Why I'm Starting a New Project

I know what you’re thinking, those of you who know me or read this blog regularly anyway: another project?  Yes, another project.  Now, I know I have so many others on hold: the baseball novel, the horror novellas, the rom-com novel, a bunch of unfinished short stories.  But this is another great idea that I need to pounce upon immediately, especially since it is something that is happening right now.

Since joining Twitter back at the start of the year, I’ve gotten pretty into it, especially in regards to keeping up with Major League Baseball.  As such, I follow a lot of baseball media people—mainly those covering Cleveland.  Through that I’ve come in contact with a 26-year old Army veteran named RJ Breisacher.  RJ is from the Toledo area and was stationed in Afghanistan.  This summer though, RJ is fulfilling a dream of his by traveling to all 30 ballparks—something I hope to do one summer as well.

I’ve tweeted back and forth with RJ several times over the last few weeks and try to follow his trip as well as I can.  I recently asked him if he would be interested in doing an interview for Colorshow at the conclusion of his trip so that I could write up a post detailing how he finally lived out a magnificent dream.  RJ of course agreed.  He doesn’t live very far away, so hopefully we might be able to meet in person and perhaps even take in a ballgame (he’s a Tigers fan so maybe some Indians v Tigers?).  After RJ agreed to the interview, I started thinking.  Why stop with a simple blog post?  Why not adapt RJ’s awesome story into a novel?  It definitely wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken someone’s true life story and fictionalized.  I’m also definitely not the first person to do that, either (see: Hunter S. Thompson).  This is just too rich of a story to pass up and I would love to be able to do this and honour one of our Nation’s Heroes and hopefully getting it to the point where it could be published and make enough money to help RJ establish a non-profit for veterans wanting to fulfill their dreams, something I know he’s talked about wanting to do.  I’ve only briefly mentioned this idea to RJ and of course don’t want to do it without his approval and input.  I would want him there all throughout the creative process to make sure I’m giving his story justice and not being too outlandish.  Hopefully RJ will read this soon and approve of my idea.  Until this, I would like to leave you with this little taste that I’ve already written for a scene based on RJ’s adventures with his new friend, Hitchhiker Mike:

“I wanted a real adventure on this road trip.  A real adventure even though I was already on a real adventure.  I mean, I wanted something ridiculous.  Something that would happen on a sitcom starring Zach Braff or Neil Patrick Harris.  Something you’d find in a Judd Apatow bromance.  You know, like when Seth Rogen somehow becomes best friends with a super famous comedian-actor dying of cancer.  Or when Christina Applegate falls into the panda exhibit. Only I don’t want my adventure to involve anything life-threatening.  I said before I left that I wanted to pick up a hitchhiker, the first one I came across.  And that I wanted to drive down the carpool lawn with a blow-up doll in the passenger seat—or maybe a life-size Justin Bieber cardboard cut-out, whichever was cheaper at the mall—and see how long it would take to get pulled over and if I could convince the cop that the inanimate object in the passenger seat was a real-life human being.  I finally got my chance for adventure when I ran into Hitchhiker Mike on the side of the freeway.”

You can follow RJ on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/baseballdreamin
And check out his blog here: http://baseballdreamin.blogspot.com/