Where Have You Been?

Let’s see..
What Becomes You is newly out in paperback, with a reader’s guide, in print until the fall of civilization from Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press. And yes, you can afford it! So can your students! Woo hoo!
So, I’ve been on tour. The book now has a one-man show [...]

Simple Gifts

I head for Pullman, Washington in a rented car, a drive that many of those who live in the jungle cities of my adopted rain forest home assured me is both desolate and dangerous. They turn out to be wrong, but I may be biased. I’m from Nebraska, and find there is nothing [...]

Behold the Power of Travertine

After a flight I will not attempt to describe, I see many taxis. I see long lines of people waiting for taxis. Then I see a wilderness of darkened freeway tunnels, followed by a wildnerness of light-up billboard advertisements. Actually, I sense them rather vaguely as I am propelled at fantastic speeds [...]

The Brilliant, Palm-littered Afternoon of the Soul

As the plane begins its descent into Los Angeles, the child behind me begins to scream. His parents try every trick in their considerable library to quiet him. “There, Jerry, it’s almost over,” his mother soothes.
Jerry shrieks.
“Look at this nice toy.”
Jerry pauses, but only for breath.
“Your brother isn’t crying,” his father says gently.
The [...]

Happy New Year

Dateline: September 11th.
I am on an airline.
Danger, Will Robinson.
Late-breaking news flash from airline-land: The Department of Homeland Security has raised the Threat Level to Orange! Again!
No, wait, it’s been Orange for years.
My theory is that Threat Level Red means TSA personnel put guns to our heads as they [...]

Collaborations

It’s national Blog Against Racism week. Following Augusto Boal’s axiom that your energy goes to whatever you focus on, I think I’ll Blog For World-Saving Adventures instead.
I am supposed to meet my cross-border transport at a suburban mall. Standing on an island of high ground in a sea of freeways, I discover a [...]

Top o’ the World, Ma!

I arrive twenty minutes early. This time is necessary for the climb up to the Pearl Room atop Powell’s City of Books in Portland, surely the longest flight of stairs in the continental United States now that the upraised torch of the Statue of Liberty has been classified as an unacceptable security risk. [...]

Zyzzyva Turns Buttocks To Wall, Publisher’s Weekly Thinks I’m Hot

The Story So Far…Denver Airport, Que Bueno Resturant, Gate B32 (freelance). Dispaches continue; messages are coming from all quarters.
News flash: Publisher’s Weekly has dubbed the book “One of the hottest memoirs in the [LGBT] category this year…” in their May 7th profile of top LGBT titles.
(Okay, so my dispatches go [...]

Esprit de Corps

The best question of the book tour so far comes in Port Angeles, Washington.  
 Port Angeles is a small town several hours’ drive from the I-5 corridor whose main claims to fame are a deepwater harbor and the largest male-to-female transgender conference in the Northwest.  The major economic products of Port Angeles are shore leave [...]

Coming Home

I’m sitting in a coffeehouse in Victoria, British Columbia. A very young woman whose x-tra high-top Chuck Taylors are lined with faux leopard serves me organic free-range shade grown coffee and a gluten-free vegan biscuit as the stereo system in the background whines gently.
(current soundtrack: “I’ve Got to Leave Old London Town”)
Let me [...]