I have a few friends who are in rock bands, and they all tell me that when they come back from a tour, they want to re-record their albums, because they’ve lived with the material night after night for months at a time, and they’ve discovered nuances in the work that they didn’t even know was there when they made the album.
That’s the way I’ve been feeling about Just A Geek the last few weeks. I’ve had a chance to make this material live and breathe in front of a few very different audiences, and I’ve discovered a lot of nuances in the material. I’ve struggled against a mighty tide to help people understand that this is not a Star Trek book, or a self-serving celebrity bio, and in these performances I’ve intentionally focused on material that communicates, I hope, what the book is really about: what do we do when the hopes of our twenties don’t match up with the reality of our thirties? I can’t begin to tell you how hard it’s been to get that message out. I know that it’s easier to promote the Star Trek angle, but it’s hurting book sales, keeping my story away from people who can relate to (and would presumably enjoy) the story, and preventing any recognition from the mainstream media. It’s kind of a drag, because my warnings about the doors Star Trek opens and the doors it slams shut fell on very deaf ears. There are times that I hate being right, and this is one of them.
The experience of bringing Just A Geek to the audience was very different from the experience I had with Dancing Barefoot. Because I worked with a publisher (rather than doing it myself with Monolith Press), I had to make some compromises with Just A Geek, and I’m really unhappy about some of them, (like the subtitle, which I tried to convince myself I liked, but I really hate), and I needed to include some things (most notably, the stuff about 9/11) that I thought was best left out. It’s been incredibly frustrating, and in many ways I feel like I’m working for Viacom or G4 again.
But when I perform Just A Geek live, there’s nobody between me and the audience, so I don’t have to compromise about anything. I get to present the material the way I believe it should be presented — the way it was intended. I get to perform it the way I want to, and bring it to life the way it sounded in my head when I wrote it.
I didn’t realize how important creative control was to me, in terms of content, marketing and publicity, until just a few days ago, and I’m really happy that I have these opportunities to do things the way I want to do them.
Even though I’ve only gotten to really “perform” the material (as opposed to just reading it) four times so far, (at Gnomedex, Linucon, Creation’s Las Vegas Convention, and at Dallas Comic-Con) it’s so much fun, and it feels so great when I do it, I have decided to take some of the material and turn it into a full-on show, similar to the staged reading that Patrick does with A Christmas Carol. Look for it at ACME sometime early next year.
Until then, I continue to work on the audio version of Just A Geek, which has become more of a “director’s cut,” including off-book comments (audio footnotes, I guess) and some of the changes that I’ve discovered during performances the last few months. I’m about 2/3 finished with it, and I understand that the post-production process will be very quick, so it should be ready pretty soon — definitely in time for the holidays. Initially, it will be available for purchase online (yes, it will be at iTunes and Audible), but once we get enough capital, we’ll make actual CDs, with cool artwork and liner notes and stuff, too. David Lawrence is producing it, and he and I are talking about including a conversation about the book, like a bonus interview, or something, which would serve as the introduction.
Maybe, if the whole thing works out, I could put together a little tour of 99 seat theatres and universities! I could start in Southern California, and maybe go back to the Southwest. If it was successful enough, I could take it other places as well. I could call it “My Big Fat Geek Tour.”
Har.
Wouldn’t that be cool?

If you’re looking for something to do on Wednesday night, and you’re in Los Angeles, come on down to the ACME Comedy Theatre!
I’m a panelist in a live stage version of the classic 1950’s gameshow “What’s My Line?”
It’s going to be incredibly fun. We’re doing it in a 1950’s style, so we’ll all be in vintage suits, and talking just the way they did back when Television gave you cancer if you sat too close to the set.
For all the details, head over to my pal J. Keith vanStraaten’s site.
Print out this entry, show it at the Box Office, and you’ll get 2-for-1 tickets!
The show starts at 8pm. There’s a restaurant and bar right next door (and it’s good, too) so you can make an evening of it! Come on, put the kids in the bathroom with the seat up and some newspaper on the floor, and treat yourself to a night on the town. You deserve it, baby.

Felix (my cat) and Riley (my dog) are laying face to face in a shaft of sunlight on my living room floor as I write this. It’s not a very wide beam of light, and I Felix wants to be in the sun more than he wants to be left alone by the puppy. It’s incredibly cute, and I thought I’d share.
On the way to school today, Nolan and I were caught in some annoying traffic on a major street. While we sat and waited for a light to change, he looked out his window, and pointed at an alley that lead away from the traffic jam.
“Why don’t we go down that alley?” He said.
I pointed at a moving truck that was blocking it about halfway down. “Because we won’t make it past that truck,” I said.
“Well, let’s just drive right into it, and hope we respawn on the other side!” He said.
“I don’t think that would work,” I said.
He frowned for a second and looked back at me.
“You’re right,” he sighed, as we started to creep forward. “With our luck, the respawn point is probably behind us.”
I laughed. “We’re kind of geeks,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said, “but that’s okay.”
Parents always hope to see a little bit of themselves in their kids, and as a stepparent, I’ve always wondered if Ryan and Nolan will pick up anything from me. It’s been a challenge, because I don’t want to force myself on them in any way, and their dad has worked pretty consistently to marginalize my influence, and minimize my position in their lives . . . but over the last year or so, Ryan and Nolan have come to me. They’ve made efforts — entirely on their own — to close the gap between us. After almost ten years, I feel like they’re truly accepted me into their lives. They’ve picked up my interests, my humor, my sense of duty to Truth and my fundamental belief that we should always be giving without expecting anything in return.
It’s wonderful when I see Nolan stop to help a kid at school, or see Ryan take the time to do something kind for his brother or mother, just because he loves them. They may not carry my DNA, but they carry my spirit, and that’s far more important.
It was a silly little thing, Nolan geeking out with me about respawning this morning, but there was something unspoken between us, something that I can’t quantify or describe in words. It was something I just felt in my soul, and it was one of those important waypoints on our journey together that I don’t want to ever forget.
I’ve got an audition this morning, and a meeting at lunch, plus I’ve got workers coming to tear out some bushes (heh. I’m working on that this Tuesday, too) and trim up one of my trees, so I don’t know if I’m going to get Dallas up by the end of today. That story has taken on a life of its own, and I don’t want to rush it out. I think I’m going to put some of the Linucon report into that post, too, even though it’s almost as big as Texas already.
Chris The Film Geek has a great recap of the signing at Borders last Sunday, though, that I encourage you all to go read. I’ll fill in my thoughts whenever I finish the Texas oddessey.
This is probably it for this week, so have a great weekend and a safe All Hallow’s Eve, everyone.

It’s raining pretty hard over my house right now, which isn’t that big a deal, except we rarely get interesting weather here in Pasadena . . . but right now it’s a full-on Arizona-style thunderstorm, complete with bright flashes of lightning, explosive claps of thunder, and sheets of water falling from the sky so heavily, I can’t see across my street.
Actually, as I write this, I’m sitting in my kitchen, watching garbage cans float down the gutter in front of my house. Good thing I left my cans up on the sidewalk this morning, just in case.
I’m putting the finishing touches on the Dallas recap. It should post within 24 hours.
. . . and in the time it’s taken me to write this and preview it, the rain has completely stopped. I just opened the window and all I can hear is the ferocious rushing of water down the street, and the drip drip drip of the downspout on the garage.
Cool. 🙂

“If you are specific about your goals, and put yourself in a place where your
good luck can do you some good, the universe will absolutely conspire to make
your dreams come true.”
— My Mom, when I was a little kid, at a time when I was actually paying attention.
You were right, Mom, about more stuff than you could possibly imagine. I love you.