Nov. 16, 2009, the day I really arrived:

 
Hahaha. I started getting facebooks and emails late yesterday afternoon. I was giddy all night. It actually tickled me even more than making the Pub Weekly and Amazon best of 2009 lists.

This was a dream I didn't know I had.… Read full post »

Today was a big day in my career. I have literally gone to sleep hundreds of times fantasizing about Publisher's Weekly reviewing my book, and giving it a starred review.

Today it happened. Woohoo! My editor is ecstatic. Me, too. Most of my friends are confused. My family, too. They tried… Read full post »

Book tour has been great: exhilarting and interesting, but tiring as hell. I hate hearing authors complain about book tour, so that's not my intention, but I do want to share a bit of what it's been like.

Dorkiest moment: dousing a woman and a row of coffee table books… Read full post »

I lost count. I think I've been robbed six times in the past three years. All my car. Most of them in my own parking space, right under my third-story balcony, in the alley behind my apt.

That's where it happened this time. It sat there all day, with me… Read full post »

Sarah Palin wrote her 400-page book in four months. (Or she got a head start before she announced her resignation. Maybe she was lying and did quit early for the big-book paycheck. 

Pub date has been moved up to Nov. 17.

Yow. I wonder if it will read like… Read full post »

In zero words, why McCain is losing:

Hard to believe this is not photoshopped. John McCain actually did this. The description from Yahoo, where it's curently the #1 most emailed photo in the world:

US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wr… Read full post »

I'm gripped by fierce mixed emotions this afternoon.

Tuesday, the New Yorker asked me to do a Q&A for their book blog, about my book Columbine.  The interview is up right now--both on the book page, and featured near the top of their home page.

Making the New Yorker… Read full post »

So she's not dumb.

Sarah Palin deserved all the heckling she got, in my opinion. She made an ass of herself. She seemed to revel in ignorance, and glorify it. But she turns out to be intelligent after all.

I'm watching her right now on Oprah. I'm halfway… Read full post »

Nearly a decade researching psychopaths has made it a lot easier to spot one.

I won't attempt to diagnose any particular governor, but if you thought you saw a delusional press conference today, there are other explanations.

Dr. Robert Hare, the world's leading authority on psychopaths makes two poin… Read full post »

Gay activists have learned a few things over the years. A big one, which took awhile, seems obvious in retrospect: when someone helps us, thank them!

We do quite a bit demanding, cajoling, and what sounds to some like complaining. We have to. As long as we're treated second-class, we can't… Read full post »

Oprah has selected COLUMBINE for her "Summer Reading List." It's the cover story of the July O Magazine (hitting newstands soon), and the cover story right now on Oprah.com.

We gave her exclusive rights to an excerpt--the first chapter--now on Oprah.com. Her site also features new Book Club… Read full post »

 Sounds like a simple request, but where do you address these things? God? The police? My facebook page? None of that seems to help.

I've tried really hard to be a good boy--perhaps He'll grant me one. He's been known to smite people, but I don't think He takes requests on… Read full post »

The issue of O Magazine is not supposed to be out until Tuesday, but NBC found a copy on sale in LA. They faxed me a copy this evening just before taping an interview for tomorrow's Today Show.

I had to read it fast, but it stopped me cold several times.… Read full post »

April 20 can be a tough day out there. Everyone reacts differently, which is, I think, the most important thing I learned about trauma. Everybody needs something different. Some people need a hug, some people need to be alone. I hope each person gets what they need.

I've been warned not to post about this. But I just can't stand it anymore.

It's bad form to brag about your book's success. But I don't feel like bragging, just sharing with my friends here.

"Columbine" just notched its third week on the New York Times list, and I can… Read full post »

I might be mildly embarrassed. I can't decide how to feel.

But I think I'm starting to like Twitter. 

I enjoy Facebook a lot, and OS, and my own little blog I started on the once-might Salon Blogs when it opened about (seven?) years ago.

But Twitter? It's nothing but these… Read full post »

My book trailer was supposed to be my big news, but the Newsweek essay on Columbine is up, and it's a stunning piece, and also a rave on my book, "Columbine":

The Columbine Generation

A decade later, the school shooting is still causing collateral damage.… Read full post »

I'm rushing. It's crazy. Quick updates on COLUMBINE:

 I'll be on the Air America show "Doing Time with Ron Kuby" live today at about 5:05 EDT, for about 10-15 minutes. Find a local station in their network.

I'm on Sirius/XM Radio at 3:30 EDT. (The Michael Signorile Show on XM… Read full post »

The list is out. Congratulations to all the finalists.

I have special admiration for the nonfiction finalists, having gone through that little adventure (of creating one):

• David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Cre
… Read full post »

OK, here's my final map, which is pretty close to my March map:

The map shows 382, and then add one for Nebraska's 2nd congressional district elector. (NE and Maine don't do winner-take-all, though it's never come into play yet. I think it might this time.)

I would… Read full post »

Man. My editor (Jon) always seems to have an amazing email to start me off Monday mornings. I wonder if he saves them up till then.

I thought I got to return the favor this week, but he trumped me. I got a really nice email over the weekend, and forwarded… Read full post »

This was the first day I literally started to consider this might be a dream. I pinched myself, slapped my face as hard as I could stand, looked at a digital clock and turned a light off/on. (In Richard Linklater's wonderful film Waking Life, they suggested the last two:… Read full post »

The Today Show announced this morning that Michael Phelps "lost" a race last night, his second "loss" of the weekend.

Yet they showed footage of him getting a silver medal laid around his head.

I googled, and found most of the stories, including this one at Yahoo say he… Read full post »

I've been waiting nearly ten years to see this:

It was cool to see it in print.

This is the title page: the first printed page on the inside, before the copyright page or Table of Contents. (The 12 is my publisher's logo. Twelve is a pretty new… Read full post »

Oh no!

NY Times:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Senator Barack Obama’s grandmother, a central figure in his life who helped raise him during his teen-age years, died in Hawaii on Monday morning.

Mr. Obama, who left the presidential campaign trail late last month to travel to Honolulu to bid her farewell,… Read full post »