Secret Diaries

Have you ever tried to read someone else's diary?

Come on now, have you ever seen a diary lying open on a table and tried to read the secret thoughts of the writer?

Have you ever been tempted to pick the lock on your sister's diary and read about all her private thoughts that she just won't share with you?

Keeping a diary is an ages old tradition. At points in time, this form of putting down your thoughts has been kept under different names, but the custom remains the same. Whether it is called a journal, or a diary, or my daily thoughts...the concept remains the same.

In any form, the book is usually private and often kept hidden from all eyes except for those of the writer. Lock and key helps ensure that no one's eyes will gaze upon the things written that are unspeakable to any other human ears.

Diary keeping is a mystery within the mind of humankind that may never be explained. The custom is intriguing to any one, psychologists and philosophers included. Great artists, musicians, scientists, inventors from the ages have recorded their ponderings, their ideas and their secrets that usually ends up in a museum after they depart this world.

Are you fascinated with old diaries or journals of the deceased? Do you like family history and do you enjoy the quest to find a journal written by your great-great grandfather just so you can read and maybe catch a glimpse of the inside of the mind of a man you never knew? Do you enjoy museums?

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, then maybe you will be interested in helping in my quest to search for historical or fantastic or mysterious journals and diaries. We can search the secrets lives of the people whose journals and diaries that we discover together. It will be a fantastic journey into the mind of our ancestors and it will help to paint a clearer picture of the world in which we now live.

Here is the quest that I propose...call it a treaure hunt, because it is...sort of...

The Secret Diary Quest

* Visit a geneology library or search a family history site online. I will find some links to include in the sidebar of this blog in the coming days.

* Share with us the sources for your quest in the comment section or by emailing themidnightwriter1@gmail.com. Links will be featured in a special section if a website is available. Or an address can be listed instead.

* Give three clues and ask five questions relating to the person/persons/time period and place in history.

* Each week for one month the secret diary quest will continue as you reveal more clues and ask more questions.

* Readers will answer the questions of the featured secret diary quest at the same time they may ask you questions.

* The historical and private information will be developed on this blog in a special feature series as the story of the diary/journal writer is written by you and the readers right here on this blog.

* At the end of one month, the identity of the keeper of the secret diary/journal will be revealed. A story will be submitted by either the holder of the secret diary or by me with your information provided.

* During the month long quest, links to the submitter's blog will be featured and any profile information you want included from social sites and article submission sites.

* A permanent link for the submitter of the secret diary will remain in the sidebar for one year.

* Links for participants in the quest will remain with the consolidated story at the end of the month, at which time a new quest will begin.

Feed back on this treasure hunt is welcome. Send me the first clues and questions to be the first in the secret diary treasure hunt.

To submit, please email themidnightwriter1@gmail.com. Leave a comment in this article to let me know that you want to participate. First one to comment, gets the chance to be the first exclusive Secret Diary Treasure Hunt.

The Midnight Writer