FAQ's

So my new blog has been up for about two weeks, and I’ve gotten some emails and Twitters from people who have questions. I thought I’d answer a few of them here. Oh, but I made some of the questions up, though, pretending Oprah is interviewing me. :)

You had another blog somewhere else, right?
Yes for years! It was really fun. It was called the downward spiral, and if you look hard enough online, you might find it.

Did you really lose 100 pounds?

Yes, and over the past six years I’ve kept it off. That’s what this book I’m writing is about, how my thinking on food and lethargy and body image changed—and how I became a man.

The entries seem to be out of order. What gives?

Yes, I’m not writing the book in order.

Why not?

I take it bird by bird. Some days I’m more inclined to talk about family, other days its food. I have a chapter outline on my bulletin board, and some days I’ll just pull a sentence from there and start writing until it’s a sub-chapter or a full one. Either way, I write about twenty pages per week since last March, and I try to post my favorite “little bites” here.

What makes these entries your favorite?

If I think other people might relate to it, or if it was a moment that really changed how I thought about food or myself, then it should be up here. If it helps someone else not spend so much time feeling shitty, I owe it to them to share. Sorry in advance for the grittiness, I know it's uncomfortable sometimes, but it really happened.
And if I think it’s super-funny to a prospective publisher than you’ll see it here, too. :)

Are you only writing a memoir?
No. Five days a week I write memoir. On weekends I write my novel, which I might start posting here, too in the fall. It’s about a subject I'm really passionate about and a character who I'm in love with and it's coming along nicely. I think you'll really like her. She's nine and she's trying to change the world one kid at a time. And for my morning pages when I wake up, I’m writing the sequel to 100 Pounds.

Wow. That’s a lot.

I love writing, and if I don’t write I get angry (ier).

The chapter titles for 100 Pounds have familiar names. How do I recognize them?
They are all the titles of hit songs by Reba McEntire. I love her and her music helped me out of my fatness and out of my various closets. I’m really obsessed with her. It’s weird to be a West Hollywood dude like me and not be obsessed with Britney or Janet, but I’m “fancy” like that.

What do you want from all this?

A career and a brand as a writer of fiction and non-fiction that is first RELATABLE, second FUNNY and third INSPIRING. And finally I want a tummy tuck (that’s what the sequel is about though, so shhh…)