QueerBurgher! and other stuff
This is Michael reading QueerBurgher, ain’t he cute?
Hey guys! So I produce this newsletter for queer Pittsburgh called QueerBurgher and we just put out our Pride issue. I think it might be the best one we’ve done yet. Check it out.
This weekend was Pride weekend in Pittsburgh and it was fun and crazy. Can I say that I’m glad it’s over? I am, not that I didn’t enjoy myself. But fuck, this spring has been a whirlwind of socializing and partying and being out and about and I’m feeling that desire to hole up and get some work done. I have so much work to do.
You guys, how do I promote myself better? I know that I need to do this if I want to make writing a full-time job, which is my only real, modest goal. I was on a gay yacht yesterday and Sharon Needles was giving me this long pep talk about how I’m the Dan Savage of Pittsburgh and that I have something that nobody else has and that there’s no reason I shouldn’t be famous. And that was really validating and kind of intoxicating, because I really respect that queen and she’s obviously made it well for herself. But a couple things: I’m not in the advice business like Dan Savage, I’m in the erotica business. And also, I feel like I have this core of insecurity that always keeps me in retreat from the spotlight. I don’t have any real interest in fame for fame’s sake, but I do want to find the biggest audience possible for my work. I like attention, and I’m getting more comfortable with putting myself out there in physical spaces where people see a good bit of who I am, but I love to retreat, to stand on the sidelines and observe. I don’t know. It’s this tension between introversion and extroversion and I don’t always know how to reconcile it.
But, just to restate (and yes this blog post is turning into an ersatz therapy session), I want to make writing my full-time job. I AM GOING to make writing my full time job. That’s it. I know that I can do this, but I need to market myself better.
How do I market myself better? Well, a suggestion a friend made was that I find somebody, a fan or an intern or something, who could help me with this. So I ask anybody who is reading this: what do you think of this idea? And would you be willing? Since I’m burying this question in a post I’ll probably restate the question later in a different post, but any feedback you could offer would be excellent.
I also saw Lucinda William this weekend at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. I got up close to the stage and she played a song I never heard before called “Out of Touch.” By the first verse I was captivated, by mid-song I was emotional, and then in the last verse there’s this twist in the lyrics from micro to macro and I fucking lost it right there in the crowd. I was crying and sort of trying to hide it but that song just hit me in the gut. Here it is.
Jun 20, 2014 @ 10:24:49
Natty, you are gifted and I have no doubt that if you were to step up your output you could easily support yourself as a writer. When you have doubts, you should pick up your copy of “Backwoods,” and leafed through it, because it is your finest work. I have two copies of it, one which you signed for me, and it has a place on my list of stuff to save if there is ever a house fire.
You know what else? You are a sexy guy, both inside and out, and that, coupled with your talent, will keep the cash register humming because we all want to be a part of that magic.