I have published ten books in all– two memoirs, three novels, a collection of short stories, and four young adult books published under a pseudonym. My work is also contained in four anthologies. Information of all kinds–excerpts, reviews, “deleted scenes” and other stuff–relating to each of the titles is available by clicking on the photos of the book jackets below. (With the exception of the young adult novels, about which We Shall Speak No More.) I also publish a lot of nonfiction, most recently in the New York Times and Salon, which you can read on a separate page here.
My next published book will be the first of the new young adult series, Falcon Quinn, coming in summer of 2010. The Falcon Quinn project has its own web site, falconquinn.com. The cover is being done by legendary illustrator Brandon Dorman (of GOOSEBUMPS fame). On the cover here can see Falcon, a young man who has been sent to the Academy for Monsters, in order to learn how to imitate a human being and thus survive in the world. And raising the fundamental question: Is it better to imitate something you’re not, in order to survive? Or to embrace your true self, if your true self is a monster? Falcon, our hero, is turning into something–but we don’t know what. You’ll also see the tangled tentacles of the Academy’s Vice Principal, Mr. Hake,who is, at least part of the time, the TERRIBLE KRACKEN. Also, Falcon’s friend Pearl, a very small CHUPAKABRA (“I am– the famous goatsucker of Peru! We shall be friends!”) Anyway, the Falcon Quinn stuff will come to dominate my creative life in the next few years, and this is the first taste. More on the way, when we go live with Falconquinn.com!
Memoirs
I’m Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted is a memoir published in 2008 by Broadway/Doubleday. It tells the story of growing up in an allegedly haunted house; it’s also an examination of what it means to be “haunted.”
She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders is a memoir published in 2003 by Broadway/Doubleday. It tells the story of changing from James to Jenny; it also follows the arc of gender as it affected two of my most important relationships– that with my wife Deedie, whom I call “Grace” in the book, and that with novelist Richard Russo, as our friendship morphed from one between two men to one between a man and a woman. She’s Not There was a national bestseller, and was one of the first bestselling works by a transgender American. It is has been translated into many languages, and is currently in its eighth printing.
Anthologies
There are four anthologies containing work of mine out there at present. The Book of Dads: On the Joys, Perils, and Humiliations of Modern Fatherhood contains the story “The Sleepwalker,” a piece that was published, in edited-down form, in the “Modern Love” column of the New York Times. Love is a Four Letter Word contains the story “Trans,” about the way being transgender affected all sorts of romantic relationships over the course of my life. A nice review of the anthology that highlighted my story appeared in the Daily Beast; you can read the review here. How Beautiful the Oridinary: Twelve Stories of Identity is a LGBT anthology for young readers containing my story, “The Missing Person.”. And Jonathan Ames‘ Sexual Metamorphosis is an anthology of trans autobiography across history, and it concludes with an excerpt from She’s Not There. All of these works are availalbe at Amazon, or at your local independent bookseller.
Novels
Getting In was published by Warner Books in 1998. It tells the story of four teenagers and three adults–an extended and highly dysfunctional family–as they go on the “college tour” throughout New England in an oversized Winnebago. Getting In, amazingly, has remained under nearly-constant option for film since its publication. Will it ever see the inside of a theatre? Hope springs eternal.
The Constellations was published by Simon and Schuster in 1994. It’s a sequel to The Planets, and continues the story of some of the residents of Centralia, Pennsylvania as they join rock bands, taste laytex brains, kidnap dogs, and search for meaning.
The Planets was published by Poseidon Press in 1991, and came out as a Vintage Contemporary in paperback the following year. The novel tells the story of a group of nine residents of Centralia, Pennsylvania, where a mine fire has been burning, below the surface of the earth, since 1962. The characters are drawn into each others orbits, and grapple with the gravitational forces of love and bedlam.
Remind Me to Murder You Later was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1988. A collection of short stories, this was my first published book. It contains a wide range of strange tales, including “Jimmy Durante Lost in Antarctica,” and “Thirty Six Miracles of Lyndon Johnson.”