What?!? Summer's over already?

Oh, gee.

The summer of 2009 has proven to be a strange one in recent memory; I've never had this much theater injected into my veins.

My Fringe Festival play That Chair was My Wife came and went. My next play I Never Slept with Helen Keller has already started rehearsals, and audition notices for my 18th play, The Darkest Room in the House, have been posted, which opens on March 12, 2010. (Yep, that one is a hearing-only play directed by a hearing director and produced by a hearing producer; the show has nothing to do with deafness or disability. I'm very excited about this production because it means that I've proven that I don't have to write all the time about Deaf and/or GLBT issues in order to get produced. And the director Brian Columbus did a truly fine job with his show The William Williams Effect at this year's Minnesota Fringe Festival, so I'm very pleased that he's running the show. And just as delightful is the producer Michelle Storm, who's frighteningly organized. I feel in such good hands with these two people and look forward to working with them. Of course, I will babble about the show later on.)

Gallaudet University Press just informed me that copies of my ninth book, Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience, have arrived at their offices. I'm supposed to get my copies real soon. Can't wait! (Of course, I will create a book trailer for it and post it online soon. I know I've promised to do this before, but having the actual book in hand is a great impetus!)

A friend alerted me to this link in which a bookstore owner helped a Deaf lesbian customer who wanted to buy a book of mine. I'm very flattered that *any* bookstore owner would know my name, simply because in America, approximately 50,000 titles are published every year. That I'm able to stand out a bit in any bookstore is good news indeed. This is yet another reason why it's so important to support independent bookstores because that's where little folks like me have a chance to shine a bit (and sell a few copies)!

I've said this before, but please do check out my new Thursday column "Which Reminds Me" over at CLERC SCAR. What am I writing about every Thursday? As my editor John Lee Clark says, "Readers are invited to suggest a thing, person, place, event, or concept for Raymond Luczak to write about. You can suggest anything up to three words and send it to editor@clercscar.com and Raymond will pick one to respond to each week." (Yes, the web site has archived my columns, so please sign up and check out the latest creative efforts by the Deaf and signing communities all over the country!) I think you will enjoy the diversity of opinion and creative work from "out there."

So what am I working on next? A new ten-minute play, and then I need to resume working on that little magnum opus of mine. Have a great Labor Day weekend, all!