I’ve been speaking to live audiences about A Family, Maybe ever since its launch in Portland in 2024. The initial 12-stop tour brought the book to the audiences in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Palm Springs, West Hollywood, and Mexico City. More events have been added to the 2025 and now the 2026 schedule. No two talks have been the same as each would highlight the aspects of our journey that are relevant to the specific audience and venue. Some have been part of a speaker series, themed month programming (Pride, foster care), bookstore events, or book festivals.
I am pleased with the welcome my book has received and am available for more speaking engagements. Please see below some photos and my tour blog and do not hesitate to reach out!









2025 – 2026 Schedule
March 27-29 | AWP 2025 Convention and Publishers Fair, Los Angeles
May 7 | LACC Book Program, in conversation with Sergio Garcia, LACC Foster Care Programs
October 19 | Belmont Shore Book Fair, “Dad Lit” panel, Long Beach
October 26 | Stanford Club of Palos Verdes and South Bay, author talk
Dec. 5, 2025 | Uptown Village Market, EXPO Arts, Long Beach
Feb. 10, 2026 | Pen Parentis Salon “Fluid Boundaries” panel, Online
March 6, 2026 | Temple Beth El, San Pedro, author talk
March 7, 2026 | Southwest Manuscripters, Redondo Beach, author talk
May 21, 2026 | Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, Shavuot plenary
2024 Schedule
Feb. 13 | Bishop & Wilde at Tin House, Portland, in conversation with Janeth Hernandez, Ooligan Press of Portland State University
April 17 | Congregations BCC and Kol Ami, Los Angeles, in conversation with Rabbi Jillian Cameron (Zoom)
May 15 | Page Against the Machine, Long Beach, in conversation with Ellie Lopez, Director, The Long Beach LGBTQ Center
June 5 | ONE Archives at USC, Los Angeles, in conversation with Craig Loftin, Ph.D., historian and Professor of American Studies, CSU Fullerton
June 14 | Book Soup, West Hollywood, in conversation with Stacy Perman, Los Angeles Times reporter and NYT-bestselling author
July 5 | Historical Society of Long Beach
August 6 | Idyllwild Library, Idyllwild, CA
August 17 | #Hashtag Gallery, Mexico City
September 22 | Belmont Shore Book Fair, Long Beach, CA
September 28 | Idyllwild Authors Faire, Idyllwild, CA
October 9 | WeHo Reads, “Creating Queer Families and Communities” panel, West Hollywood
October 20 | Pride on the Page, “We Are Family” panel, Palm Springs Cultural Center
Tour blog
Finding new readers at a holiday market
The annual Uptown Village Market in Bixby Knolls, Long Beach, on December 5 was busy and fun. This was my first time doing it among other 65 artisans and creatives.…
Keep readingSpeaking to a Stanford alumni club
“A court drama that became a personal memoir” was the title of the talk I gave to my alma mater alumni club here in LA on October 26, 2025. In…
Keep readingOn “Dad Lit” panel at Belmont Shore Book Fair
Exploring modern fatherhood in conversation with Max Evans and Nicholas Westerfer, moderated by Patrick Erlandson, founder of the educational nonprofit Father-Con. We discussed the challenges of being a Dad today,…
Keep readingAuthor talk in honor of Foster Care Awareness Month
About 250 Los Angeles City College students and faculty attended attended my talk in honor of Foster Care Awareness Month as part of LACC Book Program author event series. The…
Keep readingSigning and reading at AWP 25
2 signings at the bookfair, a joint reading at CSU Los Angeles, panels, receptions, networking – AWP 2025 in Los Angeles was a three-day creative whirlwind.
Keep readingSpeaking at Pride on the Page in Palm Springs
Tour stop #12: an exhilarating day speaking on the “We Are Family” panel at the third annual Pride on the Page in Palm Springs alongside Lucas Hildebrand and Penelope Starr.…
Keep readingWeHo Reads’ authors panel for Nat’l Coming Out Day
Tour stop #11: Spoke on the WeHo Reads authors panel organized by the City of West Hollywood to commemmorate National Coming Out Day and read two excerpts from A Family,…
Keep readingIdyllwild Authors Faire
Tour stop #10: pines, cedars, sunny skies, and books! Here I got to talk about A Family, Maybe to both locals and the tourists who ascended to Idyllwild (elevation 6,000…
Keep readingBelmont Shore Book Fair
Tour stop #9: first annual BSBF, Long Beach, Sept. 22. This being my first fair, I learned a lot about how to present the book to potential readers, what to…
Keep readingMexico City talk
Tour stop #8: an author talk on a rainy night in Mexico City. I was hosted by Graeme Lowy, a Canadian graphic artist, at #Hashtag Gallery, his trendy, modern art…
Keep readingAuthor talk at Idyllwild Library, Aug. 6
Tour stop #7. So meaningful to speak here as Idyllwild Library was such a big part of our kids’ routine since they were very small: storytimes, reading contests, hauling bags…
Keep readingInterview in the Town Crier
Idyllwild Town Crier Vo. 79, No. 31, p. B1 Thursday, August 1, 2024 Local Author to Speak of Foster to Adoption Journey By David Jerome, Correspondent Tuesday August 6, the…
Keep reading4 more stops added to the book tour
Four more stops have been added to A Family, Maybe book tour: Idyllwild (x2), Belmont Shore (LB), and Mexico City. Contact me for more details.
Keep readingAuthor talk at Historical Society of Long Beach, July 5
Tour stop #6. It was so very meaningful to speak about my book in the neighborhood where our kids grew up and much of the story takes place. Long Beach,…
Keep readingIn conversation with Stacy Perman (LA Times) at Book Soup, WeHo
Tour stop #5. Still electrified from my Father’s Day book talk with the veteran LA Times reporter Stacy Perman at the iconic “bookseller to the great and infamous.” Together we…
Keep readingSpeaking at ONE Archives at USC
Tour stop #4. On June 5, I spoke with Craig Loftin, PhD, professor of American Studies at CSU Fullerton, at ONE Archives at USC Libraries, the world’s largest repository LGBTQ…
Keep readingBook signing in Long Beach
Tour stop #3: A deep and lively conversation with Ellie Perez, head of The LGBTQ Center Long Beach at Page Against The Machine, especially when we explored “how we do family”…
Keep readingBook talk at 2 LA congregations
Tour stop #2 – this time on Zoom! On April 17, I spoke at the joint online Lunch-and-Learn of two LGBTQ-affirming LA synagogues: Beth Chayim Chadashim and Congregation Kol Ami. Moderated by Rabbi…
Keep readingBook launch in Portland
A Family, Maybe’s Feb. 13 launch at Bishop & Wilde at Tin House was a blast! My publisher, Ooligan Press is based at Portland State University, so it was only…
Keep readingTwo writing talks at Portland State
On Feb. 12, I gave talks in 2 courses on non-fiction writing and manuscrupt development at Portland State University, whose teaching press, Ooligan, is the publisher of my memoir A…
Keep reading