What do half a million bikers look like

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I want to thank everyone for making the 14th anniversary of my 25th birthday the best party I've had in a long time! I've got big plans for next year, when I hit the BIG ONE FIVE! Even my stalkers paid homage by leaving me alone for the duration. You can't ask for more than that, can you?

A few months ago I finally checked out Facebook, and through it, re-met a bunch of guys I used to know in the Navy while I was on the Bataan, including one sweet little heartbreaker who can't stop telling me how funny and smart I am. (I don't mean the married ones.) We've got a lot in common, but she lives a few hundred miles away and I promised myself I wouldn't take any big trips until I got something published, so now I want to get that done so I can see if she'll make good on all her flirting.

Then last week, half a million bikers came to see me for my birthday. Some of them also celebrated Daytona Beach's 70th Bike Week. I took one of my lady friends downtown that first weekend to check everything out. She makes for a great biker babe, if you guys are looking for a girl who's smart and about to publish a book about anceint Egyptian religion and prophecies that came true. Cool stuff! And she's almost done with the second draft. I gotta tell ya, guys, it's great someone as smart as her trusts me to edit her work. Don't get any ideas, though, because I'm not doing this professionally. (Unless you hit me with a really big check!)

We saw a ton of super-awesome bikes, including one that looked like it came out of a 1940's junkyard (I call it the Redd Foxx bike), a dragon bike, an airplane bike, and some unbelievable paint jobs. And some really interesting bikinis. Yes, those are painted on.

Then my favorite nephew arrived with a couple of his best buds, and they tore up the skateboard park something gnarly! I took a few videos of them. They'll blow your mind!

I took them downtown too, and we did some club-hopping, where we had to fight off all the girls. Much as we wanted to, we couldn't take home every girl who wanted to come. Most had to stay behind and wait for our return. A quick tip, ladies: jealousy is hot as long as it's not destructive. You start tearing up property, and I don't want anything to do with you. The exception is when it exposes more female flesh.

We rode around town a couple more days while the weather cooperated, and whipped out the MegaMonopoly and Munchkin when it didn't. I'm proud to say there's still something I can whoop them at, and it's called games. Not every time, but I won more than my share. I'm really glad I got to hang out with them and get reconnected with that part of who I am. All you people who are getting old, go hang out with your kids for a while without judging them and just absorb what they have to offer. Be a part of it. You'll be amazed at yourself.

Finally, the boys left yesterday, giving me some time to catch up on my writing. I'm so behind! I had to whip out this article so fast I couldn't even spell-check it, and now I need to write a couple more good ones and put them in the queue so I can then get back to work on some really good books.

What if the Civil War had started in 1821, before the North had a strong industrial base to defeat the South with? What if a woman who thinks she lacks only a husband fell in love with her disinterested rescuer while they both had to dodge a killer? What if a woman fell in love with her own stalker and had to rebuild her ruined life and career? What if a man had to ask his wife to become a stripper to feed their kids and one of her clients abducted her for a white-slavery ring? If the Sun was going to blow up in 30 years, would we be able to escape to other stars in time?

A lot of good ideas start with asking yourself what would happen if.

Not just books, either, but even in your real life. If life was simple, what would it be like? If you had no limits on time or money, what would you be doing? So what's stopping you? What if you could overcome those limits, would you go for it? What would it take to overcome those limits?

I ask myself these kinds of things once in a while. I should do it even more. So should you. And then let your mind come up with the answers in its own good time. Usually it just takes a few minutes to a day or two.

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