Oh my god, I’m writing a blog!

Here’s what you need to know. I live in northern Massachusetts. I have pretty much always lived in northern Massachusetts, but I do travel around a lot. From 2004 through 2008, I wrote a syndicated travel column called The American Adventurer for USATODAY.com, among others. Now I’m Managing Editor of SmarterTravel.com, and travel remains a huge part of my daily life.

Why Chapter 11?

I am the owner and creator of a completely fictional company called Chapter 11 Studios, which is the name I give to the part of my brain that wants to drop everything and spend all day writing novels and designing computer games. Since that would almost certainly lead to financial ruin—and since I actually like my day job—I’ve elected to use my early mornings, late evenings, and occasional lunch breaks working on those projects instead.

That is, when I’m not blogging.