A request

Hello everyone, Eric Filipkowski here.

I have been thinking about assembling my blogs into a "book" of some sorts, it's been on my mind for a while but recently I've been a little more pro-active about it.

At first, I was just going to take the short stories I've written and put them into a collection, but I think I would be doing a disservice to myself if I excluded the things about my real life and what I've gone through this past year or so.

It is really weird for me to read through all my old entries and have to re-live some of my recent experiences.

This is why I think the book should be about my journey as a person AND a writer. Because this isn't just a place I post stories I've written, this is a journal. This is a place where I come to share what's going on with me with the rest of the world. Or at least the people who read this.

And to those people, I really want to thank you. I think if you go back, you'll see this blog has definitely helped me through some very difficult things in my life.

I guess that's the appeal of it. You share with others and they relate to what is universal in all of us. Blah blah blah.

But seriously, I look back on where I've come from and it's kind of amazing. I'm sure lots of people go through changes like this all the time, but when it's sitting right there on a computer screen for you to see, documented through words, it's really cool to witness and this is what I'd like to share with people.

When I started writing in my blog, I was healthy and I had just started dating someone I thought I was in love with. I came to see that both of these weren't really true.

Even though I thought I was really happy, looking back now it certainly doesn't look like I was. My outlook on life was pretty negative. I think I had grown complacent.

I had my surgery and the long recovery period which gave me hours of time I had to fill without being able to do anything remotely physical.

This lead to me writing in my blog. What had been a practically abandoned webpage was soon updated on a daily basis. New characters were born and my mind took adventures my body was unable to.

Gumdrop streets with candy cane light posts opened up before me as I took a journey on a magic cupcake filled with dreams and frosting!

As my health improved, I wrote about my progress and my hopes for the future.

I talked about Harry Potter and Disneyworld and my imaginary friend who may or may not be a rapist.

I churned out story after story and got my confidence back as a writer. I moved from Los Angeles to Rhode Island to Florida and back to Los Angeles. A journey of nearly 1000 miles!

I have a very special friend and she believes that everything happens for a reason. I'm not sure if I believe this completely, but when I look back at who I was and who I am now, I am glad for what I've gone through. I'm glad for the friends I've made (or re-made), I'm glad for the change in my attitude. I am thankful for the chance to re-examine my life and the things that I value as important to me.

So as I try and piece together some sort of narrative for this book, I'm going to ask for your help.

First of all, do you think there would be any interest in a book like this?

Do you think I should stick with my fictional stories or try and combine them with my real-life blogs?

Which stories would you like to see?

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is "Superman" and 10 is "Jesus", what score would you give me as a writer?

Thanks for all your help!