I spent the last week at home, but not remotely idle; beside trying to get ahead on my work, catching up on overdue bills, working on future tour appearances and sadly having to say goodbye to an old friend (details on the 24th; I don’t want to address it here), I also participated in a Twitter campaign devised by Mistress Matisse. If you use Twitter, you probably know about it; even if you don’t you may have seen it on the Twitter feed in the right-hand column here. Basically, Matisse asked sex workers to write short messages based around the established hashtag #rightsnotrescue in black sharpie on white T-shirts, then tweet the pictures. When we started I was the only one she was sure would do it with her, but within the hour (we started at noon PDT on Monday June 30th) there were plenty of others, most of which put my amateurish efforts (pictured here) to shame. If you missed it, take a look back at my timeline and search that tag; some of them were really splendid (especially IMHO those by Cathryn Berarovitch). Anyhow, we finished Sunday and so now I have these shirts; if you contribute to my GoFundMe and would like one of them instead of a book (or in addition to if you contribute $250 or more) just let me know in the note with your contribution! Since there are only four it has to be first-come, first-served to be fair.
Another thing I accomplished this week (thanks to all those who have helped!) was to line up a long-term car rental for the remaining two months of my tour; research, perseverance, stubbornness and pure pushiness combined to secure one for just over $1200 total, more than $450 less than what Priceline and Travelocity both assured me was the absolute lowest price (and less than 10x the cost of the bus ride from Hell). When one considers that a car will give me a wider choice of hotel rooms, the rental may actually pay for itself! Anyhow, as you read this I’m in Kansas City to privately meet with some activists, and moving on to St. Louis tomorrow. Check back next week for notes on my adventures in St. Louis and Memphis!
Here’s my tour schedule, which is still in flux; check back when I’m getting close to you for details of local appearances. If your city isn’t on the list, but it’s within about four hours’ drive of another city which is on the list, just send an email asking me to visit. Your request will have even more impact if you can suggest a specific place I could do a book reading or give a talk, and it’s virtually assured if you can actually make the arrangements yourself (in other words if it’s your store, club or whatever).