It started a year and a half ago when I was driving to work one morning, about 4am. It was just an idea--a "what if" kind of moment, when I began imagining a story. I was thinking about the last twenty years of my life and all of the decisions I had made. Decisions which had taken me from where I was at the time of my high school graduation to the present day. Life is about fate--partly. It's about making the best of the hand you were dealt. It's about who you happen to meet and when you meet them. It's about risk taking and pursuing your dreams, even though it's hard. Even though sometimes it's impossible. Regardless of how you choose to look at life and its meaning, the bottom line is that there are a combination of factors that make us the people that we are. Some of it may be destiny or fate, but much of happiness is based upon the decisions that we have made. Sure, bad things happen to good people. Some of us suffer terrible losses and face monumental challenges, and it frankly doesn't seem fair. Yet every one of us, no matter how challenging or how easy our lot in life may be, must take responsibility for what we do. Life is about choices, and when you make the wrong ones the result may be that you look back and feel overwhelming regret.

It was this feeling of regret--or more precisely, my fear that I may look back at the end of my life upon my choices regretfully--that led me to pose this question. "What if a person could rewind their life and attempt a do-over?" If given a second chance, would we make all the same mistakes again? Would we carry the lessons we had learned in our previous existence over to our next lifetime? Or is it really a matter of destiny? Perhaps our personality traits and our "status" are things to which we are preconditioned. Maybe we are predestined to be famous or wealthy or to live in poverty.

The idea behind Second Chances is that it is possible for a person to be very successful, to accomplish every dream that they could imagine--wealth, status, fame--and reach the end of life only to regret their choices. It is possible to realize that you have set the wrong goals, focused on the wrong ambitions, and rejected the elements of life that make existence truly meaningful.

When I got to work that morning, I locked myself in my office and scratched out a synopsis. It all came to me very quickly--the setting, the central characters, even their names. The actual writing took almost a year. The plot remained very close to my original idea, but the ending was a surprise to me. I hope it will surprise the readers as well--in a good way.

Today I held the print version of Second Chances in my hands for the very first time. I have no idea how it will be received by readers or book reviewers, but to me it is enormously satisfying. It will go on sale January 1st to the general public, and I'm very excited to share it. I hope it means as much to readers as it has meant to me.