Where There's Smoke

As a late-comer to the wonderful(ly frustrating) world of writing, I had much to learn. OK, truth be told, I still have much to learn. But that's another story for another time. Like many writers at the beginning, I believed my story and my voice were worthy of being heard, that simply jotting down my brilliant insights and clever bon mots would result in droves of fawning readers, agents, and publishers beating a path to my door, demanding the I share more unfiltered thoughts so they could put them before the word-buying public where we would all get rich and famous. With apologies to Stephen Sondheim, a funny thing happened on the way to the fortune... I discovered that the writers I loved who made things seem so easy were liars. The finished product that I held in my hands was the result of months (and in some cases, years) of hard work, pain, sacrifice, and editing, editing, editing. They only made it look easy because they were really, really good at their craft.

On July 21, 1996: Bill Clinton was still in his first term as President of the United States The number 1 movie in the United States was "Independence Day" with Will Smith (et al) The number 1 record in the country was 2Pac's "How Do U Want It" (A side, featuring Jodeci) / "California Love" (B side, featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman) Robin Williams turned 45 We were 1,878 days away from September 11, 2001 My Father was still alive I was a 34-year old college dropout and an underachieving Air Force Master Sergeant whose second marriage was circling the drain And... I launched on a journey to an unknown destination, that I never wanted to take, but that has changed my life in ways I never knew needed changing. Since July 21, 1996, I have: Retired from the Air Force Graduated college Transitioned into a satisfying, good-paying career Become a published writer, including a stint as an 84-year old Southern woman named Matilda Mae

Back on July 1, after watching Jim “Fredo” Buss and Mitch Kupchak make some of the most questionable free agent decisions I’ve seen in nearly fifty years of following the Los Angeles Lakers, I tweeted the following: “ Do the @Lakers have a single player on the roster who could start for anyone else in the Western Conference? ”   (To be fair, this was after the Mozgov announcement but before Deng.) I was immediately called out by a Twitter friend, Le Musicien ‏(@LironDayo) who responded: “ Russell, Clarkson, Randall, Mozgov....and maybe Ingram ” I stewed for a few moments, wondering if someone with fewer than 1,000 followers could enter into something that would actually be called a Twitter “beef” before replying: “ Meh...maybe. I'll analyze this weekend but am not convinced." So I decided to eschew my emotional response to the Lakers’ free agent activity and analyze the facts to determine who was right, me or arch-Twitter nemesis, @LironDayo. The short ans