This month, I'm turning 49. One year from 50, and one year from the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first "Marketplace" novel.  Of course, the world has changed in those 20 years - websites, for example! Smart phones! Electronic books!

There are other ways in which the world hasn't changed as much as we think it has. I was pondering this when I wrote the speech I gave earlier this month in Austin - for their 19th anniversary, since we're talking about important dates.  It's called "Leave the Myth. Take the Cannolli."  Here's an excerpt - there's alink to read the rest:

GWNN just turned 19, you say. In our scene, something that's 19 years old …is old! Old enough to join a TNG group, anyway. When you think of how many groups have come and gone in the past, oh, 30 years or so – that would be as long as I've been around – to make it almost to drinking age is a notable achievement. And yet, when you eavesdrop on our world, trying to find out what people value, what they're curious about, what they want, they tend to fall neatly into two parts. There's that group of us who always want the new shiny – whether it's the latest electrical toy, fanciest kilt or the most popular of new play techniques. What's hot now, or even better, what will everyone else want, tomorrow? 

And then there are the Back in the Olden Days folks, those who romanticize a past they have not experienced. Or, sadder, those who were around, but not only embellish their tales of decadence and derring-do, but begin, seemingly, to believe their own hype.

... Your first step is to realize that a story – whether true or exaggerated, blatantly fictional or merely doubtful, can get a vote in how you live your life. Just avoid giving it either a mandate or a veto. Just because that's the way some guy used to do it at the Manscape Bar in Des Moines in 1957 doesn't mean you need to do it today. Know what also happened in 1957? A black lady couldn't sit at a fucking Woolworth lunch counter and get a fucking sandwich, or sit in the first 4 rows of a bus. There's an old guard custom right there. Want to embrace that too? Then realize age is not equivalent to wisdom, or righteousness. more

I'll be finishing up my summer tour with a few more workshops and speeches. You can catch me the first weekend in August at Floating World, and Labor Day Weekend at the Northeast Master/slave Conference.   

Oh, and if you're interested in helping me celebrate my 49th birthday, check out the wishlist on my website, www.lantoniou.com.