FULL DISCLAIMER: Rather than limit myself in any way, take this as an official warning: this material is designed for adult audiences only. If you are under legal age in your place of residence, you should not access this work without your parents' permission. While most of the work is suited for any audience, parts of it may contain vulgar language, extreme violence, and/or sexual situations which may make certain people uncomfortable. If you may be offended by any of this, you should not read any of it. I will not limit my writing to keep from offending those with narrow minds or weak constitutions.

This story tells you nothing about me or my tastes except whether or not I can write an engaging story. Like writers of murder stories, I do not necessarily approve of any of the actions described herein. Any resemblance of any character to any individual, alive, dead, or yet to be born, is purely coincidental. The following story, events, and characters are entirely fictional. They are made-up, imaginary, and not real. Mostly. By reading this work, you acknowledge that you have read the full disclaimer. As always, I may go back and edit what I've written, so you will see a revision date at the top of each posting. I am a perfectionist and a revisionist and my story is never really done, as you have learned over the years.

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I hope you like what's here and I thank you for your time in coming here and reading what my characters and I have to say. I really love comments, suggestions, and even criticisms, so please feel free to send me feedback. The only thanks and encouragement an author gets is when you take the time to write. That being said, a special word of thanks goes out to those who have written and offered words of support and encouragement. I take my time writing, because if you aren't feeling motivated, it just doesn't come out very good; so, if you want to see me write more quickly, drop me a note and say something to motivate me. I answer all mail. Flames will be cheerfully ignored, but constructive criticism is welcome. Please, write me at writebymyself@aol.NOSPAM.com (remove the NOSPAM to reply). Special thanks to my proofreaders. If you want to know about me, try my website. I have a notification list and if you'd like to receive an e-mail when the next chapter is submitted, just write me and ask to be added! Names on this list are not sold, bartered, traded, loaned, or distributed. You will get mail only with major announcements, such as chapter postings. Lastly, if you'rea professional publisher or literary agent, or know one, and would be interestedin publishing my works, please write me directly -- I will be in your debt.

Welcome back to the world of Alexander Maitland. Many people have written me, most demanding a sequel. I have declined to write a sequel because no sequel ever lives up to the original. However, that doesn’t mean a return visit to this popular world is out of the questions. Even so, I had resisted this heavily for many years.

The only reason this came to fruition is I was in my car and this idea hit me so hard that I decided to say "fuck the permanent hiatus" and I whipped something out -- a draft and asked a few people to give it a look-over. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, so then I wrote eight (8) drafts of the first chapter which probably earned me the enmity of my editor (but he's got my undying thanks) because I wanted this to be "just so" and it finally passed muster. Then, I posted that as “Untitled Reader Surprise” figuring it would be best to throw it out as a proof-of-concept and see what people thought.

The response was thunderous. And, since I have a valid idea, I thought I’d run with it. We’ll see how far I go. My goal is to post one chapter a month until finished. I do not believe this will be as long as my original epic work, but I could be wrong. My character are famous for thwarting my intentions.

So, I re-wrote the first chapter again which is what you’ll see first. There are some important changes, so you probably ought to re-read it. After that I decided to make everyone wait a month or so in order to give myself a head-start. As I write this, I am working on the third chapter. I hope to be done the fourth, before this work goes public.

This December, I plan on taking a research trip to London. I suppose that’s a spoiler of sorts, but perhaps it’s a welcome one for my readers.

Further, many of you have expressed a desire for a specific sort of ending. Dream on. I know the mechanics of how it will end, but the characters themselves will determine the details when I get there. I have repeatedly maintained that a character must remain true to himself/herself and, whether or not you liked the ending of Alone With Myself, you must admit: the characters behaved exactly as one would expect. I love my characters deeply because they are composites of people I know and interact with, and I will not sell them short.

And, I’m serious: this is not a sequel.