So... some of you older folk may remember me from back in the day when I was a Hopeful on here. I went by StevieQGray back then (we're talking about 2006 when I first submitted a set). Anyways, I was a pretty active member of the SG community for a few years, and then... well... life got in the way, I guess.
I had some pretty bad back problems, which got better, then worse, then finally got fixed when I had surgery, and my spine now more or less works like it ought to. Along the way, I got hooked on morphine, quit it cold turkey (after five years of heroic doses - interesting), got hooked on codeine and then quit that sensibly (sensibly = so I didn't nearly die).
I wrote a novel, too...
It's a very dark comedy in the transgressive fiction genre (think Fight Club, Choke, Trainspotting, Crooked Little Vein, Crash, etc...) about a failed poet with a mood disorder and an unhealthy grief fetish, and you can get it here for very few Earth Moneys. I mean, really, why wouldn't you? You'd spare a quid or two to support someone's dream, right? You wouldn't?! You lousy fucker...
Well, nevermind. I also published a collection of poems after a certain amount of prodding. I've been doing quite a lot of spoken word performance stuff this last few years, and I've been asked on a few occasions if I have a poetry book available to buy, so now I do. This too, is available to buy here, and will set you back 99c/99p.
So what else? Oh, yeah. I got married. That was pretty cool. And surprising. Most of all to me. Unbeknownst to me, my partner had been planning this shit for eighteen months, but I only found out nine days before the wedding. Which was perfect, because it meant that I didn't have to go through any of the wedding stuff I'd find stupid and pointless, like test-driving cakes or picking out seat covers. We also neglected to tell friends or family until after the event, so there were no guest lists or seating arrangements to figure out, and no relatives attacking each other over the buffet tables. The wedding itself, though small, was pretty special. The ceremony took place on the highest point of the rooftop of the Rio Hotel, Las Vegas, officiated by renowned libertarian juggler, Penn Jillette. Vows were followed up by a zipline ride to the adjacent tower block, and we then got to hang out in the Monkey Room with Penn and his lovely wife, Emily, and then witness the spectacular Penn & Teller show from VIP seats. There followed a Champagne-fuelled cruise of the strip in the company of the coolest Limo driver ever.
I think that brings us up to speed on most of what I got up to while I was away from SG.
