No, it is too much, let me sum up!

We seem to be rolling through the last week of 2011 at a barrelling clip.  I'm going hammer and tongs at a bunch of things, all at once, and some of them are really big and kind of scary.   Some of them are the kinds of things where I am just taking a deep breath and closing my eyes and leaping, and some of them are the kinds of things where I am like the Little Engine that Could, all chugging and going "I think I can I think I can."

What they all have in common is that they're exhilarating and they're taking a lot of doing but I feel pretty firmly like my feet are pointed in the right direction.  It's a good way to feel going in to a new year, honestly.

I don't know the half of what the new year will hold for me.  But one thing I can tell you for absolute sure is that 2012 is not going to be just another year like any other, at least not around here.  I mentioned this morning on Twitter that I am limbering up… because I'll be burning hotter and brighter and fiercer than ever before.

I know, I know.  Don't you go rolling your eyes at me, Missy.  I realize it sounds like the kind of thing that people are supposed to say at this time of year, and perhaps like I've been hitting the sweet sweet New Age "abundance mentality" crackpipe a little too hard.

So what I'm going to say instead is: watch this space.   Take your vitamins.  And fasten your seat belts.

 

And while you're at it, three things you need to know:

January 18 at 7 pm, New York City

We have a date, you and I, at the bar at the Museum of Sex in New York City.  C'mon out.  I promise I'll wear cute shoes, fantastic lipstick, I'll make you laugh, and maybe I'll let you buy me a drink.

January 27 from 9-10:30 am, Baltimore

Join me for Let's Get Some Things Straight, a workshop on the history of heterosexuality that I've created especially for LGBT activists, debuting at the Creating Change conference here in Baltimore.   It's where I'm launching my exciting new book! Here's the scoop:

Far from being an eternal human constant, heterosexual is only as old as the typewriter and the light bulb. When it comes to giving queer community new tools for activist thinking, this is a good thing. Author and historian Hanne Blank, author of the new book Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality, provides an overview of the history of straightness  geared toward helping LGBTIQ activists speak deeper and better- informed truths to power.

If you'll be at Creating Change you will find the location listed in your program book.  Let me know if you'll be there!

Name Your Place, Name Your Time

I am booking talks and campus visits about Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality as well as Big Big Love, Virgin, and my other work.     I'm especially excited to offer a talk I debuted at Harvard University last spring, called "Virgins and Other Indefinite Articles: Thinking Historically about Sexuality, Definition, and Experience," which builds bridges between my work on virginity, my work on heterosexuality, and the task of writing history about sex.

I'm also offering a brand new program, An Evening With Hanne Blank, an uncensored, funny, radical evening of history, storytelling, and humor about sex, bodies, and culture that runs the gamut of my work from the erotic to the erudite… and may even include a song or two.  So talk to me!