We’re partying with the people of Femme Fever tonight, in Long Island, starting at 7PM.

To all of you who read me regularly, & all of you who participate/subscribe to the boards, or buy my books, or recommend them: thank you. It’s been a much longer, more chaotic year than I ever expected - it’s become the book tour that won’t end, which is, ultimately, a good thing - and it’s meant a lot for me to hear from so many of you who send me PMs or emails or who comment here.

Ha, it’s nice to know that when my head finally explodes someone will be there to see it.

(That’s going on the idea that my head hasn’t already exploded, & we’ve all failed to notice.)

I had someone write to me recently who hoped I would one day get all the awards & accolades that I deserve, and I’m sure I didn’t get into this for either. But knowing that sometimes something I’ve written has made someone feel a little less crazy, or less ashamed, or less shitty - that’s totally worth it. (Though I will take her wish that I one day score the kind of advances a writer can live on while writing, of course.)

& I’ve gotten home to Brooklyn in time to rest, eat, bathe, & then head out to be interviewed by Diana Cage on her radio show on Sirius OutQ, at 11PM.

(I promise I will not review the history of modern feminism, which is what I did in class today. Oy, patriarchy!)

Today The New York Times published this piece, “The Author Will Take Q.’s Now,” about what it’s like to be an author these days. The funny thing is that I probably do more in-person touring because of the various trans conferences, and because - let’s be honest- the trans community isn’t the same as a bunch of people who are enthusiastic about baking or reading novels, because there are real needs involved, whether for trans people or partners themselves or for the community as a whole.

Still, if any of you are regular readers of other blogs, especially ones that review books and authors, do let them know about my book so that I might guest blog elsewhere.

We’re back from a lovely couple of days in PA with my family & will get right back into the groove with Julia Serano’s reading tomorrow night at Bluestockings.

She’ll be reading from her book Whipping Girl at 7pm, & of course we’ll be there. If you’ve never been, you can find directions on their website. If you haven’t read her book yet, do, but in the meantime you can read the interview with me & Julia in a recent issue of Curve (which I’m told is not quite on newsstands, but will be soonly). & If you’ve already read that, & can’t make the reading, then go read some of Julia’s writing on her website - I especially recommend her “Barette Manifesto.”

& Yes, I’ll be doing a Five Questions With… interview with her soonly.

But wow is the weather better in the mountains of PA.

Here are a couple of photos from the Borders reading up in Albany:

<<< the first of me with a nice display of She’s Not the Man I Married

& the second of us with a bunch >> of friends (& a Harry Potter poster): from left to right: Betty, me, Hawk Stone, Tristan, & Colten.

Ironic perhaps that Betty & I should be doing what looks like the last of our “in person” gigs via rental car instead of by train - since there have been times in the past few months that I felt like I lived on the latter. Not that I mind: I really do love trains in nearly an irrational way. It’s something about the sound of a train whistle - all at once so melancholy, so romantic, & so hopeful.

It’s fitting that we should wind down in Poughkeepsie, since the group I’ll be visiting, MHVTA, is one that let me interview them when I was researching My Husband Betty. What I remember best was asking, “What would you want the world to know about crossdressing that they don’t?” and I got a variety of answers that informed my intent when I wrote it.

So thanks to everyone who has let me ask them questions, emailed me with input, and told me their stories.

Tonight I’m speaking with LGBT community leaders at the New York State Museum Performance Theatre in Albany, NY.

Tomorrow (Sunday 6/24) at 2PM I’m doing a reading at the Borders in Albany.

Monday night I’ll be in Poughkeepsie speaking to MHVTA.

Come to what you can if you’re in that neck of the woods.

I’ll be at a sex shop called Sugar on Wednesday night, June 13th, 7pm, in Baltimore, so if you’re in that neck of the woods, please come. It’s women- and trans-friendly.

Monday, 6/29 was our final day in Cleveland, and of course it was Memorial Day to boot. So we went to a cool moving fundraiser where we met a bunch of gay men who live in the Cleveland area. We were told two of the rudest jokes I’ve ever heard, which I will rarely repeat. Betty - well, she may be easier to talk into telling them. On some days. If she likes you. Maybe. When she gets over being burnt out.

We went home having eaten our fill& having met the local, out, gay City Council member, which was pretty cool. As Diane reported, we did go from being “the two lesbians” at the movable feast to being Helen & Betty, but it felt good to donate a book as a door prize & to give one to the person who’d done the day’s legwork. Still, we were knackered by the time we got back to Diane’s, & I can’t really sleep much when I know we’ve got a train to catch. But we did nap, kind of, & then we packed, & then we drove to Amtrak and said goodbye to Diane & waited in a sleepy Amtrak station for the train to Chicago.

There is something very romantic about catching a train in the middle of the night, despite the sleepiness, or maybe because of it.

Thursday 5/24: we left at 4pm in order to arrive in Cleveland at 3:30am on Friday - but of course Amtrak is Amtrak & instead we got in around 5am.

Friday 5/25: Diane was kind enough not only to pick us up at the train station, but to wait the extra time since Amtrak was late. She gave us a driving tour of Cleveland on the way to her place, including a drive through a very cool park. Having grown up on all the stereotypes of how awful Cleveland is, both me & Betty were quite surprised. After arriving at Diane’s - who gave us not just a room but a floor of her house to stay in, we saw a stray orange tabby in the yard - kind of like a good luck omen, for us. More…

While I put my thoughts together about our trip to Chicago & Cleveland, here are some memories about it from Diane, who was our liaison in Cleveland.

Tomorrow night I’m doing a reading with a few other Seal Press authors at the McNally Robinson bookstore here in New York:

• Jessica Valenti, of Feministing, and author of Full Frontal Feminism
• and Audacia Ray, who wrote Naked on the Internet.

Do come.

(& Because of this reading, the Trans Partners Drop-In Group at the Center will be meeting next Wednesday, 6/13, instead.) More…

Damn, we’re back. Hard to believe; we started to feel like nomads there for a while.

Our thanks to all the people who made this trip possible: Diane, Margaret, Alicia & her partner, Anglique at Women & Children First, & the organizers of the Be-All.

More soon. We’re a little overwhelmed with email, snail mail, and litterboxes.

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.

We depart Cleveland tonight, or this morning, at something around 3am, depending on if the train arrives on time or not (it is, effectively, the same train we got off of Friday morning), and around 10am we’ll be in Chicago.

We went to a lovely fundraiser today for a group who are putting together a diversity conference here in Cleveland the first week of August, and I was so impressed with the idea I have to share it: it was called “A Movable Feast” and three different hosts each served a meal: one appetizers, one the main meal, & the third dessert. You sign up, pay something, the hosts provide the meals, & everyone has a good time while money is being raised for a good cause. At the third house the local City Council member was the host - an out gay man named Joe Santiago, who served in the Navy to boot. It could be a very useful way for people to host for trans issues, since you could provide safe/less public spaces to gather for those who are closeted/private/stealth, but while still providing money for a good cause & getting people to have a good time.

Thanks to all those who met up with us while we were in Cleveland, and a special thanks to Diane Frank and Alpha Omega for organizing our stay in Cleveland, for being fantastic hosts, & for coming to the many events we did.

We’re looking forward now to seeing our Chicago friends.

Yesterday, while buying a cup of tea at the Borders I was about to do a book signing in, I heard the announcement for me and my book over the store’s loudspeakers. Quite surreal, and made me realize that Betty & I didn’t bring a regular camera, much less a video camera.

So far, we are having a lovely time in Cleveland: our host is as gracious as we could want, & the two events today were interesting and enjoyable. Other than our train getting in 1.5 hours late (which meant a 5am arrival!), things are going quite smoothly indeed.

For all of you who have come to events, thanks for attending. We’re looking forward to meeting the rest of you in the Cleveland area sometime this weekend.

We leave on Thursday and will be on the train until very early Friday morning. Our first stop in Cleveland is Loganberry Books in Shaker Heights, Friday night, 4-6PM. Do come if you’re in that neck of the woods.

In the next couple of days we’ll be doing a few other things in the Cleveland area:

• Saturday, May 26: Westlake, OH: Borders Bookstore, 2PM
• Sunday, May 27: Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Congregational UCC, after 10:30 service
• Sunday night, May 27: Cleveland, OH: Reception and Book Signing at Bounce Nightclub, cosponsored by the LGBT Center and Transfamily. Time TBA.