Prologue
This documentation, sincerely told through a story, is my inherent search to be free. As decades compile through addition to sum up the simple word life, there seems to be clutter along the fray. Stragglers occupying shelves and rooms, sneaking throughout my thoughts during moments of solitude. It would seem that nostalgia knows where to find me. Yet as I categorize each fragment, dripping with its own name and a full persona, I slowly identify each intruder within myself. A knowledge that becomes the flint I dream will erupt new flames surrounding daily routine. And as I loosen my grip on the past and imprint each ghost into a story, I notice freedom.
I dedicate this book to the very real cast of my life. My partner, my friend, my plant, and my family. Thank you for the collection of scenes I hold dear. For life is a movie, always.
Forest City Shoreline Concept
I have chased an aesthetic that defines life with two basic words, beautiful and haunting. For a while I guessed that science fiction would prove as a useful setting, allowing a blank canvas to illustrate both feelings. I have imagined a setting where an ocean, later turned lake, collides with a forest. Viewing the collision with a film noir aesthetic, placing emphasis on antique amber lighting, simple technology, and the idea of two worlds living next to each other, Forest City Shoreline was conceived. Fog, traveling by canoe to little patches of sunken land, life on and off of the water, all surrounded by large evergreen trees tell my story. Please enjoy my decision to storytell about all of life’s gory little details.