Thank you - I appreciate the response. I also came across the other site during my searches - it was published there originally on Aug. 18th, 2010, the day after it was first posted to Nifty. I had some hope when I saw the "updated" date, but it seems a lot of other stories on that site were also "updated" on the same day - a site migration perhaps?
Anyway, I guess the best I can do now is to see if the author responds from either of his 2 email addresses. I've tried Google searching for similar writing styles, common phrases, etc., but nothing so far. If anybody else has other input, I'm here to listen.
Thank you again.