After 365 days at full speed, one month off

I come to you in confession and apology today.

I apologize that I haven't written in a while, leaving all the heavy lifting in the able hands of John Lofflin.

I confess that I haven't written a single word in one month.

What have I been doing with myself? A full-time job, of course. A lot of reading. Playing with my new tablet computer. Playing a lot of video games. Watching some television. Taking more than a few naps.

Basically, I've been doing absolutely nothing of value.

As a writer, I feel crummy about myself. Writers stay sharp by writing. And my writing skills are dull right now. But as a person, I feel pretty terrific. The month of January 2012 has been extremely restful. I've shared lots of laughs with my wife, friends and family. I've grown more and more excited about the pending birth of my first niece or nephew, due in two weeks. I've refueled my tanks after a long, grueling year, and I'm now ready to tackle a variety of things.

(If you don't know, 2011 was grueling for me because of the blog My Daily Fortune. For that project, I opened a fortune cookie every day in 2011 and, basically, did whatever the fortunes told me to do. Then I wrote about it. Every single day.)

I have big plans for 2012 - in addition to being a great uncle. I have two book projects in the works, and more ideas bubbling up constantly. I plan on writing for this blog a lot. And I hope to re-sharpen my skills from a month off.

And it all starts now. I can't wait to see where this road leads.