This idea came from a daydream. It was Thanksgiving weekend 2009 and after awakening from the food coma, something odd happened. I was bored. I am not really good around the holidays so bored was better than depressed. Still neither is fun so being proactive, I decided that I should shake myself out of this funk.

So I made a wishlist.

Someone asked: “You are very practical, what do you really want?”

I had to really think about it. Sure, it would be great to pay off the all the credit cards, the mortgage or living expenses for a year. She kept pushing and asked to think about the things I wanted but would not buy for myself. She reminded me that while things on the wishlist were expensive, I would eventually be able to afford them on my own or they would become obsolete in time. She made me think bigger. What would I have trouble getting?

My parents always told me that the two things they can never take away from you are education and experience. So the question, went from: What do you really want to what do you want to experience?

When I thought about it, set aside what was possible, practical or too expensive, it really came down to one thing.

I want to go to space.

Yes it is crazy. I am too old to work for NASA as an astronaut or mission specialist, but there is another way.

Virgin Galactic.

For $200,000 you get 3 days of training and a suborbital flight that lasts about two and a half hours.

There are a lot of other things you can do for $200,000.

Trust me, I get it.

Look, with every action, there is risk. To attempt to do cool things, you have to risk failure. I may end up with nine books, a red paper clip and an unread website. Still, can you imagine going into space? Even if I don’t get to go, this might be fun.

So I have given myself the year of 2010 to barter ten signed novels.

One book. Ten copies. One dream.