Tanya

People often ask me if Tanya is a real person, and if I know whatever happened to her. The short answer is that there was a friend upon whom I based the character of Tanya, and people who knew this real person will easily recognize her in my writing. But that is not to say that any of the stories I relate about Tanya are really true.

Photo by Jules

Tanya is a character that I stumbled upon by combining a real person, a friend from a different lifetime, with all of hypotheses I developed about that friend and her experience, back when I was trying to make sense of her. The real person never gave anyone anything close to all of the answers, and in the process of trying to connect the dots I created the character of Tanya as a way of understanding both her and myself, insofar as who I was when she was in my life.

As for whatever happened to her, I cannot be sure. I found some internet evidence that she might be selling real estate somewhere not so far from where I last saw her. But, as is the case with everything about Tanya, if this is so, it is just the beginning of the story. It is just as possible that she is selling real estate as that this is a cover for her CIA identity, or that this is a money laundering scheme that somehow involves the Russian Mafia. Because of this, I prefer to muse upon the Tanya character that exists in my head, whose experience could not ever possibly be as fanciful and full of mysteries as the real thing.

Below are the archives of the Tanya posts I've written. They are not for everyone. I have written them for myself and for those of you in the audience who enjoy hearing about Tanya, and have asked for more stories. Insofar as the stories have any significance at all, it is in this context. They are not a statement about the world, nor do they constitute a politics of any sort. They are fiction. Sorta. So enjoy.