I have had many articles published in various magazines, newspapers and other people’s books, as well as on a variety of websites. But of all the things I am proud of that have been published of mine and am honored at all the places they have been published at – nothing compares to my 10 published books that contain this column.

I have had nine books published, which are part of an ongoing series called, A Penny For My Thoughts: Volumes 1-9. Each Volume contains 100 of my Thoughts, which contain that hundred’s 01-100 (Except A Penny For My Thoughts: Volume 5 that contains Thoughts #400-526, because I took a hiatus from writing for personal reasons for a long time and decided, when I was ready to write again – that I should restart numbering them at Thought #0001 – to signify a fresh start). The tenth was my book, I’ve Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway: A First-Hand Account Of The Tragic Events Of September 11, 2001, which contains only Thoughts #414-482 – which are those that followed me through the three months I worked at Ground Zero and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Command Center when I was temporarily deployed to OEM following the horrific attacks.

Each time I finish another 100 and prepare to publish another book, I get excited that one more book containing another chapter in the history of my life is now complete. Not only do I write each of the book’s contents, I also design the cover as well as write the Introduction, Dedication Page, and Epilogue for each one. When that is complete, I apply the ISBN Number to the book’s Title Page – signifying that the book is now an officially published work. When I get one printed and bound and see one complete for the first time – it makes me so proud that I not only decided to begin this column twelve years ago today – but was able to have it follow me through everything I have experienced from the ages of 25 to 37.

After I complete this particular Thought, I will do something I always hoped I would one day do since the column’s inception – I will write Thought #1000. As this column was increasing in number, I thought that one day, I would reach this milestone. As I got closer and closer, the anticipation of achieving it got more and more real. And now that I am about to write it – I honestly can’t believe it. Not only will I reach Thought #1000 – I will also publish A Penny For My Thoughts: Volume X.

So with it only being March of this year, I have already, in keeping with my New Year’s Resolution, which is, “Accomplish Accomplishments” – I will have posted all of the columns I have written on my website, because close to 100 of them were not converted to web files – and now am about to write Thought #1000 and publish the tenth volume of the A Penny For My Thoughts series of books…

…its gonna be a great year – because it already has been so far.