Ask HN: Former programmer/consultant, out of tech for awhile: re-entry strategy?

Hi there! I seek input on re-entry strategies for someone who has been out of "the industry" for awhile and is thinking of getting back into the tech realm.

I've supported myself fine for the past 10+ years via my own small business (not tech-related), but my segment is going away, so it's part-time. I'm at a point where I could just sell my SV property and "retire" out of state, but I still want to be part of something.

General background:

- B.S. in CompSci/BusAdmin, plus an A.S., from state schools.

- Developer in the mainframe world first, then jumped to the UNIX/C/RDBMS world, doing everything from Advanced Support to Consulting to Development.

- After having several consecutive jobs offshored, I left the industry, developing my own (non-tech, mostly) business in an unrelated field.

- My coding skillset (primarily C plus some obsolete proprietary tools) is outdated, but I bring value in other ways. I do write well; I wrote/edited/reviewed lots of docs/specs in my old roles. I'm great at recognizing edge cases in specs and docs and am great at breaking things.

Anyway, enough with the history. Here are my specific questions:

1) What are suitable resume formats/strategies for somebody with a huge time gap in their "work history"? I'd feel funny writing, "well, from Date A to Date B I did this, and from Date B to Date C I did that... then from Date N until now I went off and created an unrelated, nontechnical business and haven't anything in the way of skillset buzzwords to show for it."

2) What roles would be best suited to someone with my skills and gaps? (I should say that although I've been in various technical lead roles, I've avoided being in personnel management -- I don't know how to motivate people who aren't intrinsically motivated on their own.)

3) To those who have been in a similar boat: any advice?

Thanks for any constructive input; email in profile.