Confession time

 I have a confession.

Two actually.

Let's deal with the second, smaller one first. For those who know me, this hardly qualifies as a confession -- some might say it's been painfully evident for years.

I'm not all that tech-savvy.

It's been a tad more than six weeks since my last blog posting, and it's entirely because I thought I had lost access to my blog. I logged on one day, went to the dashboard, and my blog -- at least this one, my Dark Scribblings, was not there. I could see the blog on the front end, like you do, as a reader, but when I went to the dashboard, it wasn't there. A few older blogs I haven't used in years were there, but no Dark Scribblings. 

I poked around, closed it out and re-opened, tried to look up trouble-shooting guidelines, but nothing. For two or three weeks I tried multiple times, to no avail.

This past weekend I made one more attempt, with the idea I'd just have to scrap Dark Scribblings and start an entirely new blog, and it still didn't work. Then I clicked on my profile, then clicked on my picture and voila! I was in.

It's still not right -- when I go to the dashboard like I should there's no option to open the back end of my blog, but at least for now this double-clicking of other links seem to work. So for now, I'll keep blogging.

Now for my main confession.

I'm not a very good reader.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. Let's say I'm a lazy reader.

No, that's not right, either. Maybe we can just say I've not been a diligent reader.

Two of the main tenets of being a writer are to write a lot (as in every day), and to read even more. Read voraciously -- in the genre you're writing, in other genres, non-genre fiction, even non-fiction work, just anything you can get your hands on.

I was once that voracious reader. All during my childhood years, well, at least since third grade, I loved reading. I'd always get the maximum number of books allowed on weekly trips to the school library. I thought the public library was the most magical place on Earth. I'd read novels, non-fiction, short stories, magazines (Reader's Digest was a particular favorite in our household), cereal boxes, clothing tags, anything I could get my hands on. 

My reading appetite continued well into adulthood. I remember once, and I guess it's safe to say this now, 30 years after the fact, but I once called out of work "sick" because I was so engrossed in reading a novel.

Well, okay, maybe twice.

In recent years it's been a struggle to read at night, or in the morning. Or most any time.

I suppose a little context might be in order. I'm a daily newspaper editor, in a world of shrinking newsroom staffs and higher demands on newsrooms. I edit, revise, and rewrite somewhere between 10 and 30 articles and press releases a day. Sometimes more. I peruse wire stories, look over work from other editors in the company, read other papers and make my way through close to 100 emails a day (that doesn't count the ones I trash on sight or after glancing over the first couple of lines). 

Some days, the word count of all my reading might equal close to half a novel's worth of words, not to mention the time I spend editing and rewriting.

When I come home most nights the last thing I want to do is read.

I don't mean to suggest I've totally sworn off of reading fiction. Over the past eight months or so I've reread a couple of old Robert B. Parker mysteries, read THE LOOK-A-LIKE by Erica Spindler (an enjoyable murder mystery), devoured THE HOLLOW KIND by Andy Davidson (one of the better horror novels I've read in a long time), made my way through Eric LaRocca's novella and short story collection THINGS HAVE ONLY GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE, and I just finished the paranormal romance DO YOUR WORST by Rosie Danan, which was a fun read.

But that's only a half-dozen novels or novel-length works in eight months. My wife, who might be accurately described as the MAD READER, can devour nearly that many in a week, while holding a full-time teaching position.

Truth is, I miss reading a lot. There's nothing quite like getting wrapped up in a good story, losing a half-hour (or more) of sleep simply because you can't put down the book, or pausing just to think "wow" and then going back to reread a page because the writing is so sterling.

Not to mention I should be reading more to sharpen my writing skills.

So here's my plan -- starting this week, I'm going to  spend at least 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week, reading from a novel or short story collection. For now it doesn't matter much about genre, just so I'm doing the work. 

My first selection will be the one pictured a little higher in this blog -- the anthology DEATHREALM SPIRITS. I bought this last October, when it was first published, because I loved the old Deathrealm magazine. It w as quite possibly my favorite, or at least among my two favorite, magazines from back in the day.

Yet it's set on my desk since last autumn, cracked only long enough for me to read the introduction by editor extraordinaire Stephen Mark Rainey, and to look over a most promising table of comments. 

Tonight, that ends, and I'll be diving in to the first tale of the collection, GHOST IN THE CELLS by Joe R. Lansdale.

I'll keep you all posted on how the reading goes. For now, thanks for stopping by!

The Next Big Thing

Author Kate Aaron last week tagged me in her blog post, which means she passed a series of questions to me that I'm supposed to answer on my blog, and then tag other writers who do the same on their blog.

Slip on over to Kate's blog for a few minutes, peruse her answers, then come on back here and see what I have to say about my next work (I shift gears quite a bit from my horror and thriller work for this one).

And now, on to the next big thing!

What is the title of your next book?
Still working on that, although the tentative title is CHOICES.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
It's hard to pinpoint one event or idea. Over the years I've come to realize the natural results of many choices I've made over my lifetime. Some turned out okay, others were bad choices that still have an effect not only on me, but my entire family. Unfortunately, I think many of us make more bad choices than good along the way. It was that theme I wanted to explore.

What genre does you book fall under?
Inspirational/religious.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Oh, that's a though one. For my main character, Joey Reagan, I see John Stamos, although he'd need to be about 25 years younger. His sister, Amy Martin, would be played by Sarah Lancaster and his would-be girlfriend, Jessica, I think would be played by Zooey Deschanel (with a different color hair – you'll have to read the book to learn what color). As for the father, Jack, I think I'd like to see Gene Hackman play that role – not necessarily because he fits, but I can't think of a better actor.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
(Okay, I'm cheating on this and using two sentences). A series of bad choices cost Jack his family and career, and left his kids growing up alone. Years later he and his son, Joey, are faced with a chance to put aside a lifetime of hurt – can they overcome their past, or will they each make another bad decision with life-long, maybe even eternal, consequences?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?
Self-published.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your novel?
About six years. Okay, maybe not quite that long, but it was a good long time between the beginning and the finish. I started the novel several years back, got a couple of thousand words into it, then put it aside. Once I came back to it and decided to finish, it was really about a month of writing time.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
“The Christmas Box” by Richard Paul Evans or perhaps Donna VanLeire's series of Christmas novels (“The Christmas Promise,” “The Christmas Hope,” and a few others).

Who or what inspired you to write your book?
Oh boy, I hope you have some time on your hands.

Three separate events, separated by 17 years.

The first happened when I was a young reporter, way back in the dark ages (1989, I believe), three local homeless men died in a fire. The three had taken shelter in a vacant building on a particularly cold winter night, built a small fire to stay warm and some time during the night while they slept it went out of control and burned the building down. I was the reporter who drew the assignment of spending a couple of days out on the streets, talking with various homeless people, local shop owners who may have known them, trying to figure out who these guys were, what they were like, what led to this end. Turns out one of them had plenty of money in the bank – he wasn't rich, but he had close to $40,000 there. You could buy some small houses in that city for that amount of money back in those days. His family said he just got tired of life one day and left, and had been living on the streets for years.

The second event happened in 2006. I was group publisher of some newspapers and various other publications, making good money for the company, when I was asked to do a couple of things I found unethical, which I couldn't do. Pretty soon the firm I worked for decided it was time to “change things up” and “go a different direction.” My job, along with a few others, was eliminated. Up to that point I had been paid reasonably well, but I was the sole bread-winner for a family of seven and it didn't take long for us to find ourselves in pretty bad shape. For two years I did a combination of part-time work, freelance writing, selling some fiction here and there, taking a job for a small weekly publisher who ended up stiffing me on quite a bit of pay, all the while flirting with losing our rental home. Even after I found a decent job and moved to a new place, we struggled with – and to a degree continue to struggle with – some of the repercussions of those two years. True confession time here: There were times during that period when I just didn't care, I didn't see any end. I worked and worried and did what I had to do to keep my family fed and under a roof, but for me, personally, if no one else was involved I would have just walked away and ended up homeless. I came to a point where I understood what that gentlemen from years ago must have felt – sometimes, it's just easier to walk away, even if that literally means living on the street. I think readers will see some of that in CHOICES.

The final part of the “inspiration” came when I read “The Christmas Promise” by Donna VanLiere. As a writer and editor I have a terrible, awful tendency to sometimes read work by someone else and say “oh heck, I could do that,” or think “that's not really all that good.”

I don't know Ms. VanLiere and have no reason to think she would ever read my blog, but if she does I hope she'll forgive me for this next statement. When I read “The Christmas Promise” my first thought was “Eh, kinda nice, but a best-seller? No way.”

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, but I kept thinking it was too simple, maybe too much of a formula. Then I decided to write my own Christmas novel and found out it wasn't so simple. I went back and read “The Christmas Promise” again, and a third time, and realized Ms. VanLiere had done a really wonderful job of building a novel, of setting various plots in motion and bringing them together later in the work. I read her novel a fourth time, then drew upon those other two events in my life and ended up with CHOICES, although it's a bit darker than some holiday novels.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
Wow, I've already gone on way too long. Hopefully by now you're ready to read! It'll be available on Amazon.com soon – sometime between Thanksgiving and Dec. 1. You can sign up and follow my blog for more details, or sign up for my e-mail alert list by sending an e-mail to johnpeterswriter@yahoo.com Put “reader alert” in the subject line. I won't give out the address, or spam you – I'll just send out the occassional e-mail when I've got new work available.

Now it's my turn to get tagging. Carry on following the hop by checking out the authors below to find The Next Big Thing! (I'm supposed to have five writers, but it seems most of the ones I know have already been tagged, except for one writer who, ahem, seems to have misplaced his blog – if you'd like to be one, I can still add you!)

J. Heather Leigh
Stephen Mark Rainey
Michelle Garren Flye
A.J. Brown

Geocaching in the land where horror dwells

I'm really happy to be chatting with Stephen Mark Rainey today, one of the good guys of horror, although an introduction could go on and on, but I'll give you the short version. He has seen nearly 100 of his short stories in print, as well as five novels and three collections of his work. He was editor of the critically acclaimed and award-winning magazine DEATHREALM, has edited three anthologies, and is a confirmed DARK SHADOWS and Godzilla addict.

JOHN: If I recall correctly, your first published short story was “Smiert Galgalith.” That appeared in HAUNTED JOURNAL Magazine in 1987. How long had you pursued writing at that point, and can you describe what it was like to see that first story in print?

STEPHEN MARK RAINEY (SMR): Wow. That one is so old my memory of it is no doubt faulty. Prior to that, I had worked on a series of connected short stories about a giant monster called Pachacutec—which was itself based on a tale titled “Night of the Firebeast,” which I’d written in the mid-1970s, as much for my own amusement as to share with a few other daikaiju fans of my acquaintance. “Smiert Galgalith” was born out of my love for occult-based fiction and was semi-autobiographical, being based on events and the accompanying emotions of my life at the time (I had recently moved to Chicago). Naturally, the plot was driven by my then-favorite motivating premise, “what if supernatural things were real?” I recall being fairly excited when THE HAUNTED JOURNAL published it, though by that time a few other of my stories had seen print.

JOHN: Five years later you wrote your first novel, BALAK. How long before you found a publishing home for that work? Tell me what it was like to hold your first published novel in your hands for the first time.

SMR: BALAK went through at least a couple of drastic revisions before it was published by Wildside in 2000. Better that it did, too, as the original draft was dreadful. In the mid ’90s, a relatively decent draft made the rounds at all the big publishers, of course, and it actually received a lot of positive feedback. One well-known publisher made a tentative offer on the book... and then proceeded to vanish from the face of the earth. That was fairly upsetting. But based on the feedback I’d gotten, I revised it yet again and sent it to Wildside, who picked it up. Of course, it’s a PoD title, but it’s been selling steadily over the years, and I’ve made a reasonable sum from it. It’s just taken a bit longer than if I’d gotten a big advance up front, heh heh. Now, DARK SHADOWS: DREAMS OF THE DARK (HarperCollins, 1999), which I co-wrote with Elizabeth Massie a few years later, actually came out before BALAK. Still, it was all very cool.

JOHN: Can you tell us a little about what moved you to write initially, and how your motivation has changed—if it has changed—over the past 25 to 30 years?

SMR: I’ve loved reading since I was a little kid, and back in those dark ages, everything I read—or watched on television or at the movies—inspired me to write stories of my own, though they were essentially pastiches. Most everything I read or watched was of the scary persuasion, of course, and so I was naturally inclined to move in that direction with my own creative works. I still enjoy the scary stuff, as one might surmise. Of course, as I’ve gotten older, the things that get under my skin have changed, and my writing has evolved to reflect that fact. For instance, it’s harder for me now to focus purely on supernatural themes without giving certain reality-based subjects equal time. To me, the ideal story is one that successfully combines the real with the unreal and you don’t—or barely—notice a transition. I still find it difficult, not to mention undesirable, to abandon supernatural-based fiction altogether. While I have no real belief in the supernatural or trappings of the occult, exploring possibilities within that realm, and doing it convincingly, remains an endless, exciting challenge.

JOHN: In 1987 you began a ten-year effort to edit and publish the award-winning DEATHREALM magazine. I have to say, that was one fine publication—when I first moved to Martinsville, Va., your hometown, I stumbled across the magazine at a book store there and fell in love with it (in fact, I still have two or three editions around the house). Editing and publishing a magazine is such a different skill set than writing, what prompted you to make that leap?

SMR: Lord, I don’t know. Insanity, delusions of grandeur. Something like that. I remember being terribly dissatisfied with so many publications I picked up, be they small or big press. “Jezus, I could do better than this in my sleep!” You know, that kind of thing. I think I decided to put my mettle to the test—to see if I actually could do better in my sleep. Problem was, once I started, sleep became more and more elusive...especially once DEATHREALM got big enough to become more than a one-man job.

JOHN: Not to dredge up any bad memories, but what made you decide to give up the magazine?

SMR: The single most significant factor was Fine Print Distributors going bankrupt. They owed DEATHREALM a substantial amount of money, and even though the magazine kept going for a few issues afterward, it was just too big a bite to shrug off. After a decade of producing the beast, I wasn’t willing to increase my workload to take up the slack, and my publisher, Malicious Press (a partnership consisting of screenwriter Terry Rossio and author Lawrence Watt-Evans), quite understandably, wasn’t interested in spending additional money to keep things going. As it stood, I was already putting in considerably more time, energy, and resources running the business of DEATHREALM than editing and producing it. It was more than a full-time job on top of my full-time job. Something had to give, and DEATHREALM was it.

No, I don’t have any current plans to resurrect it.

JOHN: DARK SHADOWS. You have a well-documented fascination with the old ABC series, and you’ve had the good fortune to be involved in a few DARK SHADOWS projects, including the aforementioned mass market paperback DARK SHADOWS: DREAMS OF THE DARK, which you co-wrote with Elizabeth Massie. Most recently you’ve been doing audio plays set in the world of DARK SHADOWS. Tell us a bit about that process. (How it is different than writing a short story or novel? How did the opportunity to do this present itself?)

SMR: Back in 1998, Beth Massie had learned that HarperCollins’ intended to release a series of DARK SHADOWS novels. Beth had worked with the editor before and was very keen on the project. I happened to be the biggest DARK SHADOWS fan she knew, so she called and asked if I might be interested in collaborating on a novel. When I stopped screaming in excitement, I said, “Sure.” I pretty much had a plot finished by the time I got off the phone with her. It was a long and involved process drafting a story that both HarperCollins and Dan Curtis Productions would approve, but it finally happened. In the end, it’s proven to be a popular novel, and while getting it done was rigorous, to say the least, it was one of my favorite adventures in the land of horror writing.

Writing the audio stories has been enjoyable as well. When I began the process, they gave me a sample script, and I just followed that format when writing my own. The trickiest part was probably getting the scripts wrapped up in X number of pages to fit the prescribed running times. It’s particularly fun to hear the dramas performed by the actual actors from the show. Had I known anything like that was going to happen when I was a kid watching DARK SHADOWS, I would have had a heart attack and died and thus never gotten to write the DARK SHADOWS dramas. That would have been bad, I guess.

JOHN: Where can people find these?

SMR: The easiest way to pick them up is straight from the Big Finish Productions’ website. You can order the dramas on CD or download them. Visit http://www.bigfinish.com/Dark-Shadows.

JOHN: Okay, let’s move away from writing for a bit. I know from your Facebook posts, as well as your blogs, that you are a big geocacher (if that’s a proper term). Can you describe exactly what geocaching is, and its attraction to you?

SMR: Basically, geocaching is a high-tech scavenger hunt. Someone hides a container; anything from a big old ammo can to a magnetic nano (about the size of a pencil eraser). They can be hidden in just about any public area—from hiking trails in the wilderness to urban parking lots—but my favorites are the ones out in the woods. Using a hand-held GPS device, the hider records the latitude/longitude coordinates of the hidden container and then posts those coordinates and a cache description on the geocaching website (www.geocaching.com). Other geocachers enter those coordinates into their own GPS and go out to hunt the thing. Some are quite easy to find; others present all kinds of mental and physical challenges. I’m especially fond of caches that have me climbing trees, going down in wells, following trails of reflectors through the woods at night, that kind of thing. (There’s plenty of inspiration to be found in this sport for writers of scary stories. Elizabeth Massie has also taken up geocaching, by the way.) It’s been a great thing for me. It got me to quit smoking, lose a bunch of weight, and visit intriguing locations all over the country that I would never have known about otherwise.

JOHN: Favorite vampire not named Barnabas Collins.

SMR: Hmm. At the moment, I’d probably say Damon Salvatore on THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, which, along with TRUE BLOOD, has become my new vampire addiction.

JOHN: Favorite modern television show.

SMR: I’d probably have to say THE VAMPIRE DIARIES because it’s essentially the only broadcast show I turn the TV on for. It’s about the closest thing to DARK SHADOWS since DARK SHADOWS. I’m pretty fond of DEXTER as well.

JOHN: Favorite pre-1990 television show not named DARK SHADOWS.

SMR: THE OUTER LIMITS, I expect. And maybe KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, which I absolutely loved as a young’un. I’ve been watching them all again on DVD in recent days, which has been a treat.

JOHN: Favorite restaurant—you can either give me a specific name, or a favorite type of restaurant.

SMR: Japanese (primarily sushi) and Thai food are at the absolute top of my list. There are quite a few of both in this area that are fabulous. I recently discovered a restaurant called Izakaya Sushi Republic near here, in Greensboro, which had some of the best sushi I’ve ever had.

JOHN: You’re stranded on an island. All you have is a wide screen color television, DVD player, a popcorn popper with plenty of popcorn and butter, and a nearly endless supply of your favorite beverage. Maybe a recliner, too. If you had to choose just one—would you have with you the entire DARK SHADOWS series collection, along with the movies and the 1991 mini-series or a full collection of Godzilla movies (the American and Japanese versions)?

SMR: Wow. Some choice. In some respects I’d prefer the Godzilla movies, but with 1,225 episodes of the original DARK SHADOWS, it would last longer. Not to mention that every second of every Godzilla film is already indelibly imprinted on my brain. If my sequestered existence was going to be a lengthy one, I’d probably go with DARK SHADOWS.

JOHN: Speaking of islands, Ginger or Mary Ann (any readers under age 40 probably have no idea what that’s about)?

SMR: Yes, please.

JOHN: A DARK SHADOWS movie is due out later this year, starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins. Are you thrilled and can’t wait, dreading its release, or something in between?

SMR: I’d like to say I’m thrilled, but at best, I’m merely curious at this point. From the pics I’ve seen of the production—particularly Depp’s make-up—it has all the earmarks of being played for camp. Way back when it was announced, my first impression was that Tim Burton really isn’t the best director for a project like DS. What I’d really love to see is DS made film noir-ish. Or hell, give it to the Coen Brothers! Who knows, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised, but my expectations aren’t all that high.

JOHN: Dream car—what would you be driving if money was no object?

SMR: I think so little about cars beyond my meager means that I’m hard-pressed to come up with anything more intriguing than a sporty BMW, maybe a Z4.

JOHN: Okay, back to writing. If you read some accounts, you’d think it was the end of the traditional publishing world the Mayans had predicted near the end of 2012, at least as far as print is concerned. Have you considered going the e-publish route, specifically self-publishing novels and short story collections?

SMR: I’ve thought about it. So far, not very seriously, although I do have a novella that I may yet consider e-publishing on my own, just to give it a whirl. I’ve gotten into reading a few e-books on the Kindle on my Android phone, which—much to my shock, I confess—is not even slightly uncomfortable. I haven’t broken down and gotten a larger Kindle or other reader because I just don’t want to deal with another freaking device. I suppose I’d like it well enough, but it’s not a high priority for me. Naturally, I still love my paper books. I’m not an avid book collector, but I do like having all those titles on my bookshelves. I like browsing brick-and-mortar stores more than online, at least for reading matter. Granted, there is a lot to be said for the convenience of e-books.

JOHN: What can we expect to see from you over the next year or two? Any projects coming out now?

SMR: The past three years or so have been pretty weird for me. I’ve done some writing, certainly, but life has taken me down roads I never could have begun to foresee. My wife of 23 years and I separated in late 2009, and this past year, the divorce was finalized. Relatively speaking, it was all pretty amiable; still, it’s a traumatic thing, to say the least. We had a lot of years invested in each other. But after the separation, we both got involved in new relationships—which seem to be the ones we’re both -meant- to be in at this point in our lives. I’ve dedicated everything I’ve got to make this one all it can be, and so far, I can’t imagine anything better. Of course, I’ve taken up geocaching, which keeps me physically active. Unfortunately, having a full-time day job at the computer and writing most of the night leads to a hellishly sedentary lifestyle. I couldn’t take it anymore. The down side of my most prolific writing period was that I had gained a lot of pounds, my blood pressure and cholesterol were through the roof, and I was smoking too many cigarettes. I’ve done something about all that. Although my writing output has decreased significantly, sometimes to my chagrin, I’ve never felt more fulfilled. Regardless, over the past couple of years, I’ve had some excellent book releases that I’m very proud of. Dark Regions released my short story collections OTHER GODS and THE GAKI & OTHER HUNGRY SPIRITS. Marietta Books released BLUE DEVIL ISLAND in paperback. Crossroad Press released THE LEBO COVEN and THE NIGHTMARE FRONTIER as e-books, and BALAK and THE NIGHTMARE FRONTIER as audio books. I’ve recently written a couple of Cthulhu Mythos stories for new anthologies edited by Robert M. Price, though I’m not sure of the publication schedule at this point. I’ve just finished a new short story and am plotting another. I’m still around, probably will be for longer than most people care to know about. So there.

JOHN: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us a bit today. If you want to learn more about Stephen Mark Rainey, keep up with his writing, or follow his geocaching adventures, visit him at The Realm of Stephen Mark Raney.

Sweathogs, aging, and dreams

Oh man, Epstein died.

I read those words on Facebook the other day in a post by writer extraordinaire Stephen Mark Rainey, and a quick bit of Web surfing confirmed that Robert Hegyes, who played Sweathog Juan Epstein on the 1970s television show Welcome Back Kotter, had died.

He was 60.

I think reading that sentence, that he was 60, surprised me more than his death.

I was never a big Kotter fan, not because I had anything against the show, but this was back in the days when TVs came equipped with rabbit ears and needed an antenna mounted on the roof of the house. Where I lived we received two network television stations, CBS and NBC affiliates (and on rare days when the cloud-cover was just right, a fuzzy PBS affiliate). Welcome Back Kotter, carried on ABC stations, simply wasn't available. I caught it some while visiting my sister – they had this cool thing called cable television – and I thought it was mildly funny. Welcome Back Kotter that is, not the cable TV.

Still, I have an image of Epstein, and Vinnie Barbarino, Arnold Horshack, and Gabe Kotter very much like the one in this picture accompanying a New York Times article telling of Mr. Hegyes' death. Sure, I know it's been 32 years since that showed left the airwaves, and three decades is a long time. Still, in my mind I see the people in that series just like they appeared at that time, and learning Mr. Hegyes had died, that he had grown into the beginning of his seventh decade of life before dying – it just seemed sudden and sobering. Like he had aged all at once.

Has that ever happened to you? You see an interview with some star from a series you recall from years ago, but today they are gray and wrinkled – or worse, they have died – and it strikes you in some visceral way that they are getting older.

And that means you are, too.

Which brings me to this. Aging hopefully brings with it some wisdom and understanding. Chief among that understanding is that some of those hopes and dreams you might have had when you were younger were simply unrealistic. Others, though, may still be worth pursuing, maybe even more so now with the benefit of a few years of that wisdom as part of your make-up.

That's what I'm hoping. And that's why I've started this blog, and gotten more active over at my Facebook account, because I have decided 2012 is the year to return to a few of those dreams of my youth.

And make them reality.