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DVR Changed My Life
For longer than I care to admit, my evenings revolved around the television. I had shows to watch every night of the week. Picking favorites for some nights was easier than others, but somehow, I always found something to watch. Looking back, the quality of my viewing selections makes me cringe. I couldn’t stay awake…
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The New Gays
They just don’t make gays like they used to. Kids who come out today are different from those who stepped through the closet doors when I did. For a select group, being gay is not — and never has been — an issue. I grew up in the 60s and came out in 1979, at…
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Privacy and the Rapid Pace of Change
I often wonder what a visitor from the past would think about modern life. Perhaps because of shared ties to Kentucky, Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln are almost always my imaginary time travelers. What would they think about supermarkets, central air conditioning, automobiles, televisions, and airplanes? What would impress them most? In the century between 1765 when…
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My Holiday Series
I had no idea when I wrote Until Thanksgiving that a prequel would follow. The idea of writing a novel was intimidating enough — never mind a series. But something about Philip Potter, a supporting character, grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I wanted to know more about him. Readers loved him too, and shared my…
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My Magazines
In college, I majored in consumer studies and family resource management. Rather than a textbook, many of my professors compiled packets of articles from academic journals and weekly news magazines that we had to purchase from Kinko’s. Nowadays they make this kind of information available to students online. All the weekly news magazines were represented…
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My Vinyl Collection
I played music I can’t remember now on a portable record player when I was little. Rather than the traditional black vinyl, these ten-inch records came in colors like Play-Doh magenta and yellow — neither shades you’d ever actually select for any purpose. They may have even played at 78 RPMs. The children’s recordings got…
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An Old Fashioned Fourth of July
To celebrate Independence Day, I looked for posts I’d done in the past about the Fourth of July family reunions that were so much a part of my childhood. I couldn’t find the posts. So instead, I’m running that chapter from my never-to-be-published memoir, Glass Houses. For background, Mom is the baby of eight Glass…
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Coming Up Short
After the ex and I parted ways last fall, deciding to sell the house was a no-brainer. The place was half-again as much space as I could ever use. The one-acre lot — an asset when I moved in — had become a liability. Taking care of everything, inside and out, required far more work…
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Field Research: Meet the Apps
As promised, here’s the first of several reports on my field research about gay hook-up apps. As this research breaks new ground, my focus has been on in-depth personal interviews rather than surveys. Yeah. Serious stuff. My readers deserve the best I can bring to the project. I’m still in the data collection phase, but wanted…