Dan Newman has spent much of his.... Jeez. Look at that. I'm giving myself the third-person treatment. What a dick.Lemme see; I'm a Canadian by immigration, an Englishman by birth, an amalgam of several wonderful places in Southern Africa by virtue of the time I've spent there growing up. I'm a citizen of the beach thanks to my formative years spent in the Caribbean, and I'm a self described Australian enviator (yeah, I made that word up - what of it? It means someone who envies all that someone else has), thanks to the time I spent there at Grad school, and the hours and days I spent trying desperately to look like I knew what I was doing on a surfboard.I love surfing. It calls out to me - I completely understand the hold it has on people who chase the endless summer. But sadly I am a terrible surfer. I mean awful. At best I'm a passenger on the board, and often not even that. Still, I've mastered the part where you tuck that fibreglass blade under your arm and stride down the sand toward the water. I've nailed standing there, surveying the waves, maybe nodding your head in deep understanding of tide and time, the leash strapped to your ankle and your slick rashie pulled on tight. And up to that point I can pull it off; I look like the real deal. Yeah, you can hear them back up the beach if you listen carefully: Man, that dude is a surfer! It's only once I hit the waves that my cover's blown. But who cares... For a few steps there, I was the real deal.Anyway, I'm also trying hard to be a writer. A real writer - one who can point to a spine in a bookstore and say "I did that." I've spent a lifetime writing so far - for corporations, tech start-ups, websites and the like. You could say I've turned it into a tidy career. But until I can point to that spine on a shelf in a bookstore, it's all just so much posing on the beach with a board tucked under my arm.Update:Well, I'm pleased to say that I've now hit a milestone. The Clearing is out. It's in the market. It's in the damn bookstore! I've even stood next to it and stared at the spine with a very goofy grin on my face for an embarrassingly long time.Stop by and say hi at http://www.dannewmanbooks.com/.