A few years ago Aubyn and I, along with Moby, our wonderful (now sadly-departed) pooch, drove from New York City to the coast of South Carolina, to board a ferry to Daufuskie, a sparsely-inhabited island about half-hour by ferry from the mainland. Daufuskie is where Aubyn’s half-sister lived at the time with her husband. The occasion was a Gwinn family reunion of sorts. I say … Continue reading For the Love of Gratin
I had the pleasure of interviewing Gale Massey about her new book of short stories, “Rising and Other Stories” for Queer Voices of the South, the podcast on which I am a principal host. You can find our talk here on the New Books Network. Here’s the book blurb: In story after story in her diverse new collection, Rising and Other Stories, Gale Massey illustrates the moments … Continue reading QVotS: My talk with Gale Massey
I feel pride like I feel new love. It swells my heart. And just as with that unmistakable feeling of new love, when the world seems to stop spinning because nothing else matters, I’ve had only a few moments in my life where pride overtook and transformed me. And I think that’s a good thing: You don’t want to have so much love or so … Continue reading Pride Swells the Heart. Just Like Love Does.
My Queer Voices of the South podcast co-host John Marszalek and I interviewed author Steven Capsuto about his fascinating book, Alternate Channels, and that interview is now available for listening on the New Books Network. Alternate Channels explores the fight for lesbian and gay visibility on 20th-century American television, as gay activists faced off with powerful, often vicious “traditional values” crusaders, with TV executives caught in … Continue reading QVotS Interview With Steven Capsuto
Today I surpassed 70,000 words on my new novel, Motel Confessionals (working title). I mentioned last time that 70,000 is the goal for novels and 100,000 words is the standard cutoff point (my memoir is about 98,000 words). I expect to complete this first draft in the next couple of weeks. It’s not just the word-count that get’s you there. “There” is that point when … Continue reading 70,000+ Words & 15 Confessions
In the fall of 2020 my University Press of Mississippi fellow authors Pip Gordon and John Marszalek, and I started “Queer Voices of the South,” a new podcast on the New Books Network to showcase the work of other Southern writers like ourselves – writers who’ve published books in the LGBTQ genre. Here’s a list of the books we’ve covered to date: 2021 Episodes April … Continue reading Here Are All of the QVotS Podcast Episodes
I’m sure nobody noticed, but I’ve been largely out of sight over the last few months. Oh, to be sure, I popped in here and there, but not much. I’ve posted about an interview I did for the New Books Network, where I co-host a new podcast focusing on books by or about LGBTQ people with two of my University Press of Mississippi book-writing pals … Continue reading Motel Confessionals
Click to access my interview with Daniel Harrison on the paperback release of his new book LIVE AT JACKSON STATION. A great conversation about a fascinating book that will appeal to music historians, impresarios, fans of Southern literature, and anyone who likes a fast-paced tale about a notorious tragedy at a rambling blues club in small-town South Carolina. Continue reading My Interview With Daniel Harrison on the New Books Network
Below is a NEW review from the GAY & LESBIAN REVIEW. The G&L Review is a big deal for us LGBTQ writers, so I’m quite thrilled. (One quibble: my sibs and I were paid for working in the motel – so we were not “free” labor as the writer says. ‘Cheap,’ yes, but not free.) Get Out (but not yet) By DANIEL BURR STONE MOTELMemoirs of … Continue reading Review of STONE MOTEL in ‘G&L Review’
Family customs, especially those based on folklore, are a lot like recipes – they change bit by bit over the years as they’re passed down. In my family Momma brought the New Year’s Eve custom of “Jabless” (pronounced “Jah-bless”) to us, as her mother, our mémère, had done for her children. Here’s how the Jabless custom goes: On New Year’s Eve, the children put out a … Continue reading ‘Twas the night before New Year’s
Wendy G., a friend from my Eunice Sr. High School days, found this letter to Santa published in The Eunice News in December 1960: Dear Santa,I would like a big piano for Christmas and a doll. I’m in the third grade. I am doing very nicely too. My sisters would like a little bear. My brother would like a gun. My brother Morris would like … Continue reading Cassie’s Letter to Santa
For years I have been imagining a cake that would be just the thing for Christmas Day. Well, you, my devoted Cakeover legion, are in luck! This weekend I broke down and finally started tinkering with a recipe – and the outcome, I am happy to report, is pretty much right on. This cake tastes like what you’d get if you cake-ified Ben & Jerry’s … Continue reading The Other Christmas Day Cake
Like so many people out there, I feel overwhelmed. I’m so sorry about the state of affairs in our big, baggy, but ultimately still lovable old country right now. In my marrow I know that we are so much better than all this ugliness. I get that some people are just more comfortable staying out of the fray – that’s how they keep their wits … Continue reading My Three Wishes
In our house in Eunice, Louisiana, in the 1960s and ’70s, bouillie au lait (milk custard) was a comfort food. We pronounced it “B-yo-ly,” and sometimes ate it for breakfast or as an after-school snack. In Momma’s childhood home in Ville Platte during the Great Depression, bouillie au lait was survival food. It was affordable for poor families like theirs because it required only three … Continue reading Great Depression Bouillie au Lait
The 1970s ushered in the era of convenience foods – think “Hamburger Helper” and taco-making kits (“Just add your own ground beef!”). It was also the heyday of the casserole – a dish with a wide (and forgiving) interpretation involving the combination of protein, fat, and starch in a rectangular baking dish (funnily enough, called a “casserole.”) Usually held together with noodles of some sort, … Continue reading The Casserole Renaissance
(Parenthetically) Speaking 