Because everyone else is doing it, my take on the past-present-future meme follows after the cut…

20 years ago, I…
… was a clueless freshman at NYU film school, struggling to overcome the culture shock of moving from the small town where I’d lived my whole life with my own bedroom, to a dorm room I shared with two other guys in the middle of Manhattan. And, little did I know at the time, I had just met my pal Glenn, who in years to come would become my best friend and the conduit for almost all the good things in my life.

10 years ago, I…
… started teaching myself HTML from a book so that I could make a lateral transfer at my job in a trade-magazine company to work on a new Web site with my favorite boss of all time, who was like a sister to me. This move into Internet-based editorial work made it possible for me to make a jump a few years later into a much better-paying job.

5 years ago, I…
… had just introduced to my family the woman who would become my wife, and I had just finished writing Wildfire, my first solo novel, which opened the door for me to start writing paperback novels a year later.

2 years ago, I…
… was writing Warpath, my Deep Space Nine novel.

1 year ago, I…
… was putting the finishing touches on the manuscript of Reap the Whirlwind, the third novel in the Star Trek Vanguard series — my longest single work to date; and I was kvelling about my first non-Star Trek novel, Wolverine: Road of Bones.

So far this year, I…
… have written Gods of Night, the first book of my Star Trek Destiny trilogy; have said farewell to my beloved friend and rabbi, David Honigsberg, who passed away in March at the maddeningly too-young age of 48; celebrated my third wedding anniversary; and met my longtime rock idols Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush.

Yesterday, I…
… confirmed with my agent that I’ve just sold my first original novel, The Calling, to Simon & Schuster; and wrote the first scene of Mere Mortals, the second book in the Star Trek Destiny trilogy.

Today, I…
… will write the second scene of Mere Mortals.

Tomorrow, I’ll…
… write the third scene of Mere Mortals. And so on, and so on….