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December 28, 2006

These days my nose has been a mucus factory (yuck!) but I am feeling much better now. Last night we watched the improbably engrossing documentary An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning in which Al Gore elucidates passionately and clearly what is possibly the worst long-term crisis facing us right now. (Sure, the Iraq war is important, but this crisis has far more staggering implications than the consequences of that war.) Please do yourself a huge favor by seeing this film (the extras on the DVD except for the Melissa Etheridge music video for her song "I Must Wake Up" are captioned, thanks to Paramount Pictures's commitment to providing more captioning) and follow the various easy tips on the film's web site as to how YOU can help reduce global warming right now. I will post the link on my home page as well as part of my effort to promote awareness of what we can do to resolve this crisis.

I feel sad that The Tactile Mind Press has been forced to liquidate its inventory to pay off its debts. It is my hope that TTM will reinvent itself as a non-profit organization and continue to publish the literature of the signing community. John Lee Clark, its publisher, wants to sell off everything by the end of this year if possible, so please go over there and see if there's anything you'd like to buy at 50% off. Better hurry--a lot of stuff is going fast!

I've also updated my Eyes of Desire 2 web site (a new deadline) and begun writing poems again, this time for a brand-new collection. It's awfully nice to feel inspired again in a time when we have a great many things to despair.

December 13, 2006

Nothing else new except that I'm seeing someone special, writing more than I have in a while, and having a wonderful time relearning the rules and regulations for my upcoming Minnesota driver's exam. (Yeah, yeah, I know: I'd made the stupid mistake of letting my Michigan driver's license expire back in 1989 when I hadn't driven a car in five years by that point. I had thought I'd live in New York forever.) If all goes well, I will be taking my behind-the-wheel classes starting next month. For those of you wondering about the weather up here in terms of my driving lessons, well, I have to tell you that I first learned how to drive in a very snowy February 1982 in Houghton, known for its steep hills comparable to San Francisco's. Talk about nerve-wracking when you're only 16 years old! Minnesota is pretty flat, so this should be a fun experience to get my road grooves back. I can't wait!

And speaking of waiting, I am nearly done with the three-DVD set of my family's home movies, which cover my father's footage of his family (and us nine kids) from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s which my father shot on his eight-millimeter movie camera, and footage that I'd shot of my family in 1992 and 2001. My entire family has been waiting to check out the 2001 portion since that's when our big family reunion happened--a month before 9/11. Who knew? Seriously, I'll be so glad to clear that off my plate and move forward with other projects.

Happy holidays, everyone!

November 30, 2006

It's now official: My essay "Hearing Me, Hearing You" won an Honorable Mention in the Fifth Annual Minnesota Literature Essay Contest. While I've been asked to participate in a joint celebratory reading on January 14th, I don't know yet if they will be able to provide an ASL interpreter. (Please check my Events page for the update on this possible event.)

November 27, 2006

I just got back last night from a four-day stay in a huge but very warm cabin that had no running water or electricity (the outhouse was, uhm, a walk through the backyard; at night, you needed a flashlight to find your way around the trees) on a beautiful lake up north near Ely, Minnesota, roughly 90 minutes south of Canada. I thought it would be difficult, but nope. I had a blast, and I drank nearly a whole bottle of sublime Reisling wine. (!!!) And so, with a group of truly wonderful people, I celebrated my 41st birthday by eating some key lime pie. We also went to a Finnish sauna, which was lots of fun. I enjoyed getting sizzled, and then nearly frosted with a cold shower, and then steamed up all over again. It was so nice to get showered as well. Granted, it was a far cry from the wilds of Paris where I'd turned 40 the year before, but I still had a wonderful time on a beautiful lake that was starting to freeze. Dead pine needles cushioned my feet everywhere I explored the woods nearby. And the stars! It had been a while since I'd seen so many layers of stars so crisp without streetlights obscuring them. I had to stand out there for a good ten minutes just to look up and everywhere in the pitch-black darkness.

One of the best things about Ely is the famous Jim Brandenburg Gallery. If you don't know who this Minnesota-based photographer is, you should check out the gallery at his web site. He's just amazing in how he's able to convey so much beauty and yet a certain resilience inherent in nature itself.

And of course, an adorable dog belonging to our hosts stayed with us. His name is Gretzky, named after possibly the greatest hockey player of all time. He was off-leash the whole time. He wouldn't stray too far off wherever we walked, and kept bouncing back to us every ten minutes. Truly a fantastic dog. In some ways he reminds me of Frosty, the Siberian husky memorialized in "The Season of Fur" in my book St. Michael's Fall. Even though I've known Gretzky for a few days, I miss him already, though not as much as I miss Frosty.

As usual, I have a great many irons in the fire. While I could share what they all are, I must acknowledge that many of us artists suffer rejection on a regular basis. I prefer to focus on the positive side of things and share the good news whenever possible.

That said, I'm off to proof the final edits for my new book When I am Dead: The Writings of George M. Teegarden, which is coming out this spring. (As soon as the tint color of its cover is finalized, I will create a new site for the book.)

In the meantime: Happy Holidays, everyone!

October 29, 2006

These past few days have been just a mad whirlwind--I was best man for my younger brother Kevin's wedding on Friday October 27th, and it had been more than five years since all of us nine siblings and our mother had been together in the same room. It was so fantastic to see everyone and all their significant others and catch up with the latest in their lives, not to mention a lovely wedding and an awesome reception. "We are family," indeed!

That said, may Kevin and Holly have a most blessed union for many, many years to come! I look forward to embarrassing them again at their 50th anniversary reception! (Those who were there at the reception last Friday will know what I'm talking about.)

October 4, 2006

Still working on Ghosted, but I am also making preparations for my Halloween party, which MNRAD is sponsoring on Saturday October 21st. I'm very proud to have been asked to run MNRAD, the Deaf GLBT club here in Minneapolis, so my two-year term as President will begin on November 1st, 2006. I look forward to creating a more viable web site, creating a stronger sense of community through a series of events, increasing MNRAD's visibility in both the Deaf and hearing local communities as well as elsewhere in the Midwest, and having fun working with a wonderful group of people. Spook ya at the party on the 21st!

September 29, 2006

Ah, the last day of September is on us once again. Already? Oh, man.

Per request from some of you, I've finally gotten around to posting a PDF of the first 99 chapters of Lansel, my novel in progress. Here's hoping that you'll get a kick out of Al, Ruth, and the ever-mysterious Angela!

Progress on Ghosted continues. I think I've found a nice special effects editor here in Minneapolis who's gonna help me out. Will keep you posted.

May you enjoy the marvelous changing of season's colors! I sure love autumn.

August 31, 2006

Hard to believe that tomorrow will mark the first anniversary of my move to Minneapolis. A whole year has gone by? Whoa. You could say that it's been a great learning process where I've made some great friends, so I'm happy with that. Either way I will mark the occasion with a few friends at the State Fair where I will be sure to check out the Arts Exhibition building (which I first saw that John Largaespada's stunning large-scale digital photograph "New York Movie" that I now own) and a few amusement rides. I have to honor the inner child in me once in a while. Besides, it's fun!

As for the QuickTime movie situation (see the previous entry below), it's apparently dependent on who's got the QT player installed on their browsers. Some people with Windows computers have told me that they have had no problems; very few have said that they did. As far as I know, it seems to be with their computers rather than my own site. :-(

Version 2.0 of Manny's web site is now "live"! Go hire him to perform his amazing ASL stories. Tell him I sent you!

August 22, 2006

Turns out that my online QuickTime movie files don't play on some Windows computers out in the wild while they play just fine on my friends's Macs. I'm now investigating why they don't. Other than that, life is good.

August 18, 2006

I have been very busy in revamping Manny ASL's web site lately, this time featuring quite a few new clips and information about his workshops. The new version should be "live" within a few days, so do check it out when you can!

August 15, 2006

My short film compilation FRAGMENTS: Raymond Growing Up is finally posted online. Yayyy!!!

August 12, 2006

I don't know if I'll actually do this, but I'm contemplating having a video blog of sorts in which I would sign in ASL my current thoughts and concerns, which would not be translated into English due to time constraints, from time to time. After all, I do have a nifty camera and program that makes such editing a painless snap. Hmmm.

Today I discovered the Minneapolis Farmers Market for the first time. Wow! I ended up lugging 25 pounds of fresh produce, all had for excellent prices, on my bike. But there's gotta be a more bike-friendly way from my neighborhood to the market as it was a pain in the butt to go up the freeway from the market. I will have to study the local map closely and figure out how best to get there for my next trip. The real kicker is that it is open every single day! I will have to go there during the week and avoid the weekend crowds.

In the meantime, I am consuming quite slowly a cluster of grapes that I'd bought as part of a heavy bag for only two bucks. Yum! It'll be a fun challenge to eat a bowl of cherries for only $2 too.

August 11, 2006

Now that I've been doing a bit of spring cleaning (well, never mind the fact that it's August already!) lately on my web site, you should be aware that I've revamped my films section a wee bit and included a still from the new short Web film Raymond Growing Up, a compilation of sorts excerpted from my father's home movies of us nine children growing up. As of right now, the film is unlinked as I'm waiting for permission to include two of my sisters in the footage. In the meantime, you might find my new section, My Life in Pictures, a tad intriguing.

July 28, 2006

Wow! Many things have happened since I last posted anything here. I honestly had no idea how long it's been since I updated this page, so in quick order, I'll list my ups and downs since May 2005.

- My short story "Interpretations" has been recently accepted by Bloom, a national literary GLBT periodical. It will appear next month.
- The esteemed gay periodical James White Review, which was going to publish my short story "Once Upon a Time in 1983," folded just when the story was to appear. As they say in Hollywood, "Next!"
- My play In Love and Lust We Trust was done at Jacksons Lane Theater in London last August. Truly an extraordinary experience to see it done in British Sign Language (BSL).
- I celebrated my 40th birthday in Paris.
- My book Sylvia Plath Made Me Do It got killed when Immediate Sensations Books closed shop right between its advance review copies and its revised publication. Turns out that there wasn't enough money to put out the book. I've already begun looking for a new publisher, but no word yet on its acceptance.
- I won an Artist Recognition Grant for my accomplishments in poetry which was jointly awarded by the Jerome Foundation and VSA arts of Minnesota.
- My sixth book When I am Dead: The Writings of George M. Teegarden is coming out from Gallaudet University Press in the spring of 2007. More information should be posted next month as soon as the cover is finalized for their spring catalog.
- I won a small grant from the Laurent Clerc Cultural Fund (of Gallaudet University) to help finish my much-(technically)-beleaguered film Ghosted, so progress is being made there.
- I am now awaiting word on representation for my completed novel Wanton Saints.
- Last but not least, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 1, 2005 after having lived in Washington, DC and New York, NY for a total of twenty-one years. In spite of such changes necessitated by my move, Tom and I have remained great friends and keep in daily contact via email. I continue to be inspired by the rich arts scene and the friendliness of people here in the Twin Cities. And yes, I've taken up painting after thirtysome years! (I needed to do something that had nothing to do with WORDS for a change.)

May 15, 2005

A few exciting things have happened since I last wrote here:

- A few new poems of mine were accepted by Chelsea, Crab Orchard Review, and Freefall.
- My story, "Once Upon a Time in 1983," excerpted from my deaf gay novel Men With Their Hands, is appearing in the next issue of the much-esteemed James White Review. (Still no word yet on whether the novel itself will be published, however.)
- My book Silence is a Four-Letter Word: On Art & Deafness was reprinted in a second edition.
- The second reprint of my play Snooty is nearly sold out and is due for a third reprint.
- My twelfth stageplay, Doogle, opened last month in Faribault, MN at the Minnesota State Academy of the Deaf. (The play was later done again at St. Paul College.)
- My second full-length documentary Nathie: No Hand-Me-Downs has finally shipped. (A trailer has been posted as well.)
- I am already working on a new cut of Manny: ASL for a Better Life, my second DVD collaboration with the great ASL storyteller Manny Hernandez. (I hope to complete its final cut by the end of June and start translating and subtitling by then.)

Oh yeah, today is my brother Kevin's birthday. (All I want for you is to be totally happy! Happy Birthday!)

March 16, 2005

OMG--I can't believe nearly two months have passed since I last wrote in here. How is it possible that so much time can pass by so quickly? While I haven't heard anything from "E.T." (see the previous entry) for Eyes of Desire 2, my letter to him didn't bounce back. It appears that for all practical purposes, W. Jamey Vandegrift has disappeared from New Jersey. But more importantly, I can now say that I have folks from ten--count 'em, TEN!--countries who've written in to say they want to write something for the collection. And the list keeps on growing--five deaf transgendered folks have asked to participate. And yes, there have been a lot more women who've asked to share their stories, so I'm very, very pleased about that. I'm still so grateful to a certain few friends who've asked whether it was okay to post information about my new call for submissions all over the world. (Of course, by all means, please do!) Wanna help spread the good word around wherever you are? Please email me directly for a PDF flyer! (Thanks.)

I just finished revising my book Silence is a Four-Letter Word: On Art & Deafness for its second edition, which is coming out sometime next month. Just wanted to let those who've been waiting for their backordered copy know that it is indeed coming!

And whatever happened to poor Nathie? It's coming, definitely coming!

Tonight I will watch the DVD edition of Brad Bird's The Incredibles, definitely one of the most intelligent--and funny!--Hollywood scripts to make it to the silver--or, Pixar-induced--screen in recent years. Bird's Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay was much deserved, because like most writers who voted to give him the Oscar, he knew that a movie is nothing without a great story behind it. Just because a great story happens to be animated doesn't make it less so. And Pixar does know a great story when it smells one! (Toy Story or Monsters, Inc., anyone?)

Another wonderful--and very provocative and unforgettable--film that I saw recently is the Morgan Spurlock documentary Super-Size Me. In the film, Mr. Spurlock decides to eat nothing but meals at McDonald's for 30 days, "just to see what happens." Along the way, his doctors are horrified by the changes in his body and beg him to quit the "ridiculous diet." But what is even more compelling are the quick peeks into the various factors that've caused Amercia's obesity problem to reach epidemic proportions. (For one thing, kids today in many schools have gym only once a week. Yeah, I hated gym as a kid, but I was ultra-skinny due to my high metabolism rate. If I had known then what I know now, I'd have loved gym!) McDonald's is only a teeniest-tiny tip of the mammoth iceberg. The film is required viewing, particularly if you do care intensely about your own body as you grow older.

January 25, 2005

In case anyone is wondering, I've gotten a lot of emailed queries about the forthcoming Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader [submission guidelines here], and their proposed true stories have confirmed my suspicions that I was right to start this project. There are so many extraordinary stories waiting to be heard! I've already accepted a wonderful prose piece for the book. I'm now trying to track down on these two writers who appeared in my first Eyes of Desire--Edward "E.T." Theriault and W. Jamey Vandegrift--so if you know how I could reach them, please don't hesitate to let me know! (Thanks.)

January 19, 2005

I've decided to enact another brand-new New Year's resolution for 2005: Start collecting submissions for Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader, even though I don't have a book contract for it yet. Besides, I've just finished the third draft of my new novel Wanton Saints. Two friends are now reading the book to see how I can strengthen it before I start querying a few agents I know.

Truly, I'm just very excited about Eyes of Desire 2. This promises to be the start of a new fascinating journey. Of course, I will keep you all posted of its progress! And yes, I'm looking for submissions. (Hint,hint!)

January 1, 2005

Happy New Year, everyone!

Today I finished the second draft of my new novel Wanton Saints, but I suspect that I will have to rewrite the book's ending with a brand-new section. I need to reread the book and see if this is truly warranted. I also tweaked the arrangements of those one-inch photographs on my home page and incorporated three new pictures.

That said, my New Year's resolutions are now fully in effect, and I intend to make 'em happen. For those who've been used to seeing me online a lot for instant messaging, well, I apologize for having to cut back. I will of course keep in touch via email. You know who you are!

Again, many thanks to friends and colleagues for helping to make 2004 such a memorable year!

December 23, 2004

Today I revamped my home page to make it look less busy. (!!!) I don't know if it looks any better, but then again, I know I'm extremely fortunate in that my work continues to attract attention.

Now that Nathie's ready for DVD replication and that Sylvia Plath Made Me Do It is sitting quite finished with its publisher (Immediate Sensations Books wants to promote the book in a big way this spring, so some planning is required before it can appear), I've already moved on to the next draft of my new novel, Wanton Saints, which I hope to submit to a few agents I know in the new year. (If I do get a contract for it, I'll naturally post salient details about the book here.) And yeah, I'm already shopping around my next two collections of poetry in addition to Men With Their Hands, which is now under serious consideration by an exciting publisher whom I've never worked with but hope to have the utmost pleasure to do so. I hope to hear from him soon whether I have a contract for the novel. He's already warned me that due to his company's backlog, they wouldn't be able to bring out Men With Their Hands until 2007! (That is, *if* they decide to take it on.) I'm totally fine with that, because such luxury of time means that not only the book can be even better but also that it can be marketed even better!

My new year's resolutions for 2005 include finishing the soundtrack and a few remaining special effects for my feature film Ghosted, bagging a contract for one of my next books of poems, finishing my hugely popular fiction serial Lansel, writing a new memoir, and continuing to work at my craft as a poet.

This year has been an amazing year of changes, but it's been a good one. It can only get better in 2005!

September 28, 2004

Last week I finished what I hope to be the final, final cut of Nathie: No Hand-Me-Downs. I'm now waiting to hear back as to any further changes needed before I give myself a little break from working on the DVD and do a little writing. As a result, I've pushed back the expected release of my next DVD Manny: ASL for a Better Life to the summer of 2005; besides, he himself is getting married to the lovely, lovely Senda Benaisse on October 9th! Earlier today I gave a little talk at Fordham University about my short story "Ten Reasons Why Michael and Geoff Never Got It On" in Kenny Fries's class on disability literature. That was fun. And yes, I went through the final proofs of my new book Sylvia Plath Made Me Do It: A Story in Verse last night, so that was pretty thrilling, and exhausting too. Because a poem by its own nature is always condensed, one must pay extra-close attention to the weight of each word, and the snowballing effect of each line.

Each day brings me a day closer to dreams yet to be found.

August 26, 2004

This summer sure went by fast, but I'm not complaining. Last June I went to Chicago, courtesy of the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, and attended my first Lambda Literary Awards dinner. I also fell in love with the astonishing range of its masterpieces hung in the Art Institute of Chicago's extraordinary museum, where I'd wandered for five sensational hours prior to dinner. It was a perfect antidote to the rush-rush of the previous months (see my journal entry below). Then a few days later I was in Minneapolis with Manny Hernandez, where we shot footage of his new ASL stories for his new DVD, which is now called Manny: ASL for a Better Life, which we hope to release by November 2004. A few weeks ago I finished its first rough cut, but it's already evident that Manny has blossomed even more as an amazing storyteller. The preorder link for his new DVD should be up later this fall. After the invigorating Minneapolis shoot, I then worked on the Nathie DVD, where I tweaked its editing and subtitling which took me longer than anticipated, hence its delay in shipping. Sorry about that, folks. Then I went to teach playwriting for two weeks to the students at the Actors Academy 2004 sponsored by the National Theatre of the Deaf. (Believe it or not, it's still alive and kicking!) I'm still flabbergasted that I was asked to teach there. It was an amazing experience to learn so much from my own students, and to watch my colleagues teach the various disciplines that go into an actor's training. I am so proud of those students who made it into the NTD's Little Theatre of the Deaf (LTD)!

So: What's next on my plate? The publication of my sixth book Sylvia Plath Made Me Do It: A Story in Verse this fall! (The web site for Immediate Sensation Books should be up by end of August; if the link doesn't work by then, please try again in a few days.)

May 28, 2004

Time sure flies when you're hit with an unexpected wave of success after success in the last few months: My award-winning stageplay Snooty was finally published as a book. My stage adaptation of Beauty & The Beast was a completely sold-out success (just look at that page and you'll see what I mean!). My third book of poems Sylvia Plath Made Me Do It was accepted by Immediate Sensation Books for publication in the fall of 2004 (yes, this fall). My ratings as instructor for the Gotham Writers Workshop where I'd taught an online course in memoir writing were quite high. A few of my poems got accepted for publication in a few places. My forthcoming novel Men with Their Hands (still in search of a publisher) won a first-prize award from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation for Full-Length Fiction 2003 (Chicago, here I come!). And if that wasn't overwhelming enough, The Tactile Mind Press has asked me to work again with the great ASL storyteller Manny Hernandez on his next DVD. I'm really looking forward to working with Manny in Minneapolis, giving a few readings, and sneaking in a small vacation of sorts afterwards next month. And of course, I'm now wrapping up the DVD of Nathie: No Hand-Me-Downs, my next documentary to see release later this summer. Truly, I feel humbled by how much I am in demand, and I don't even have an agent ... yet!

March 13, 2004

Two more weeks left before I am done with directing my stage adaptation of Beauty & The Beast. (Yikes!) My stay in Fremont has been nothing short of extraordinary and rich in my learning experiences, particularly in savoring much natural beauty that seems so abundant in Northern California. (For those of you who hasn't seen much of me online or around New York lately, I apologize. You know why.)

I am thinking of creating a regular blog here, but blogging requires a particular kind of discipline that I don't seem to have at the moment. Maybe I will try to do just that when I return to New York on March 29th.

January 31, 2004

Went up with a friend of mine to check out Mount Diablo today. Just a stunning 3,849-feet-high mountain with a 360-view of the immediate universe. I decided to update the home page with a new picture from the summit.

Hard to believe that the first month of January is soon gone. My first three weeks here at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont have been extraordinarily productive and pleasurable in terms of work and friendship. I'm truly proud of the crew and student actors and their progress with my stage adaptation of Beauty & The Beast, which I am directing for its opening in the last week of March; the school has been wonderfully supportive. Ticket information to come as soon as the poster for the play has been finalized.

When I'm not busy editing my next DVD, Nathie: No Hand-Me-Downs, I still write weekly installments for my novel-in-progress Lansel, and even though I've gone past its 42nd installment, I find things heating up considerably. Even I can't wait to see what will happen next to Alan Worx, Angela Marstone, Ruth Berbas, and a whole cast of characters revolving around the Lansel School for the Deaf. It's actually grand fun to write it. (By the way, if you haven't begun reading it, you should start at its first chapter and catch up as each installment doesn't have a summary prior to the new chapter. Sign-up is free.)

December 9, 2003

Good news! The Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork DVD is shipping at last!

I just spent a wonderful weekend in Houston where Illumination Arts presented my play Love In My Veins in celebration of the World AIDS Day. They are a great group of people to work with, and I can't thank them enough for making it happen. And yes, it was so weird to see the title of my play up there on a marquee!

Am off for a five-day visit to the Bay Area tomorrow morning, so I need to grab some sleep.

November 28, 2003

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

In case you didn't know already, the special preorder price for Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork ends on December 1, 2003. A week from today I will be flying to Houston to see the opening of my play Love In My Veins, and then soon after I will fly to San Francisco for a few days to settle details for my next stage project. More details to come when they are confirmed.

Oh yeah: It was nice to see my short short "The Room Of My Eyes" appear in James C. Johnstone's anthology Quickies 3: Short Short Fiction on Gay Male Desire (Arsenal Pulp Press) recently.

Here's to a restful holiday season ahead!

November 3, 2003

I meant to announce that I've already sent out the final master of the DVD containing Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork. (That nice preorder price will be history soon, so order if you want to save up on your holiday shopping!) My next DVD? Nathie, as in Nathie Marbury. I will start editing it this Thursday upon my return from my Wednesday reading in Reading, Pennsylvania.

October 10, 2003

Due to the unexpected difficulty of casting the right deaf actress for my one-act "mystery quickies" Deal/Honeymoon, the show has been postponed to January 2004. Which is fine by me, because it means even more time to rewrite both plays. I also finished my new rewrite of Love In My Veins, which I sent out a few days ago.

October 2, 2003

It's been insanely busy these past few weeks. Not only did I have to figure out what I wanted to do as the Culture Section Editor of SIGNews for their debut issue coming out later this month, I also had to fly to Houston to see a private read-through of my full-length play Love In My Veins and meet my new director. I'm so glad that I went even if it was for two-and-half days, because all that feedback is simply going to help me rewrite the play to much stronger effect. (I can't wait to see how the show turns out in December!) Oh yeah, I just sent out the final cut of Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork to my producer today for final approval before we send it to the DVD replicator. The hour of reckoning is near at hand, so please don't hesitate to preorder here and save $5 right off the bat!

Snooty still hasn't come out yet, but don't let that stop you from preordering either and save yourself $5. (Grins.)

Once Guy Wonder goes out the door for distribution, what's next on my digital video plate? A brand-new DVD featuring a fantastic storyteller and ASL poet named Nathie Marbury from Austin, Texas. I hope to complete her DVD by the end of this year. (Am I still looking to raise money to help complete the sound mix of Ghosted? You bet I am!)

On a side note, I'm pleased to report that my first DVD, Manny ASL, has already sold over 80% of its initial run. Way to go, Manny! (Yes, he and I have been talking about doing a sequel together, but no contract has been signed. Stay tuned.)

September 14, 2003

Snooty is finally available for preordering. And yes, I have 35 more minutes left to go with the translation and subtitles of Guy Wonder, so I feel very confident that the DVD will come out next month. (Yes, you can preorder that title too. And guess what? You get free shipping and handling too!)

September 7, 2003

It seems around here that when it rains, it pours. These days I'm halfway through subtitling and translating Guy Wonder's ASL into English (the movie is 94 minutes long) before it goes out on DVD later this fall. I'm also working with the New York Deaf Theater to present a pair of my new "mystery quickie" one-acts Deal/Honeymoon in New York City this November, and with the Illuminations Theatre with the Deaf to present my new full-length play Love In My Veins in Houston this December. (Ticket information for both shows will be posted as soon as they are made available.) I will be appearing in three anthologies this fall. And of course, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my published play Snooty.

Last night I came across a short film that I'd made just for this Web site a while ago, which I'd totally forgotten about. Scroll down to The First 25 Years on this page when you want a little retrospective of my career.

Tomorrow will mark my 15th anniversary of my move to New York. Who knew?

July 5, 2003

My visit to the Twin Cities went spectacularly well, and I had a fine time meeting all sorts of people there. I hope to return there in mid-October to give a reading.

In the meantime, I am working on translating ASL into English to make Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork accessible to the signing-impaired. I leave New York City again on Friday, this time for Austin, Texas.

June 10, 2003

The DVD for my full-length documentary Guy Wonder: Stories & Artwork is coming along very well; I will show my producer the new cut of the film next week in St. Paul. (I will begin shooting a new documentary in Los Angeles this coming weekend, and then spend two weeks in Minneapolis, catching up on some business and a little pleasure with friends and family there. It should be lots of fun to catch the Minneapple version of the Pride Parade on June 29th. I can't wait!)

No major progress has been made recently with Ghosted except that it is now up to a few mighty powers-that-be to buy its rights.

Phillip Ward of The Quentin Crisp Foundation was kind enough to take a few hours to produce a few lovely snapshots of me to help "summerize" my home page. Off with that winter coat and let that sun shine!

April 30, 2003

These days I'm busy with a ghostwriting project (nothing to do with Ghosted, alas), a new novel-in-progress (called Lansel) for which a new chapter I write every week for a new (and free) e-zine, and my first full-length documentary Guy Wonder: Stories and Artwork.Things are coming right along!

April 20, 2003

I just returned from a long weekend in Washington, DC where I reviewed Tim Chamberlain's superlative work as sound and special effects editor on my film Ghosted; he has truly improved on my initial work as editor. Now that the film is at last in a presentable form, I'm looking forward to a round of meetings to be arranged through my lawyer to see if we can land a cable or distribution deal. Wish all of us luck!

I have been otherwise busy editing my first full-length documentary Guy Wonder: Stories and Artwork; approximately 75 minutes has been completed so far, and I am looking forward to the next phase of editing and incorporating some of Guy's amazing family history into the film. A sneak preview clip in addition to DVD ordering information will be posted sometime next month.

I've also been asked to become a regular columnist for The Tactile Mind Weekly (TTMW), a free e-zine of the signing community. TTMW will carry news, facts, short fiction, poetry, opinion, humor, and creative criticism, together with readings from other The Tactile Mind Press publications.

To get a free subscription to The Tactile Mind Weekly, go here. Your email address will not be divulged to the public nor sold to anyone else.

March 5, 2003

It is good to be back in New York City after spending two weeks in San Francisco where I showed a short sneak preview of my film Ghosted at the San Francisco Public Library (which went extremely well), took in some offerings from the first Deaf Film Festival at the Pacific Film Archive over the weekend, and worked with the ASL storyteller (and artist) Guy Wonder for a documentary, which will be called Guy Wonder: Stories and Artwork. We hope the DVD will come out no later than August 2003.

December 21, 2002

Finally revamped the home page of my Web site in an effort to streamline my offerings. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Will write more later. (It is the holiday season after all!)

November 8, 2002

Even though I still haven't found a full-time job yet, a lot has been happening. I've recently signed a book contract for my award-winning full-length comedy Snooty, which will appear sometime this spring; I will create a special site for it as its publication date draws nearer. I am also doing a ghostwriting project involving correspondence between Presidents and their First Ladies for a book packager/agent, which is due later this month. I now have three new books of my own under consideration for publication. I spent a week in Chicago last month to shoot documentary footage for a director; I will return there in less than two weeks for a few days worth of more footage. For those who'd wondered about what else I would do after putting out a successful DVD title (Manny ASL: Stories in American Sign Language) last July, I will begin shooting footage for my next ASL storyteller DVD next month in Tampa, Florida; I hope to see that DVD out sometime by June 2003. As for Ghosted, new changes are definitely afoot. It looks like the movie will be shown in the fall of 2003; we are now working on a special DVD edition of the movie. As always, more details to follow as they are made available.

Sunday, September 8, 2002

Today is my 14th anniversary of my move to New York City. Hard to believe how much time has flown, and how much has changed in the meantime.

Still working on Ghosted and still looking for work. (My unemployment insurance runs out this week.)

Sunday, August 19, 2002

It was a little freaky for me to go down to the South Street Seaport where a deaf festival was in progress, because the last time I was there was the Sunday before the September 11th attacks. Nevertheless I was grateful to run into friends I hadn't seen in a while.

While there seems to be very little available in the current job market, I am making serious progress with Ghosted; in fact, we're almost done with one scene, and then the rest is all special effects, music, and subtitling. And of course, some tweaking here and there. *sighs*

I've also updated my events page for those who will be in the Washington, DC metro area for my next public appearance. Be there, or be square!

Still looking for work? Any job leads will always be most appreciated!

Friday, July 19, 2002

Deaf Way II was, simply put, an extraordinary experience I was grateful to be a part of; I hope to write about it in detail at some point. It was there that I began autographing my new books and seeing Manny's DVD sell like hotcakes (poor Manny! *grins*). Seriously, it was so gratifying to see people enjoy my work in different ways, and to run into long-forgotten friends and acquaintances after so many years every fifteen minutes. It was so wonderful to meet so many interesting people from all over the world so easily. Truly amazing.

The job market isn't very encouraging at the moment, though. Any job leads will continue to be most appreciated!

Thursday, July 4, 2002

The turnout for my play A Pair of Hands: Deaf Gay Monologues was fantastic. Thanks to everyone for coming. Tim Chamberlain, who directed, did a terrific job of showing the talents of Monique Holt, Robbie Berry, and Houston Davenport to all their advantage in the show.

Today marks the end of The Tactile Mind's special preorder offer on my new books. The books have turned out well; my publisher and I are set to meet very soon to figure out my schedule of readings to promote the books.

Manny Hernandez is thrilled to report that our first DVD, Manny ASL: Stories in American Sign Language, has arrived today in Washington, DC. I haven't seen the DVD all in its shrink-wrapped glory ... yet. Here's hoping that MANNY ASL will be a huge success!

Thanks again to John and Manny for giving me the opportunities to challenge my own creative process. Muchas gracias!

As always, Happy Fourth, everyone!

Monday, June 10, 2002

My, how quickly time flies. My trip to San Francisco to give a little keynote speech and a reading was lovely, and it was so great to be back after being away for eight years. (Can I say "My, how quickly time flies" again?)

The Manny ASL DVD (yes, his site is now up!) has been sent out for premastering and replication, so Manny and I are looking forward to seeing our first DVD soon. My publisher has informed me that both of my new two books—Silence is a Four-Letter Word: On Art & Deafness and This Way to the Acorns—have gone to press last weekend. If you haven't preordered those two books, please do so before July 4th! It would make my dear publisher very happy!

And please don't forget to check out my new play A Pair of Hands: Deaf Gay Monologues at the HERE Theater if you happen to live in the New York City metropolitan area. It opens on Friday, June 28th. Paying for your tickets in advance is *strongly* advised.

Thanks ever so much!

Thursday, May 23, 2002

A week from Friday, I will fly to San Francisco to honor a commitment I made a long while ago. For more information on such a mysterious trip, check out my brand-new (and much overdue) section on the Web: Events & Appearances. There, you can find out my schedule of appearances, readings, and screenings.

Also on that page you can find out more information about ordering tickets for my new play of one-acts A Pair Of Hands: Deaf Gay Monologues, which is opening on Friday, June 28th at the HERE Theater in New York City. Tim Chamberlain directs Monique Holt, Robbie Berry, and Houston Davenport in stories from a historical era not so long ago.

I am equally proud to be the first to put a rare sneak preview from Manny ASL: Stories in American Sign Language, which I directed; the file size of the clip is not phone-friendly, however. The renowned ASL storyteller Manny Hernandez's Web site will be up very soon, promoting the DVD coming out this July. I will post the link here when it's ready.

Still otherwise unemployed? Yes. The job market's unbelievably tight, and it doesn't help that there's a new swelling of competition in the swarms of recent college graduates.

Friday, April 12, 2002

Nothing new other than that I've started teaching myself DVD Studio Pro for a project I may do in the future, and how I keep thinking of how the director Wong Kar-wai put together his masterpiece IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. That film, set in Hong Kong in 1962, revolves around a man and a woman, while each married to someone else, who gradually fall for each other after learning that their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. There are some stunning sequences in which the lovers seem to be doing nothing, yet they are doing so much of what they can for each other. And I've seen this movie only once! Who knows, I may very well watch it again soon.

Am I still looking for work? Yes.

Saturday, March 30, 2002

Have reached a new milestone of sorts today: Even though the visual portion of the movie GHOSTED is nearly done and color-corrected, my sound director has finally heard the entire new 84-minute cut for the first time. (Yes, you read that right--I've lopped off some 50 minutes from its original rough cut of 132 minutes. Some of those 50 minutes will probably end up in the "deleted scenes" section on the DVD at some point.) I will shoot a few new scenes to make the movie stronger, so it should be no longer than 100 minutes when it's finally done. While my sound director works with his editor, I will work on its subtitles.

I've just learned the title of the anthology in which two of my stories ("How to Become a Backstabber" and "Depths of the River") will appear for the first time this summer: THE DEAF WAY II ANTHOLOGY: A LITERARY COLLECTION BY DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEARING WRITERS. Tonya Stremlau is the editor; but no word yet as to whether Gallaudet University Press will make it available to the general public.

On the theater front, I'm waiting to hear on the status of my six new plays: HIPPOS & GIRAFFES, THIS, GAMBIT, PENNY LOVER, THE HAPPY DE VON CAMPERS, and LOVE IN MY VEINS. When I'm not busy looking for a job, I get busy seeking opportunities elsewhere! (I've probably taken only two days off since I lost my job; I've been working literally nonstop.)

Yes, I'm still applying for various openings through the Internet. As always, if you know of any potential job leads or referrals, I would truly appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!

Monday, March 4, 2002

Still looking for a job (I know, I know!), but at least I'm trying out the ropes of my new Adobe GoLive 6.0 upgrade, which is thankfully OS X-native. Thank you, Adobe!

Monday, February 11, 2002

Lots of good news, everyone! If you haven't noticed already, I've pretty much streamlined my Web site to celebrate some very good news.

First off, I want to thank The Tactile Mind Press for their enthusiasm and faith in two of my books, which they are bringing out this July to celebrate Deaf Way II, an international festival celebrating the various works by deaf artists of various stripes and countries. I, for one, am looking forward to it as it isn't every day that a writer gets two books published the same day.

Oh yes: What are those two books? I've set up new home pages for both titles--SILENCE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD: ON ART & DEAFNESS with excerpts and THIS WAY TO THE ACORNS: POEMS with some sample poems--so feel free to click around. The Tactile Mind Press is offering a fantastic preorder deal (25% off plus free shipping) on both books, so check it out before the preorder offer expires on July 4, 2002!

The visual final cut of GHOSTED is more or less done; I am now working on correcting the colors in some of the scenes before working with a sound director and editor on its soundtrack. And yes, I've included some substantial information about the movie itself so check out the new home page.

In between I am still looking for a job. Again, referrals to possible job leads would be most appreciated.

Tuesday, January 1, 2002

To celebrate a totally brand-new year full of hope and promise, I've posted a new trailer for my little movie GHOSTED. What can all those images possibly mean? Again, please stay tuned for more ghostly developments later in the year! (In case you're wondering how far along I am with the movie, the first hour is actually done.)

After having worked at Knowledge Transfer International for eight years, I'm now out of a job, mainly due to the economic aftermath of the September 11th attacks. If you know of anyone who might be able to help me find a viable opportunity in the New York City area, please don't hesitate to email me here! My resume is also available on request.

The weekend just before I lost my job, I was fortunate enough to see a wonderful production of my new play INTERPRETATIONS at the Illuminations Theatre with the Deaf in Houston, TX. Thank you, Susan Jackson and everyone else who've made my two visits to Texas so memorable. Texas is sure a big state with a big warm heart!

As soon as I have some good news to share, I'll definitely be thrilled to announce it here, so do check back once in a while.
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Tuesday, October 2, 2001

A year ago tonight was the last night before I went to Ohio for three weeks and made a movie called GHOSTED. I have not gone back to editing the last half of the movie, partly because I have run out of hard drive space (one hour of DV footage eats up 13 GB each, and not to mention those voluminous render files) even on a 265-GB machine. Due to the economic downturn of late, I haven't had the cash to buy two more FireWire drives, but I'll find a way. I do not give up easily.

More importantly, my thoughts remain very much with those involved in the World Trade Center tragedy as well as those heroic rescue workers putting in hope for hours toiled. Luckily I didn't know anyone who perished there, but it was still a shock, more so when I decided to venture on a bike ride to the Esplanade. For those of you who don't know the amazing island of Manhattan, the Esplanade starts at 72nd Street and continues south towards Battery Park City and towards the South Ferry landing where one can go to Staten Island. I'm sure by now you'll have learned that the World Trade Center was the center of the wheel that was the Lower Manhattan, around which the Esplanade wraps.

It has always been my favorite place to bike all summer long, because the Hudson River is right there, and its daring winds come from above the waters and all around me. I also enjoyed being part of the constant and spontaneous parade such a trademark of New York that we often take it for granted.

My heart was very heavy when I finally crossed the West Side Highway at Christopher Street and dared to look south. In all this time, I had seen on television the images of the World Trade Center blowing up and collapsing, which is forevermore imprinted in my brain, but nothing quite prepared me for the shock of looking up, as I always did when I turned south for a speed ride and looked up for the ... no. It was as if two friends who had always been there forever had mysteriously evaporated. The back-of-my-mind familiarity with the skyline of lower Manhattan was gone, searching for something that could comfort me. I needed that familiarity, just so that I could feel capable of going on. It just wasn't forthcoming.

Yet, somehow seeing their absence meant that I had to move on, that I had to force myself out of the funk I had lapsed into since the tragedy. I was also very deeply touched when friends and acquaintances from whom I hadn't heard in years suddenly emailed me, asking if I was indeed all right. Some of them were shocked to learn that I live only 4.5 miles (as straight as the crow flies) away from the infamous Ground Zero.

These days, as a way of moving on, I have refocused my energies on reshaping and rewriting my deaf gay novel. I had resumed work on it two weeks before the tragedy when I had a clear-as-a-bell epiphany about what I could do to solve its structural problems that all my previous agents had struggled with; they loved it but they never submitted it because there was always something to fix first. With that vision so clearly in my head, it was truly among the easiest things to fix; it was also a joy to be writing fiction after so long. I even wrote a brand-new novella to end the novel, so now it's far more ambitious in scope--spanning almost three decades--and yet so much better.

I had truly forgotten how long I had been working on this 300-page-plus novel until one day I was looking for one of the many chapters I'd discarded some ten years before and came across the long-forgotten journal I had kept when I first began writing the novel. The year was 1986! I was even more flabbergasted when I discovered that in that very journal was the outline that had appeared in my own head a few weeks before! That I had drifted so far away from the novel's original structure over the years was depressing, but that I still had my instinct to rely on, even back then, was inspiring. I should be done with it very soon and approach a few prospective agents about it; then I can truly move on with GHOSTED.

I am also grateful that I had the foresight to finish SOME WOMEN and send it out the week before the tragedy occurred. It is now much, much better, with Shanan Estreicher's lovely violin score.

Even though I have been constantly frustrated in trying to make this or that film this past summer (and fall), I remain in good spirits. Considering that it's been one year since I was in Ohio, and that it's the month of Halloween, the time is ripe to begin finishing the editing of GHOSTED.

Again, many thanks to all who've inquired whether I am alive and well.

Saturday, July 21, 2001

Hard to believe that the Summer of 2001 is nearly two-thirds over, but yup, there it is.

Now that I'm done revamping Crisperanto.org, I'm awaiting these days my composer's recorded score to flesh out my first short film SHORT WOMEN which I will then submit to a few film festivals around the country, writing my next script, and editing GHOSTED. In between my bike rides have become longer--and quicker--now that my legs become more like pistons of power each time I ride. Buying that bike was one of the best decisions I've ever made in a long time as it's enabled me to rediscover Manhattan all over again.

If you haven't noticed already, I'm putting up my remaining copies of the very out-of-print EYES OF DESIRE: A DEAF GAY & LESBIAN READER for sale. The money would go toward a second G4 computer that would enable me to render the special effects of GHOSTED much more quickly and burn DVDs of my work for festival submission (and eventual DVD projection). Check my home page announcement for more details.

As always, thank you so much for your support and encouragement!

Saturday, June 23, 2001

While I take bike rides as occasional breaks from the grind of daily life, I'm pleased to say that GHOSTED is now halfway through its second cut. It's tighter, more focused.

I want to thank those who inquired about my Tangerine iBook, which I had put up for sale last month. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to sell it (only three days!), and at how long I had to wait for my new iBook (it became such a huge, huge hit that even Apple couldn't keep up with the demand for a few weeks). Nevertheless, I am very happy with my "White Rabbit" because I now have the capability to edit GHOSTED and other projects on the go, which will help speed up my editing when I'm away from my beloved G4.

Today the weather has been just insane--cloudy and moody one minute, sunny the next hour, thunderous and pouring the next. Hopefully the sun will sparkle with warmth and warm wishes for that little parade down Fifth Avenue.

Happy Pride, everyone!

Thursday, May 17, 2001

Still working on the second cut of GHOSTED, so nothing new there. It's coming along very nicely, however.

A week ago tonight I took up something I haven't done in 17 years--buy and ride a bike I actually own. When I was growing up back in Ironwood, I biked at least an hour a day; it was so great to get up and go wherever and whenever I felt like it. I felt that, when I moved to Washington, DC, and then later, to New York, I had to give up my love for the bicycle as a prerequisite for surviving these two cities.

A few weeks ago on a spectacular Sunday it hit me how much I truly missed biking. Of course there is no way I could regress to the gawky adolescent I once was, but I did miss the feeling of freedom. I resolved then and there to get a bike, and in the days ahead, I watched every single bicyclist on the streets wherever I went, and observed how each handled himself. I could see myself coasting between parked and waiting cars, wearing a helmet, and riding with the pell-mell throng of riders tackling the Central Park loop on weekends.

Before I knew it, I was out the door with my Trek bike and riding like the wind that first night--East Village, Alphabet City, Lower East Side, SoHo, Wall Street, South Ferry, and Battery Park Esplanade. I couldn't believe how easy it was to ride such a good bike. Even now, after having biked 45 miles (which included Central Park one bright Saturday morning) in one week, my legs haven't become sore at all.

It's so extraordinary to reexperience each time the pure joy that comes from the nowness of your legs and your entire body propelling through the wind and the sun. And biking in a city as dearly loved as Manhattan makes it all the sweeter.

I'm also working on my next feature script that I expect to do this summer; in fact, we may begin shooting as early as next month! More details to follow.

I'm also in the market to sell my beloved Tangerine iBook, so if you want to know more, email me!

Monday, April 23, 2001

Still cutting the second cut of GHOSTED. Compared to the first rough cut, I have already hacked off some 17 minutes off the first third, so now the current first third clocks in at 27 minutes (instead of 44 minutes). It's so much better!

These days I'm not doing much else beyond my day job, except working on the movie with Final Cut Pro 2.0. If you're thinking of plunging into digital video big-time (beyond the iMovie level), FCP 2.0 is literally the closest thing to the holy grail of digital video editing. Once you understand how to use it, it is amazingly simple and deceptively very powerful. GHOSTED has become a much, much better movie as a result because it enables me as editor to make every cut count, and precisely.

Christopher Smith's interview with me about my budding film career has appeared recently in the April issue of DEAF CANADA TODAY.

Hope everyone is having a marvelous spring so far. I know I am.

Take care, all!