I am not entirely sure what sparked it for me recently, but some conversation or observation over the past few weeks really got me into thinking back to the books of my childhood; everything from The Bearenstain Bears collection and the world of Robert Munsch, to the Hardy Boys, Fear Street and Goosebumps adventures which shaped the years when I really took to reading on my own.  I have always loved losing myself in stories; first with pictures and then eventually with words that allowed me to, at least in part, see things how only I could see them.  Over the past several weeks and months, we have been observing Nora consume books at such a speed that it has sparked within me a desire to introduce her to more and more of the classics I enjoyed so much when I was her age.  She just recently finished The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, A Wrinkle in Time, and I’m eager for her to tackle The Neverending Story next.  What’s equally as exciting is that she not only has interest in consuming these stories, she also started writing stories of her own!  Like legitimate stories…and in French sometimes too!  Mind = blown.

I digress, this is not meant to be a humble-brag about my children’s abilities, this is going somewhere, I promise…

Being a child of the ’80s, there was perhaps nothing more defining for me in the literary world than the choose your own adventure books that started to circulate the classroom, schoolyard, and late night reading rituals.  These were ingrained into my existence for a hot minute or so, and while I don’t remember specifics, I do recall that they provided me with a unique sense of adventure, and developed within me an understanding that things can be created and presented in different ways.  While I also recall that they tended to go to some extreme, often even dark extents in terms of meeting ones fate for making the ‘wrong’ choices, you could always go back a try again, and there was often some good, generally positive lesson to be learned along the way.

All this is to say that, between Nora’s reading and writing, my desire for nostalgia, and my weekly ramblings on here, I thought: why not try something that merges all of these things together?

So, over the course of the past week I have been floating around the halls of work, home and friend groups asking random questions to help formulate a story that, while seemingly absurd and outlandish, is the creative work of many intelligent minds, with the intention to, with any luck, deliver a positive message.

Though I’ve done my best to try and allow for the experience to work on any device, the following will likely work a little easier on a laptop than a phone.  I will forewarn that things get a little zany and maybe even whimsically dark at times, just like those books from the 80’d did, but if you’re interested in embarking on a short journey, written in part by my children, my own strange brain, and even some of you…simply click here.