In a recent email conversation, a dear friend and one of the early @U2 staffers recently asked why I’m writing this book. Although this friend wasn’t part of @U2 in the latter years, she was aware of the mental trauma that led me to step away from the site and, a year or so later, shut it down.
It’s a fair question and I don’t mind answering it here in case you’re wondering the same. The short answer to “why” is pretty simple:
I don’t like how the site ended. I don’t like how the end might be perceived in U2 fandom. And I think it’s my right … and even my responsibility … to have the final say and write the site’s final chapter.
The longer answer might require a professional’s input, which is to say that I’m aware part of me might be doing this as a way to process how things ended. I’m okay with that. I began working on the book in early 2021 and managed to get about 10 pages written before I had to stop. I lost interest, but deeper things may have been at play, too.
Right now, I’m feeling very energized and want to take advantage of that as much as I can. When I resumed work on the book, I told myself to go easy and leave some doors open for things to change — for me to lose interest again. But I also told myself to start taking it more seriously if I got to 10,000 written words. That happened a couple weeks ago. So here we are. 🙂
There are some other, less important reasons why I’m doing this. One is because I think the days of fan sites are pretty much over right now, and I believe there’s value in documenting what @U2 was, what it meant to U2 fandom, and how we did it.
So there ya go. If you’ve also been wondering “why,” I hope this answers the question.
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