Media: First ‘Boy Toy’ Reading for LitCrawl (Litquake)

You were the type who always had a Mr. Right, a caring, cute, smart guy you could spend your nights in with while I rummaged out and about, drinking cheap gin, and picking out the cum crusts off my belly hairs.

Yes, I was always supportive of your picture perfect boyfriendhood, but deep down, part of me always resented you and your All-American, well-bred knack for monogamous bliss. If we are complete opposites, and you’re the relationship type, then what does that make me?

You really hate staying up past your bedtime, your favorite fruit is pomegranate, and you lost your virginity the night of my 21st birthday party. I know pretty much everything about you. And you know pretty much everything about me. Except that one night I slept with your boyfriend.

Audio of my Confessions of a Boy Toy reading at Lambda Literary’s Fabulocity and Fierceness event, LitCrawl, October 15, 2011. Thanks, Kate!

It’s All a Boy Needs to Survive

Another photo of my friends who came to my reading. Fun fact: all these people are on Tumblr! You should follow them – not because they post interesting stuff – but because they are attractive, stylish, and social (unlike most people on the internet).

Kate (eats mac & cheese in the nude, makes killer mixtapes).
Leah (blonde ambition, will marry a rockstar).
Grant (the most stylish man I know, you’re welcome).
Ashley (my Latin sister from another mister).
JP (gets kicked out of dive bars cause he’s so pretty/messy).
Girl making a weird face in the back (we don’t know her).

UPDATE: These kids were also at my reading but not pictured – Kaitlyn (from hair to there), Stephanie (all the devil’s parties), Federico (art theorist extraordinaire), and Brenden (gentleman adventurer).

Excerpt: Kennedy & Marilyn

Linking arms in the dark corner, I try to capture romance, but all I feel is power.  The young and mischievous finagling with the refined and powerful. The Kennedy as the prized horse, the Marilyn dictates the terms of the engagement.

Excerpt, Confessions of a Boy Toy

Between the Drinks and Subtle Things, Though Holes in My Apologies

Fun (Feat. Janelle Monáe) - ”We Are Young”

Give me a second I
I need to get my story straight
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State
My lover she’s waiting for me just across the bar
My seat’s been taken by some sunglasses asking about a scar and
I know I gave it to you months ago
I know you’re trying to forget
But between the drinks and subtle things
Though holes in my apologies
I’m trying hard to take it back
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down
I’ll carry you home
Tonight

Kiss the Boy

When it comes to love, dating, and relationships, not getting what we want makes for a far more engaging story. The dynamics of disappointment are more complex. For life is not a fairy tale.

First Read: The Novelization of ‘Confessions of a Boy Toy’

And just like that – I’m back!

This summer I was asked to be a part of the Lambda Literary reading panel at LitCrawl, the bar crawl which takes place on Valencia Street to celebrate the end of Litquake. I was initially thinking of whipping out something from my completed, yet unrevised manuscript, The Pride, but just in the last couple of weeks I have been exploring the possibility of turning this very blog into a novel, an idea I was advised would be “very intriguing to publishers.”

So on with the overly emotive retellings of my otherwise lackluster lovelife… I will be reading new material from the novelization of Confessions of a Boy Toy at Viracocha on Saturday, October 15 (that’s tomorrow!) If you’re in the Bay Area, I’d love to see you and catch up in real-life. Plus, you’ll be among the first people to listen to the first chapter of the novel based on this blog!

I will continue to bring you updates here about process of going from blog to book: writing, editing, revising, sending out to friends, reaching out to authors, more revising, and setting out to find the right agent and publisher. Then doing press and other publicity and promotions, events and readings, putting all the pieces of the book publishing puzzle together. Hooray!

Also expect to see a collection of artifacts that inspire me to write an engaging story. Plus my occasional random ramblings about (real) life, (true) love, and (good) sex from a former Boy Toy perspective. Just like the good old days.