Westbound: Starting Now

by Laura Anne Gilman

I am – as anyone who knows me well will confirm – a New Yorker. In the good ways and probably most of the bad as well. I’ve lived in the city for the past eight years, and worked there for sixteen previous, grew up with it as an everpresent beacon at my shoulder as a teenager in New Jersey. It is the city of my soul, the place where I come alive.

But a year or so ago, I started playing with the idea of taking a leave of absence from NYC, and this autumn, I decided to do it...