Tonight is the big banquet night of the Chicago Be-All, which means our time here is coming to a close. Late Sunday night we get on a train & go straight through to Penn Station, & ultimately, home.
It’s been a long time away – 10 days or so – and of course I miss the cats terribly but I also miss Park Slope a lot.
The banquet night is always the night that I see the celebration that can happen at these conferences, no matter what’s gone on during the week. I met someone who was out for their first time this week, & often that’s what these things are about: a safe space for people to emerge in one way or another. & While I love trans people, their partners, their troubles & turmoil & tantrums, even, I think I am a little worn out on conferences. This time around I may need the celebration in order to remind myself what it’s all about. When I did my reading at Women & Children First this week, it was so wonderful to get to talk to readers about my book as opposed to talking to trans people about transness. It may seem a fine line in my case – sometimes these things seem one & the same – but the accent was just different enough that it let me know I probably need to take a break in the not so distant future.
These are pretty disorganized kernels of thoughts that hopefully I can explain better on the way home. 18 hours on a train certainly leaves a person plenty of time to think.
I really am sorry that none of the Cleveland events turned into a reading. In retrospect, I should have intervened on more than one occasion to make sure you had a chance to read. But I warned you I was a tyro at this…
Diane
I just wanted to thank you again (I met you and Betty in the line for dinner on Friday night then attended the 2pm seminar on Saturday – had to leave after that). You (and Betty) were just awesome in the seminar you gave (I wish I could have stayed for the reading). You made it interesting, fun and most of all educational.
Thank you both for all you do.
Hugs,
Nikki
Diane, you misunderstood: what’s nice is talking to spaces that aren’t effectively “trans only.”
Thank you, Helen. Still, we should talk about “lessons learned” sometime. I know I’m a failed perfectionist, but that doesn’t seem to let me not try to always think about how to do things better.– Diane
I thought of Neil Gaiman’s adage that you only ever learn to write the book you’re currently writing when I read your comment, as I suspect publicity is similar.
I will say another thing: I am very aware of being quite impatient that this book be out there in the world, much more so than I ever was with MHB. Honestly, when MHB came out, I was surprised at any mention of it for at least the first year… amazing how quickly that changes, really.