I’m trying to get my apartment cleaned/tidied in preparation for a move, and in that cleaning, tidying and preparation I came across several fortune cookie fortunes that for some reason I’ve never thrown away.  Maybe I’m saving them to help my friend Jeremy with his book of fortune cookie fortunes.  Maybe I saved them in hopes that some of them are or will become true.  Anyway, I’ve decided to finally throw out the strips of paper, but for everyone’s benefit, I’m sharing the contents with you all before I do.  My fortunes are now also yours.

• Change your thoughts and you change your destiny.

• A liar is not believed even though he tells the truth.
• You will meet an important person who will help you advance professionally.
• Look around; happiness is trying to catch you.
• You have an unusually magnetic personality.
• It is better to have a hen tomorrow than an egg today.
• You are a person of culture.
• Read in order to live.
• Ignorance never settles a question.
• You have a chance to help someone out right now in a big way.
• The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.
• Generosity and perfection are your everlasting goals.
• Ignorance is not fault.
• You are the center of every group’s attention.
• He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.
• You are going to have a very comfortable old age.
• You will be fortunate in the opportunities presented to you.
• Don’t forget to do good deeds as you accumulate wealth.
• Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.
• When the moment comes, take the last one from the left.

Six weeks before the planes hit, I stood atop the North Tower. I remember the amazing view of the city, and eerily, I remember seeing a plane fly over the harbor below. I remember thinking, “Wow, I’m looking down on a plane.” A month and a half later, both towers would lay in ruins.

That September, as a college senior, I was in a Children’s Literature class when the first tower was hit. It wasn’t until I reached my car and started the ignition that I heard on the radio what had happened. I remember rushing home to see the second tower fall. The rest of the day is a blur, but I remember spending it with various friends, eating lunch at Cici’s (who had ESPN on and couldn’t figure out how to change the channel — as they were scrambling for the manual, ESPN switched from their coverage to ABC News), going to my next class, which functioned as a prayer meeting, and attending the emergency Convocation that was called after classes had been canceled.

Planes used to fly over my apartment building all the time, so it was especially eerie that night as I looked up at an empty sky and reflected on how quickly things had changed. Like most people, I would be glued to the TV for the next several weeks. On September 12, local businesses would start installing televisions because nobody wanted to hear background music anymore. They wanted to watch the towers fall again and again and again while they ate. They wanted to see President Bush with a bullhorn in downtown Manhattan while they ran errands.

Every year when I look back at the events of September 11, I remember standing outside my apartment at the end of the day, reflecting on what I had seen and heard, knowing that this was the beginning of a new era, realizing that war was right around the corner, wondering how everything would unfold. And in that moment, suspended between the chaos of that day and the uncertainty of what might happen tomorrow, for just that moment, I felt peace.

Between life in general and the continuing influx of story ideas, I don’t know how I’m ever going to get this book done. I’m excited about my latest idea, which deals with dreams and how real they can seem sometimes. Maybe I’ll turn that into a short story so it won’t interfere with the long story I’ve already started on.

One of the things I touch on in the first few chapters of my novel is how people get so wrapped up in things that are supposed to improve their life, and avoid life entirely in the process. For those of us who aren’t working our dream job (read: me), life can seem brutal at times. The secret is to find the things that keep us from living the life we were made to live and figure out how to take those things out of the equation.

By the time we discover there’s a problem, some of us will realize that we have a long and difficult battle ahead. Some will give up, but the strong ones will press on.  Although my obstacles are relatively few, sometimes the battle seems almost insurmountable. This is due mostly to impatience. I want it to be over and done with now. A time machine would be nice, so I could skip to the good part. Or if there was a way to live the CliffsNotes version of my life for the next year or so, that would make things easier.

Looking back on the hard parts I’ve been through, though, I see their benefit. They are my point of reference when things get difficult. When life becomes stressful or laborious, I can usually remember a time when it was worse and thank God that it isn’t that bad. In the worst of times, the good times remind me that things can and will improve.

This is how life works. Without the good times, bad times would be unbearable. Without the bad times, good times would just be times.

Writing a book is hard work. Especially when you have a full-time job. Especially when that full-time job is second shift.

I’m trying to work my way through Chapter Four little by little. The few people who have read the first three chapters want to see more, and my lack of progress over the past year or so has probably got some of them wondering if I’ll ever finish this thing.

Someone recently gave me this advice: a page a day is a book a year. This is true, but I’d rather write a book in two or three years naturally than force myself to write one in a year. Although a page a day sounds like a reasonable and attainable goal, writing isn’t as simple as sitting down and typing it out. Any decent writer knows that forced writing is crap writing.

I’ve been more inspired lately to get back to writing this novel, but the biggest obstacle now is time. Eight hours sleeping, eight hours at work and four hours in between each. Between running errands, showering, cooking, eating and entertainment, there isn’t much time to get anything done at all. I have a week of vacation coming up the first week of September and I’m holding out hope for some real progress.

I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve always been a writer. When I was a kid I kept irregular journals and concocted weird stories inspired by wild animals, monsters, video game characters and drunk hillbillies.

A couple of years ago, as I was washing dishes, I got the idea for my current work-in-progress. I need to finish the story and establish my copyright before I start giving specific plot details, but I’m hoping it will be something people will enjoy, connect with and take something from.