Happy Birthday, dad. I could use your help with something.

It’s a bit of an odd request, but I think you’re going to like it.

But before I get into that: it’s your birthday today! Happy Birthday! You would have been 80, at least in people years. Maybe you could years differently now. Dunno.

DISCLAIMER: I might have thought, at some point in the not-too-distant past, that this was weird. Writing to my dad in a post on my oddball Pass the Sour Cream site. You know what’s actually even weirder? I don’t find much of anything weird anymore. Maybe I don’t watch enough news. Ha. That’s a joke. Maybe that’s why I don’t find anything weird anymore. It’s all good. It’s part of the Infinite Game versus the Finite Game. If you think it’s weird, you can go back to reading my posts on book marketing. They’re awesome, too. I swear. 🙂

As I type these words, especially as I let free any potential readers in the last paragraph who think this is all too weird, I realize that you’re still here, or well, here somewhere, and I just need to reach out to you more often than I have been doing.

You know what? That’s it. That’s all I really needed to say/know. I know you’re there. You know you’re there.

In case you feel like reading my words (instead of stuff like reading my mind or my thoughts or my dreams or my meditations), here you go.

I’m connecting you with Charlie and Li. Two characters in my books that could use your, well, connection. It shouldn’t be so hard as Charlie takes his name from your father and Li is based on your grandson (for privacy reasons, I won’t spell out his full name here).

You and I are in the middle of those two generations. Charlie Holiday is someone formed through the four of us (grandpa, you, me, Li).

Dear Reader: If you’re still not freaked out by this conversation I’m having here, let me let you in on a secret. This is the power of writing Every Single Day. I just now, just this very minute, learned something important about my main character, Charlie Holiday, in how he is formulated. Write Every Single Day, try it for 10 Days. I promise, something will shift in your life. Cool, right?

So yeah, that’s where I could use your help. I’d like to know more about grandpa. Can we learn about him a little more next time we talk? Also, I’d like to bring Li into the mix more. He’s not going to want to. Well, he’s 14, he doesn’t want to be involved in much of anything. But that’s OK, I promised Li & Lu that I’d write their stories until they were 18, so they’ve got that going for them. What lucky kids, right? I mean, what father showers their kids in fictional stories they don’t want to read and brings in neighborhood friends? Ah, it’s good. It’s real good.

So it’s your birthday. I hope you have a German Chocolate Cake and maybe a martini. I’d actually love to know what you did for your birthday.

But anyway, I’ll see you around. I hope you can help out with Charlie. Wouldn’t that be a fun project? I’m usually working on it in the mornings. I know that’s when you’re the best and brightest as well. We’ll work on it together.

Until then, Happy Birthday, dad. I love you.