David Jedeikin's Blog: Wander the Rainbow, page 9

Wandering the (Canadian) Rainbow, Part Three

A few weeks back, on a summertime visit to my family in Montreal, I wrote about two of my parents' closest friends, a couple for 25 years, planning to finally tie the knot now that gay marriage is official and legally enshrined in Canada at a federal level — one of only a handful of countries where this right exists. More surprising to me was that my father, an attorney, was to officiate at the ceremony. Most surprising of all, however, was the overall blasé-ness of all parties involved...

Win a Free Copy of Wander the Rainbow on Gay.com!

The folks at gay.com are having a giveaway!

It's easy: answer a few fun trivia questions from events and places mentioned in the book, send in your answers to the site, and win!

As you'd expect, the questions are funny, juicy, sexy… and not too hard.

Good luck!

Click here to go to the contest page

Persistence of Vision

For those of you who've read (or are reading) Wander the Rainbow, you've probably picked up on a motif running throughout the book: my continued fascination with movies, and how they partly inspired my choice of locations worldwide.

I was reminded of this last night when attending a showing of (yes, really) E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, the now-classic Steven Spielberg movie I'm just old enough to remember seeing for the first time in theatres.

But not a theatre like this! Oakland's Paramount...

What's Next?

With the book successfully launched, many of you are wondering "what's next? "Will there be a book tour?" "What else are you planning?"

Answers: Yes — lots coming up!

We have another event scheduled here in San Francisco — a reading and signing at Books Inc. in the Castro. For those of you who missed the previous event — or who simply want more Wander the Rainbow in their lives – mark your calendars for August 12 at 7:30 p.m. More details (including a mass invite) are coming soon.

We'll also be ...

CORRECTION: Page 97

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khat

A thanks to Jesse (you know who you are!) for this bit of fact-checking.

For more details… check out the book!

Wandering the (Canadian) Rainbow, Part Two

In addition to the book event, my Montreal sojourn was marked by another bit of rainbow-related news.

I came to Montreal with marriage on the brain: my youngest sister down in Southern California had gotten hitched recently – the last of my three siblings to tie the knot. At a barbecue hosted in one of my other sisters' sprawling backyard, I learned this wasn't the only marriage to be celebrated – and in this case officialized – retroactively.

My mother's business partner, a realtor in...

Wandering the (Canadian) Rainbow, Part One

After a very successful inaugural reading and launch party in San Francisco, it was time to take Wander the Rainbow on the road – and north of the border – to my native hometown, Montreal.

Following a weekend of family events, I paid a visit to Bibliophile, a compact indie bookstore tucked into Montreal's West End, for a reading & signing event replete with white wine, San Pellegrino, and Belgian chocolates – most fitting considering the subject matter!

In addition to my entire immediate...

Indie Bookstores + Indie Publishers: A Match Made in Heaven?

On the surface, independent bookstores would seem a natural fit for indie authors and publishers. Both operate outside the so-called "mainstream" of large retail chains, mass-market-targeted product, and exclusive agent/publisher arrangements.

And yet, barriers persist: the bookselling industry is a well oiled machine of large distributors, returnable and remaindered books, and hefty discounts designed for the massive print runs of the mainstream publishing business. Considering that most...