DO DROP INN

Briefly...I will be speaking at the 10th Annual County of Los Angeles MULTICULTURAL CONFERENCE at the Universal Hilton at 10:30 am on THURSDAY, MAY 15.

Also, I will be signing books at the National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA) booth at the So Cal ABILITIES EXPO at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim both morning and afternoon on SATURDAY, MAY 30.

Come to either event, say you read about it on this web site, and...well, just come and find out yourself.

WOEFULLY REMISS

I know, some of you have turned to this blog periodically only to mumble, "Jeez, this guy is a one pathetic blogger. He should be thrown out of the international brotherhood of blogmeisters."

I'll try to do better, I swear.

Just out: the new issue of ABILITY Magazine with celebrity chef Sandra Lee on the cover and a piece I wrote about my "undercover" trip to the Glen Ivy Spa in Corona, CA to see how they treated users of wheelchairs. I aspire to becoming the foremost expert on worldwide spa/disability reporting.

Coming up: in the June issue of New Mobility mag, I write about the trip we made to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center a few months back to visit some wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. It was eye-opening and very moving. Please check it out if you can.

Here are two pics from that trip. First, there's Ann-Marie and I out front of Walter Reed, then a group shot including Nicole Ray and Dayna Jamison, the two wonderful women at WRAMC who paved the way for our visit.

And thank you out there for the hundreds and hundreds of letters I keep getting re "The Best Seat In The House." Maybe I should publish a few. They're great.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

From my friend Hudson Marquez: this is how our Chinese hosts will greet the disabled.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Thanks for checking in even though there hasn't been a new blog here for a while. I swear, I'll strive to do better in the future.

This just in...check out a wonderful new book called "NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING." It's a delightful compilation of six-word memoirs put together by the editors of the on-line magazine, SMITH. See, Ernest Hemingway was once asked to write a story in six words and three drinks later, he announced..."For sale. Baby shoes. Never used." So, the SMITH people began to solicit six word life stories from both the famous and the obscure. Ergo, this book.

If you're just thumbing through it in the bookstore, mine is on page 92, right before Harold Ramis's.

For more info, go to http://www.smithmag.net/.

Then sum up your own life in six words and send it to them for the inevitable volume two.

IT'S ALL NEW AND THE KIDS LOVE IT!

Brand spanking new web site, thanks to Blaine Rucker. There are many more videos, both on the home page and the VIDEOS page. If you scroll down the home page, you'll come to a video made by an industrious 15-year-old high school sophomore -- code name "Hyperwires"-- and posted on You Tube. Here is her explanation of the video:

"For another English assignment, I was assigned to read a non-fiction book, give a short speech about it and provide some sort of visual such as a slideshow or poster. I decided to create a video for the book by Allen Rucker which I read, The Best Seat in the House. In the book, he tells of how he was instantly paralyzed from the waist down one Tuesday. I used clips of one of my favorite shows, Lost, because Terry 0' Quinn seems to portray Allen Rucker very well and he plays John Locke who used to be in a wheelchair."

Thanks, Hyperwires, and thank YOU for watching.

IT'S A WHOLE NEW YEAR

In every way. Soon this site will get a remod, courtesy of master designer Blaine, but meanwhile, here is some news you can use:

The paperback edition of “The Best Seat In The House” is now in bookstores and at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. At only $13.95, it fits any budget. Buy one for the library and another for the bath.

I’ll have the distinct honor of visiting wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Wednesday, Feb 6th. My editor from Harper Collins, Gail Winston, is flying down from New York and we will be meeting recovering paralytics and handing out books. I only hope it does some good.

Check out this user-generated video about the book on You Tube. http://youtube.com/watch?v=koslh7iEs7I
Thanks, "Hyperwires," whoever you are.

I’m writing an article on artist/director Julian Schnabel for the next issue of ABILITY Magazine (http://www.abilitymagazine.com)I met with him last week on an awards-tour swing through LA. If you haven’t seen his film, “The Diving Bell and The Butterfly,” about a man with “locked-in syndrome,” the most extreme form of paralysis, then you are missing out on something profound, moving, and in its own absurd way, comic.

Finally, there is an upcoming one-day So Cal symposium on transverse myelitis and other rare neuro disorders on Saturday, Feb 23th in Anaheim. Sponsored by the Transverse Myelitis Association, noted doctors in the field like Dr. Douglas Kerr from Johns Hopkins will be presenting an all-day educational program. For more information, go to the TMA web site -- http://www.myelitis.org/.

Support the WGA strike! Later.

SEE YOU IN SAN FRANCISCO

A week or so back, I got a wonderful note from a woman in Connecticut named Nancy Noonan. Nancy's 34-year-old daughter-in-law in San Francisco, Cynthia, had recently be stricken with Transverse Myelitis and is currently a C5/T1 paralytic. Nancy asked me if I'd be willing to come up to San Francisco on Saturday, December 8th, to be part of a community fundraiser for Cynthia and her husband, Trevor. So I'll be there, for sure, signing books and whatnot. The wonderful people at Book Passage in SF are donating books for the occasion. If you live in the area, please drop by and add your support.

The event is at a tavern called Liverpool Lil's, located at 2942 Lyon @ Lombard in San Francisco. The phone is 415.921.6664. The event is from noon til five.

To learn more about the Noonans, go to:

Go here

Remember, Saturday, 12/8, Liverpool Lil's. See you there.

STRIKE!

Photos from the picket line yesterday in front of Warner Bros in Burbank. Performers with Disabilities (PWD) joined writers with disabilities (WWD) and many others. One pic is with actor/activist/pal Danny Murphy and one is with Down syndrome maven Gail Williamson. A rousing good time of political oneness was had by all. Thanks intrepid photog Marty Sweeney for the pix.