Miami Nice
Last night I had my reading at Books and Books on Lincoln Road. They said they were expecting a big crowd but I knew not to expect one and get my hopes up too high. As you can read below, I lived here for a while but one of the reasons I moved away was because the only thing most people read around here in this land of clubs and cloudless skies are condo prospectuses and fake IDs. But I really appreciated Books and Books inviting me to read - I love the people who work there, especially Viv and Chip and Anne Marie - and signed a few books for the people who showed up after I read. In fact, I even, in my exhausted state, signed my own book in which I have edited in pencil the abridged version of the Halloween scene I’ve read at all my stops and gave it to someone off the table of books in front of me. I’m hoping the person who bought that one realizes it and brings it back to Books and Books. It threw me into a bit of a tizzy for the rest of the night. I really was counting on carrying that book around with me to all my readings. It’s become a kind of security juju for me. Or have a just imbued it with such juju qualities, engendering it with the power that I really must carry around inside me instead. Maybe it’s just another lesson in letting go. Books and Books was a hard room to read in. I had to use a hand-held mike and felt like a bit of a lounge singer in Las Vegas. But my old buddy, Andy Tobias, was there and told me it went well and I’ve always trusted Andy’s critical acumen. If you’ve never read Andy’s book Best Little Boy In the World, I recommend you do so. And any of his financial books and computer programs are helpful. In fact, I should have paid more attention to those now that I’m deep into middle age. Andy is also Treasurer for the Democratic Party and I’m sure he’d want me to tell you to find a way to donate at some point before 2008. (Are there any Republicans reading this blog? If so, out yourselves in the comment section below this post. My own bumpersticker in life is this one: NEVER JUDGEMENTAL, ALWAYS DISCERNING. So don’t worry. I welcome readers of all political persuasions.) Thanks to local writer and bon vivant, David Leddick, for showing up also. He’s a legend around these parts for good reason. And my old pal Alan Roth, who’s becoming a South Beach legend himself, came with his latest beautiful girlfriend. Alan is a local party promoter and restauranteur and now magazine publisher. His grandfather was once mayor of Miami Beach and I - lovingly - refer to him also as “the mayor of South Beach.” We met years ago when he was a waiter at the Delano Hotel when it first opened and I came down to work on an earlier book I was trying to write - a novel that now sits in one of my drawers in New York - and we immediately hit it off. He will always be, in my eyes, that ambitious little kid who kept me smiling so long ago when I’d wonder down from my room at the Delano and dare to flirt with him. I still dare to every now and then. His ambition has certainly paid off. And he can still make me smile. Two other guys who always make me smile are my Ptown buddies, Sean and Mitch, who live down in Ft. Lauderdale during the winter. They came over for the reading also and we went out and had dinner afterwards. There are some people you just feel at home with and Sean and Mitch are like that for me. I always feel like I’m rocking on porch back in Ptown when I’m with them and life is good and simple and … soothing on some basic level. You can’t ask for much more than that. So thanks to Sean and Mitch for showing up. After three weeks on the road, it was relaxing just being in their presence. I can’t wait to get back to Ptown this summer and really rock on a porch with them and create even more summer memories together. And Archie, my dog, loves Atticus, Mitch’s dog. Everbody loves Atticus. Atticus is the mayor of Ptown.
Another person who showed up last night at the reading was writer Christopher Lee Nutter. Go get his book as well - The Way Out. I usually avert my gaze from books that are labeled self-help or New Age, but Christopher’s transcends either category because of his talent as a writer. Also, he’s an original thinker. And he’s sexy too. That always helps. We had never met until the night before my reading at Books and Books when he had his own reading there. When I went up to get his book signed, we discovered that he is from Birmingham. I had arrived from Birmingham that morning. He also went to Millsaps College in Mississippi where I went to school. He was also a Pike at Millsaps. So was I. And he lives one block away from me in New York. As you can tell from reading my blog and having read my book, that my life is full of heightened coincidences. Heightened Coincidences is, indeed, how I often describe the narrative flow of my life to people. Meeting Christopher was one of the loveliest in a long time. I look forward to eating at one of our local restaurants when we both get back to New York and finding others in our lives.
And now I’m going to go put on a pair of shorts, take off my shoes, exhale the three-weeks of airline air I’ve been breathing in on this trip, and take a long walk on the beach. I’m going to go over what all has transpired and connect all the Heightened Coincidences I’ve experienced on this tour. Once I’ve done that I am going to empty my mind as I let my feet feel the ebb and flow of the tides and - toes tingling, allowing time itself to ebb and flow - BE THANKFUL.
More anon …
April 7th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
what a treasure the guy in miami has
April 7th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
pikes
April 7th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Hi Kevin,
I remember reading a cover article you did for a magazine many, many years ago about this HIV+ male model. It was a genuinely moving article about unconditional love….you guys flirted like hell during the intervierw, that I remember vividly…..whatever happened to him?
Kudos to your blog. It’s really a great read.
best,
g
April 8th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Kevin, I think your book is wonderful. I came to your reading/signing at Davis Kidd in Memphis a few weeks ago. I was disappointed I had to leave before I could meet you and get my book signed. You’re a doll! And, yes, you should have put pictures in the book…perhaps in your next one.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Kevin - I just finished reading “Mississippi Sissy”. I too dressed as a witch for Halloween. Oddly enough - it wasn’t the costume that sent my dad over the edge - it was the bra that I wore underneath that did the trick.
What can we do to get you to visit Dallas?
April 9th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Not a Republican. Also…we gave our oldest son the middle name of Atticus. I just think the character provides a great example of a kind and just man.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Kevin, I just finished reading Mississippi Sissy and with tears in my eyes, applaud you! I too grew up in Forest MS BUT about fifteen years before you. I too went to Millsaps but in the early 60’s. I too hold fond memories of New Stage, but as a spectator, not an actress. I too hold Miss Welty in the highest of regards - since I was an English/Creative writing teacher for over thirty years. And yes, I do remember how handsome you were as a teen! I vividly recall Frank Haines’ death! And riding on the band bus with Joe Rex Dennis. And having Jim’s older brother as my principal. And on and on. Just wish that you had Asheville NC on your book tour; I would be in the front row, as I was when Jill Conner Browne came to Malaprop’s. Jill was in my very FIRST class at Peeples Junior High School, Jackson, MS in the early 60’s. Please begin a sequel. I want to know even more about Kevin Sessums and his Mississippi Connections.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I was disappointed that I missed seeing you on Friday at Books & Books. I was laid up for a couple of days with a stomach flu and so was in bed asleep at 9:00 on Friday night. On a happier note, I received the signed copy I purchased from my friend Philip at Outwrite in Atlanta via Fedex today. Cheers.
April 9th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Kevin, Having written a gay-theme book myself, I’ve enjoyed your travails with reviewers, press and book readings. I don’t see a Los Angeles reading in your future. Let me know if there is one.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Kevin,
I just finished reading the book, which I really loved on so many levels. I am very much looking forward to the sequel. In some synchornistic fashion, the day after I finished the book Netflix sent me “The Thrill of It All” starring Arlene Francis. I never knew she was an actress. I only knew she was on game shows. Anyway, I understood your fascination with her after watching the movie. She was adorable–a good role model.
Congratulations on your book. I think it will have a very long shelf life.
Dan
April 10th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
We’re SOOOOOO excited that DC is officially on your schedule! Since I plan to get the word out to EVERYONE in MD, VA, and DC between now and April 26th, I thought that it might be a good idea to connect with another blogger, joebstewart, who appears to also live in this neck of the woods. Joe, when you have a minute, please contact me at wiltshired@earthlink.net (other DC Sissy fans are welcome to contact me as well:) Thanks! Diane
April 12th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Kevin: I too am telling everyone I know to show up in DC at Lambda Rising on the 26th of April at 7pm to buy MISSISSIPPI SISSY and hear you read. Diane I will send you an email right away. My wife works about 2 blocks from that bookstore and it is also our old neighborhood from back in the 1960s. We lived near Dupont Circle for 4 years(67-71) so I know it very well. We live in Va. now but I still remember when that bookstore opened in 1974. Well only 2 weeks from today. See you there. Joe B.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Kevin-
Straight gal, grew up in South. Enjoyed your book but a girlfriend of yours sparked an important question.
During college yrs (90’s), dated 2 confused gay men. Tell me, please. If you knew you were gay, why did you sleep with a straight woman? Did you ever truly connect with her or were you Will to her Grace?
It happened to me twice. The secrecy,confusion and pain spread like a bad watercolor. Are f– hags the women you wished you could marry, if things had been different? Or just hangers-on?
April 13th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
melissa d. I liked reading your blog comment
April 15th, 2007 at 1:15 am
melissa D
does any of that matter? stupid question on my part.. it does matter or you wouldnt have asked….. we as humans have to get back to to reality as god intended.. know ourselves. what do we want? whats real to us? what do we need? religion and the belief in -has messed up so much in how we accept ourselves. go beyound what we are taught and what we learn from the “system”… we all leak colors into the reality of each other and those colors hopefully blend into a recreation of who we are or wanna be . with each rising or setting sun depending on wheather we are waking up from reality or sleeping away from it.. does it matter what color absorbs or accepts another color? i think not.. (thatr is if i am allowed by the machine we think of as life to think)but what matters is how we accept ourselves.. we try to conform. when we cant it creats chaos in our brains. we are individuals each with an inate ability to find the direction we all need to survive till death do us part in a world that was created by a mean madness… find your own way… fag hags are wonderful and exist for a reason. bad maness exist for a reason. woman love for another woman and a concept that is understood by some exist for a reason and all the theories of who loves who exist and has evoluuoted for a reason that no one can explain except ourselves, or our own reason to exist to ourself.. dont know why i said all that except to say—- no matter who we are or think we are- the important thing is as i see it is to know we are all inmportant in the tapestry of life and the unfolding of gods creation that will evolove very far way beyound what we can understand. gay men try to have sex with women to conform for the ritual roman religon we know. gay men next hang onto hags for hope in that religion. but hopefully in the end we find ourselves,,,,Damn, kevin where is eudora when we need her???
April 15th, 2007 at 1:24 am
i know i need her now cause i sure didnt mean that hags are a bad thing and i know her warbliee voice would expound waht i said in a way that is positive as i meant it to be…
April 16th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Sexuality is a spectrum, with varying degrees of attraction. It makes sense that two people can connect on different levels, male or female.
Everyone has the same opportunity to look back at their youth, see where they are today based on the choices they made. That’s why Kevin’s book hits home so strongly. No disrespect intended, Kevin.
April 20th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Kevin: I enjoyed meetingyou at your New Orleans Jefferson Parish Library gig and wanted again to say hello and tell you how much I enjoy the thoughts you are sharing from your blog. The intimacy is quite powerful and the introspective view makes you all the more lovable. You, indeed, mirror the thoughts of many of us. Thank you for the book.