The Summer Project, explained

In a creative writing class 25 years ago, I had an idea for a project that I thought was brilliant: A sort of literary "Wonder Years" highlighting the summer of 1984. Back then, these summers weren't in the distant past, even if they seemed to me back then. The concept was a series of coming-of-age vignettes recalling the summer. I typed it up, and my instructor loved it. I wanted to expand it into a book.

Sometime in the later 1990s (I believe 1997) I broadened that idea into five summers, 1980-84. I wrote four stories on this project and was damn excited that I did. This was generally before the Internet exploded as a publishing tool and writing medium, so these basically never left my computer, save for my friend Mike reading them, and maybe my mom and sister. I wanted to expand it into a book. I even had a sequel planned about the proceeding five summers.

In 2007, I started this blog, and many of those memories I wanted to write about came to life in my posts. I've loved writing some of them over the years, but still, many topics and memories haven't seen the light of day. This lack of progress is part of the frustration I've been feeling lately with my passion to write -- or lack thereof. But here I am again, ready to do something about it.

So, I'm starting The Summer Project on this blog, going back into the summer memories and writing down as much as I can. This is a tall order, with the sports parenting blog not quite live yet (I do have the first post written, I just need some time to fiddle around with the design) and me continuing to blog about this summer.

Every journey begins with a cliched step (that has to be in some Katy Perry song). I've been sauntering through the journey already; time to try sprinting for a while. Look for the first Summer Project post soon. Very soon.

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