"Uptown Local"?

[Evangelion999]

On Young Wizards.com, in the history of publication section, there is a short story called "Uptown Local" mentioned. Is there anyway for us to read it or is it lost in an archive somewhere?

[Ardub]

It's currently available at the end of this Anniversary edition of book 1:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg.../-/0152047387/

edited to shorten URL and fix page layout. --kli

[Nathan]

...as well as at its original location in Jane Yolen's anthology Dragons and Dreams (which is currently out of print, but quite possibly available at your local library --I was able to find it at mine, at least).

For future reference, DD's bibliography is a very useful resource (though not entirely complete, unfortunately [see, e.g., my posts in the thread 'Your Favorite Book' in the 'Miscellaneous Issues' section of the forums]).

Nathan

[Evangelion999]

Hmmm...is there a way to get it with out having to buy a new copy of the 1st book ( I own three already!)

[FireWitch]

What exactly IS "Uptown Local"?

[Agent M]

It's the short story at the end of the "Special Edition" of SYWTBAW. It's really fun actually.

[Kathy Li]

very-slightly-spoilery synopsis: [<span class="ev_code_white">The short story is essentially Nita and Kit being bored out of their skulls and Tom (or maybe it's Carl) gives them tokens and tells them to go ride the subway. And they do and discover the subways connect more than one NYC.</span>]

[Agent M]

It was Tom. I like Tom.... But Carl is funnier...
Picchu!!!

[semiramis]

I constantly get them mixed up... quite aside from always wanting to call them "Tarl" or "Com" XD

...I actually dint like UL as much as the main series... it felt a bit rushed... did anyone else get the sense that it was kinda rushed? >.<

[Agent M]

Tarl and Com... *trys to contain laughter* *fails* lol lol lol

[drea]

short stories are always rushed. why do you think she turned it into a series? if memory serves, DD wrote UL before writing the first book. She just threw it in to complete her thought process. It's the beginning of two very undeveloped characters.

Of course, I've also been known to be completely wrong.

[semiramis]

drea--well, I suppose that's true, esp. if it's the first thing she wrote XD

M--even better, tarl.com!!! XD (and then there's torl and cam...)

[Kathy Li]

Er, not sure I agree with "short stories are always rushed." Short stories are a different format from a novel and require a different way of telling a story, that's true, but some go deeper and can be more intricate than a lot of novels I've read (e.g., Connie Willis's "Firewatch" or George R.R. Martin's "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr") And not all story ideas are necessarily novel or series-sized.

UL was published about three years after SYWTBAW? and a year after DW (not that that proves anything about when it was written), but to me the characters in "Uptown Local" feel as if they've already been established, not found for the first time, prior to writing the series (again, the way that Kivrin is in "Firewatch" vs. THE DOOMSDAY BOOK). I'd be really surprised if that was DD's first story with the characters. (And isn't there an internal reference to the dark NY they visit in SYWTBAW? in UL? Or is it something else that did't stick to my teflon brain?)

[Evangelion999]

Well they may seem more developed because you knew the characters before reading the story, however, the story had little development because of its shortness (the same way the "Ender's Game" novella is similar, but largely different from the novel released later).