As is obvious by my facebook page, wordpress blog and bank account I am on a 35 day book tour

. This is both super exciting and excruciatingly tiring. Being the planner, the logistics person, the communicator and translator is quite draining. Plus you add in distance and time away from loved ones and work, and you have quite a fun mess.

The tour is going very well. We have had some super engaging conversations at our events and have felt welcomed and appreciated by the participants. We have signed and sold copies in Spanish and English, and we have met some wonderful queer people. But we have also looked at each other a few times already (by day 7) and said, "What were we thinking?" A 35 day tour? 13 cities? That means lots of planes to catch, mostly early morning, a gillion uber rides, missed breakfasts, late lunches, rushed arrival at events, and not enough time in any one place to really get a feel for it.

I have started to look at it as a tour of the country, finding the queer spaces and telling our story, sharing the book, and hopefully affecting someone in a positive way. For me it is great, because I see much of the country that I had not seen before, and I will have a wider scope of the places I want to visit on my next vacation, one destination only. But for Antonia this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip most likely, and returning to the US will be maybe distant and more difficult. So she is hitting the ground running, trying to see it all and really make it valuable. This means that some nights she paints the town all on her own, with little English. But she is doing it, and I am so happy!

While I would also love to do everything I must also take care of myself and realize that I cannot, as much of the understanding of the big picture and the communication, logistics and power lies with me. But I have to be ok with that, because I signed up for it. I actually created the sign-up sheet myself and then signed myself up!

So here we go, tumbling down the hill like Jack and Jill, too fast to stop but really making some commotion. We are living and learning, balancing uncertain success, lots of details, personal issues, and our own personality clashes to make this a real big amazing book tour!!! Bring it on!