Slightly Off the Mark

There's going to be a feature about Emily and me in the Thursday issue of the Fort Wayne newspaper, The Journal Gazette. (Assuming some big news event doesn't kick it down the road, of course.) I'd sent them a press release about the Albion Fire Department photo book project we're working on, and they interviewed us last week. It should be out in both their print and online additions, and the latter is here:

http://www.journalgazette.net/

After I sent the press release I talked to a reporter who interviewed me for over an hour, so I take it the article will be about more than just that particular project. We're looking forward to it--I hope you enjoy it too!

SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK

            Following your dreams can take you to some strange roads that might not have anything to do with your dreams, at all.

            We can’t all have our first dreams, of course. America really wouldn’t function with fifty million actors, one hundred million singers, and two hundred and fifty million lottery winners. What do those all have in common? Long odds.

            Still, it’s important to pursue a dream, even if it isn’t the dream you end up with. My grandkids want to be ninjas. It’s probably not on the average college curriculum, but who knows? I’m saving back some masks and black pajamas, just in case.

            My first dreams were to be a scientist, or an astronaut … or better yet, a combination of the two: a Science Officer. Yes, I was a Trekkie, why do you ask? But I had to give up those dreams because, it turns out, both jobs require being good at math.

            A writer doesn’t have to be good at math.

            Or so I told myself. By the time I was halfway through high school, I settled on a career plan: I would become a firefighter, and on my days off I would write best-selling novels. My backup plan would be a forest ranger, thus putting me in a position to battle forest fires in between writing books.