My latest project

So then I lost my job with Time Out Chicago Magazine. It was nothing personal or anything, and there are certainly no hard feelings on either side, but a new editor came on board and that's always a time to make changes. I'd noticed there was no longer an astrology column in TONY so I think TOC simply wanted to make a similar change.

But this did mean a big deal for my family and me since we made the (admittedly risky) decision to move into Genevra's family home and live rent/mortgage free in Southern Illinois on little more than my column's income while Genevra finished her graduate degree.

Since Genevra's assistantship (believe it or not my family is living off a graduate assistantship right now) breaks for three months over the summer, we'll have no income.

Looking for a job down here is pretty odd. I did that once and wound up writing obituaries for the Southern Illinoisan. I don't want to say anything bad about the experience, but if I were to say something bad it would have something to do with the fruits of my labor. Okay, fine, I'll be more specific. I'm not sure I've ever worked so much for so little...like, ever. Maybe when I was 15 and bagged groceries but if you factor inflation into the equation, I probably broke even. I'm sure there are some analytics that would suggest I lost money by working there, but I left my copy of SPSS on my old job's computer and that math would frankly depress me.

All that being said, I decided to make a somewhat bold move, something that I've wanted to do for a long, long time. I started a business. It's called First Person Astrology.

Yes, I'm still a playwright. I'm working on a new play for Rough and Tumble out in San Francisco called A History of Human Stupidity. But I need more money, as all playwrights do, so I started a business. Although so far, this business definitely doesn't suck. I'm kind of loving it, actually.

FirstPersonAstrology.com is, as far as I can tell, the only place online where you can subscribe to custom, regular (as in weekly) horoscopes based on your exact birth time. In other words, it's real astrology. And that means I should sound like a real astrologer and not call them "horoscopes." They're transits, really. Less specifically weekly forecasts.

As a columnist, I never faked anything. I did my best to write the best interpretations I could based on what's called transit-to-transit aspects. I used what's commonly called newspaper astrology to interpret sun sign-only stuff. (In other words, I'm a Taurus, so I'd read the paragraph labeled Taurus.)

Real astrology, as in the stuff that's been around since probably ancient Babylon, is different. It's based on where the sun, moon and planets all were when you were born--exactly when you were born and where you were born on Earth. That's your horoscope--the map of the sky when you were born. As transiting planets or the sun or moon intersect or make significant angles with those points in the sky that correspond with your map, stuff happens.

I keep your chart on file. Punch up all the data in my nifty software, and send custom horoscopes to you every week based on this information. It's pretty sweet. My subscriber list is small but growing steadily. Responses have been positive.

The coolest thing is that I'm the only one out there doing this...so far.

I never thought I'd be an astrologer. And it feels funny to say it. I certainly practice astrology and have for almost half my life. Maybe this is one of those incredibly lucky things that you hear about on Oprah, about the guy who loved fishing and then opened a bait and tackle shop, retiring from his Wall Street gig after 25 stress-filled years...

Or maybe this is like my T-Shirt business and I'll realize there's no money to be made in it. Who knows. Right, now I'm feeling good.

And my transits are excellent by the way.