Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
2002.07.22 : THE SCOOP
"There is something in a man that rebels against too-great constraint and the rebellion is fitful: Suddenly, one day, the traces are too tight and every hour of the day is programmed and one is inextricably entwined in the expectations of others, so you panic, like a trapped animal, and you extricate yourself, maybe tearing off a limb in the process, for the simple pleasure of freedom. The freedom to get on any train and see where it goes. The freedom of silence. The freedom to re-create yourself."
- Mr. Blue (aka Garrison Keillor)
More Reasons Why
  1. The Bay Area's been completely spectacular for me. I've earned a bit of money, learned a great deal about computers and startups and venture capital, experienced both the Internet Boom and subsequent Bust from its epicenter (Silicon Valley), made a couple of amazing friends I trust and fervently hope I'll keep for life, taken a bunch of great bike rides, devoured the food and theater and sights and other innumerable blandishments of San Francisco, made up a lot of ground after a late onset of the travel bug, completed two works of book-length fiction, beaten two "incurable" diseases (ulcerative colitis and manic-depression), had one really amazing relationship (and one romance-of-a-lifetime). (*) But five years just about tops me off. Thanks for everything, Bay Area. I'll always love you.
  2. I'm typically way too attached to my own comfort and convenience. I think it's probably important to wrench myself away from my DSL, and afternoon fruit frappes in the European courtyard downtown, and nice multiplex just down the road, and nearby pretty running trails in the foothills, and well-worn cycling routes, and 68.4-degrees-sunny-breezy-and-cool, walking to my grocery store/post office/polling place/dentist, having all my books and framed pictures and prints all snugly arrayed around me, and this whole meticulously crafted little lifestyle – most of the amenities of which I've convinced myself I can't live without.
  3. If 1 and 2 turn out to have been terrible ideas, after all – I can always turn back around, and all of that stuff will still be right here. (And I'll at least know I'm here for reasons other than simple inertia.)
  4. Working independently means being able to work from anywhere. (Or, to paint a more balanced picture, not work from anywhere.)
  5. I figured out it's actually cheaper to trek in Africa, than to SIT in Palo Alto. (Plus, if I sit here underemployed, and continue to bring my cash reserves down, eventually I'll be trapped into getting another jobby job – which I'm very keen to avoid. So, I'm going to tack while I've still got a little room to maneuver.)
  6. It would have been depressing to me to see the 4-year mark in this same apartment. Since I'm definitely moving out of it, it makes some sense to not really move into anywhere for at least a little while.
  7. Note to Mandy: You're right.
  8. For now, I've got the three key ingredients for going off on a major lark: • Health • [A bit of] Money • Freedom. I should git while the gittin's good.
  9. Perhaps my destiny is out there, just waiting for me to get off my tail . . .

Oh, Yeah, and What Exactly Am I Doing Anyway? (aka THE SCOOP)

I'm closing out my apartment, putting all my stuff in storage, bidding the Bay Area adieu, and flying Back East™. There, I'm going to spend a couple of months "couch-surfing"; working on a few projects; going to my best friend's wedding; and performing my seemingly bi-annual maneuver of gallivanting up and down the Eastern Seaboard, visiting with friends and family. Then, on my birthday (Oct 28), I fly to Cape Town, and a few days later leave on a 45-day overland tour through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya. I'll fly out of Nairobi in time to be in Atlanta for the holidays. There, I said it. Sorry for being coy, but for some reason I've just gotten kind of averse to grand pronouncements lately . . .


  bay area     change     mandy     my exodus     freedom     travel     africa     life choices  
about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
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