're in my blogroll because you're a good writer and deserve support. Plus, now we're having conversations, which is cool.
Gavin,
I'd been looking over your blog for a while, after seeing links over at ToMu. Yours is one of the only other web-novels I've seen (I need to start going through others on Pages Unbound), but I've actually only read the early chapters so far. Since we're both engaged in the same enterprise, I figured we should support each other. And, I've really liked what I've read so far.
The reason I was holding off on commenting is because I am so far behind, and I wasn't sure you'd find comments on the earlier chapters useful, so I was waiting to play catchup. But after doing this, and hearing from you, I realize comments are useful at all stages of the process.
So each day I try to read a few chapters, until I catch up with where you are now. But I'm really enjoying it.
hey allan,
It's cool -- I just wondered how you found me, when other than AE, I was the only writer in your blogroll. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
For me, the whole reason to post a story is to interact with the commenters. I get emails that tell me when you've posted on an early chapter, so it's fun for me to check back and see.
A dream come true would be to have commenters dialoguing on a chapter together, like in ToMU, but that means everyone would have to be a) checking back on previous comments or b) reading the same chapters together. I don't have an audience that big.
However, apparently to get the 200 comments ToMu gets, you need 10 000 visitors. I get perhaps 5 comments from 100 visitors, so I get 5% and ToMu only gets around 2% of its readers commenting.
If I'm your only reader, you're getting 100% audience participation, so that's pretty cool. :)
haha - take that Lexy! ;)
Although I think I'd trade in a lower percentage for more readers. But you gotta start somewhere. :)
And I'll try and start more dialogue once I get caught up.
Your story has potential I think. I'd like to hear more about the right foot since that seemed to be a big deal in chapter one.
Mostly agree with what gavin said.
Found you on No Man An Island.
Keep up the good work.
sonja,
Thanks for dropping by. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Good eye on the right foot. It will be coming up later, I promise.
I hope you'll stick around and join Gavin in commenting. I'm always happy to hear from readers.
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