My Pain Is Greater Than Your Pain; My Laughter, Greater Than Your Laughter

I had just finished writing my coming-of-age, debut novel entitled Leaving Home-that highly imaginative and inspired attempt to infuse new life into an old literary form. And now that I had finally finished it, I wanted to write a sequel to it. Only... I didn't just want to write a conventional sequel. I wanted to write an "unorthodox" one. Something different. Something off of the beaten path. Basically, what I wanted to do was to describe what my life had been like on The Earth after it had finally begun to sink in that I was permanently stuck here-that I was permanently marooned here-on this only very thinly veiled lunatic asylum. After giving the matter a great deal of thought, I finally decided that I would try to accomplish this lofty, Olympian goal of mine-not by writing a single piece-but, rather, by compiling a number of pieces-stories, poetry, reflections and journal entries-into one all-embracing, comprehensive volume. In addition, the collection would have a kind of "loose" semi-autobiographical progression to it-starting at the point where Leaving Home leaves off.... Here, then, is the collection.