In 1988, Channer moved to Atlanta, where he lived for three years, working as a magazine journalist. He returned to New York in 1991 after undergoing a cornea transplant to save his failing eyesight. He began writing his first novel on speculation, then attempted to get it sold. In this time, he worked as a freelance copyeditor in various design firms and advertising agencies. He also wrote a collection of short stories and a screenplay without guarantee that any of them would be released. Two of the short stories were anthologized in "Soulfires". In 1998, the novel was published as "Waiting in Vain", which was selected as a Critic's Choice by "The Washington Post" and hailed as a clear redefinition of the Caribbean novel. The novel, whose main characters were Jamaican, dealt with contemporary issues of class and identity in a multicultural context. "Waiting in Vain" was also excerpted in "Hot Spots: The best erotic writing in Modern Fiction", which placed Channer in the company of writers such as Russell Banks, E. L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, and David Foster Wallace. "Time Out New York" also selected this award-winning book as Book of the Summer.