So, why Morpheus? And why Words That Stay? Well, as most of you know, my real name is Tim. However, Morpheus seems much more appropriate for a site like this. First, get all thoughts of The Matrix out of your head. Although I love that film, that's not what I'm referring to here. Morpheus is the Greek god of dreams. Fittingly, Neil Gaiman later used it as the name of Dream of the Endless in The Sandman. I've always felt that there was a correlation between dreams and art. Most visual art seems almost dreamlike, even at its most realistic. And writing? Well, good writing often attempts to tap into the human subconscious...to show us how we view ourselves in relation to how everyone else sees us. Poetry, in specific, breaks down human emotion to its base levels, trying to recreate such emotion in us using only words. It reveals our hidden feelings and worries, things often not known to us, except when in the midst of a dream. Writing also gives us the freedom to explore, experience, and live without regards to the limitations of the real world, much like a dream. However, to strip away all pretense and stabs at credibility, a good story is a fun ride to a place you've never been before, doing things you've never done and likely never will do, through the eyes of a person you never will be. In other words, it's a dream...

As for Words That Stay, I have to credit my friend Walter on that one. The name was his idea, which I blatantly stole. (Of course, Walter stole it from Jim Henson, who used it in the movie The Dark Crystal, so perhaps I don't have anything to feel bad about.) Regardless, I think it's a great name, and Walter is a huge supporter of my site. Words That Stay is a simple way of describing writing. That's all it is, folks. When you write something down, you lessen the chance that it's forgotten immediately after you say or think it. Of course, that could be a good or bad thing, depending on what exactly you've written. I can't speak for the other writers who contribute to this site, but I know I use the backspace key more often than any other key on the keyboard. I suppose it's possible that I've deleted my Catcher In the Rye or, more likely, my Naked Lunch in the process, but I seriously doubt it.

So with that out of the way, let me offer you a brief explanation of who we are, and what we think we're doing here. Yes, my real name is Tim, and I live in Rancho Cucamonga, California. That's about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, in the area we call the Inland Empire. I've always thought that sounds so much more exciting than the area actually is. Still, it's Southern California...one could do a lot worse. I work as a freelance writer and a full-time editor for TOKYOPOP, an L.A.-based comic book company. I guess you can say I'm pretty lucky. I used to run a small Geocities website, which I called Tim's Dominion. It began as something fun to do, a sort of hobby. However, as the site developed, I really became unsatisfied with how eclectic it was. It had several regular features, and a few of them focused on writing, but quite a bit of the site was personal. That made it difficult to convince serious writers to contribute their work to my site, since for all practical purposes it was just a personal homepage.

Still, at least one thing good came out of Tim's Dominion, and her name is Strychnine. (Actually, her name is Patricia, but no one calls her that. You can call her Trych for short. If she lets you, that is...) Strychnine, who lives in Winnipeg, Canada, was running her own personal website at the time, which she called Nyghtmare. It was a predecessor to her current site, and it offered a mixture of dream analysis, gothic discussions, pictures of very cute goth girls, and occasional written tidbits reflecting Trych's unique way of looking at life. Somehow, our two paths crossed during the lifespans of our past websites, and despite our significant differences, the two of us clicked.

Long story made kinda short, I finally got tired of Tim's Dominion and dumped the whole thing. I enjoyed having a site, but decided I would be better off creating one that would focus entirely on writing. Words That Stay was born from that idea. Strychnine came on board as my partner in crime, and not too long afterwards, we were joined by Ryn.

An artist in every way, I met Ryn at an anime convention when I tried to recruit her for TOKYOPOP. She wasn't interested in drawing comic books, but oddly enough, she was interested in adding some of her writing to Words That Stay. (Actually, it's not very odd if you know Ryn, but at the time I didn't know her. And at an anime convention, it's very unusual for an artist to turn down an offer to work for TOKYOPOP.) Anyhow, a couple of years later and she's now our webmistress, thanks in no small part to her assistance in moving all the content from the now defunct wordsthatstay.net to its new home here at wordsthatstay.com.

Together, the three of us have refined Words That Stay into what you see today: a forum for promoting and encouraging young writers and alternative voices. Whether you're a writer yourself, a reader, or just someone who has found yourself here on a whim, I welcome you to explore the site and, if you're so inclined, to contribute to it. There's bound to be something here you'll enjoy. Pleasant dreams!