DISCIPLINE - By Paco Ahlgren

THE BOOK
In 1992, I sat down in front of a computer keyboard and hammered out 60 pages of a short story that, in the end, went nowhere. I forgot about it and turned my attention to theoretical physics, modern psychology, finance and economics, philosophies of science, and eastern religions.
From 1996 to 1999, I tried to write several non-fiction treatises establishing the connections between these seemingly disparate disciplines. The operative word here is "tried," and let's make no mistake about it: I failed, and I buried the work as deeply on my hard drive as I could.
But the effort wasn't in vain; out of this maelstrom of this epistemological mess came the seeds of something I never would have expected.
In 2000, while driving from Austin, Texas to my new home in Durango, Colorado, I remembered the the short story I had started eight years earlier. I don't know what exactly brought it back to mind, but three months later, it was the raw 750 pages of the DISCIPLINE manuscript.
There was no writer's block. There were no drugs. I didn't drink. There were no workshops or classes. I simply sat in front of my computer for 16 hours a day while a constant deluge of words rushed out of me.
For those of you who have read it, you know why the story scares the hell out of me. The idea that the inspiration might derive from the very story I wrote -- that this is some sort of self-perpetuating loop -- sends a chill down my spine every time I think about it.