Despite studying

http://ficly.com/stories/19023

I couldn’t make this ficky link to “Noir: Dressing for Dinner,”

http://ficly.com/stories/36840

Advice appreciated.

I’m guessing it’s about 1938; prohibition has ended (Tugger can openly buy booze), but the poverty suggests the Great Depression hasn’t. Japan was eating up China and took Xuzhou in May 1938, per Wikipedia.

I think that the dual sequel/prequel posting thing may have been ‘fixed’ by the developers (whoever they are) – I tried it myself a while ago, but failed to make it work.

I’m deeply impressed by your WordPress summary – perhaps we needed someone with your technical skills to go back and actually make sense of the storyline. I think you may have missed one or two installments along the way, but it’s pretty much spot on in any case.

As for this, it’s great! Very atmospheric, particularly paragraph 2, with it’s queasy green puddles, and the historical detail that you throw in at the end, anchoring the story firmly in time (up to this point, I think we’ve been floating around in some vague, unspecified period between about 1925 and 1940). Nice fleshing out of the briefly sketched character of Tommy.

I think it’s a shame that you deleted your oiginal story (as it was so startlingly different), but this is an admirable substitute.

Thanks, JonB. The reference isn’t finished; I’d appreciate corrections.

It was a revelation to me that a thread doesn’t stand by itself, they’re all interrelated. “Noir” is an epic, complex work; and I’m loving reading it too.

I just read through the WordPress material and I was blown away that someone is taking a serious interest in what the four (is it now five?) of us has done so far. I don’t think any corrections are needed.

I do have some suggestions, however, so check your notes here at Ficly. I was rudely prevented from commenting over on WordPress.

The prequel/sequel thing I used a few months ago. Not recent, by any means, but that’s the timescale.

august, what wordpress material?

I just have one post about Noir in its own WordPress blog. My main blog is my home page, see my profile.

I had a bit of trouble following it, though the tone and sense of it being ‘noir’ came through nicely. Thanks for adding in.