On Sunday, April 24, 1983, at about 2 p.m., I carried my 28 -pound 1953 Royal typewriter and a folding chair through the stiff wind of Chicago's Michigan Avenue, In front of the Old Water, Tower, I opened the folding chair, sat down with the typewriter in my lap and taped a sign to the back of it "60-Second Novels, Written While you Wait."

So begins the most original book in a generation—Dan Hurley's inspiring true tale of how he escaped his desk job to write the life: stories of over 22,613 people (and counting!), from Chicago to New York, in Iowa farmhouses, Midwestern, malls and California convenience stores. Hurley has listened as children and crack addicts, the homeless and the famous, poured out their confessions and a lifetime of wisdom. Now he shares the most incredible true stories he's heard (including the one from a pretty woman named Alice; whom he ended up marry­ing) and what they taught him about life, love, health, money and making dreams -come true. With over one hundred photographs and sixty of the original stories he wrote for Vanna White, Tom Brokaw and thousands of, other people you've never heard of You will laugh, cry, and feel as..though Dan packed you into his suitcase alongside his typewriter.