Janet Mock's New Book 'Surpassing Certainty' Out Today

The last time I spent some quality time with my amazing sis was when we were making history together last summer at Chautauqua Institute.   She was telling me about her latest book she was writing at the time as we waited to go on that historic amphitheater stage

That book she was telling about in the green room, Surpassing Certainty, goes on sale today and is available in hardcopy and e-book formats.  

The latest book picks up from where Redefining Realness left off and covers Janet's twenties and navigating college, the corporate world and trying to find her purpose and place in the world without a roadmap to guide her along the way.

I know I'm looking forward to reading it and getting my copy autographed by her the next time i get to spend quality time with her.

Best of luck Janet with Surpassing Certainty, and hope it is another New York Times Best Seller for you.  

Daliah Husu Tells Her Story In Her Book 'I Am Woman'

Over the years I've read and have a few autobiographical books by trans people sitting on my bookshelf telling their stories like Caroline Cossey's My Story, Christine Jorgensen's autobiography, and Janet Mock's Redefining Realness.  I'm looking forward to reading Being Jazz and getting it autographed by her the next time I see her and reading Willy Wilkinson's book Born on the Edge Of Race and Gender. 

Telling our stories in print and book form is also an important way to not only combat the right wing demonization of our trans lives, but point out we are part of the diverse mosaic of human life.

One of the people I've been getting to know is author Daliah Husu.   She was born in the Dominican Republic, moved here to the US at age 8, and in her memoir  I Am Woman, Surviving The Past, The Present & The Future she recounts her bumpy journey to womanhood and coming out still standing.

She's now happily married to her hubby Ruben (happy first anniversary!), and is one of our up and coming advocates.  I'm looking forward to finally meeting her soon.



Her book is available for purchase on Amazon.com or at her daliahhusu.com website, and looking forward to reading it.

Still Musing About Marcus Major

Back in July 2011 I wrote a post asking the question what happened to author Marcus Major? 

After writing the short story Kenya and Amir and the bestselling novels Good Peoples, 4 Guys And Trouble, A Man Most Worthy and A Family Affair from 2000-2003, it seemed as though he just vanished from the literary world and hasn't written a new novel since 2003.

Basically myself and ofter fans of Major who grew to love the characters in his Philly-Newark-DC centered writing universe have been wondering ever since what's happened not only to him, but the characters populating his novels?

When Major's last novel A Family Affair was published, we discovered Marisa and Myles were married.  Mike had just gotten married to now Dr. Erika.Truitt.  Carlos and Jackie Roque were the parents of adorable toddler CJ. Kenya and Amir were married and dealing with their now eight year old twins Deja and Jade, and everyone's fave playa player Ibn Barrington is still hilariously single.

Eleven years has elapsed since A Family Affair was published.   For those of us Marcus Major fans musing about Marisa and Myles, not only do we wonder if our fave couple had a boy or girl, did that at this point 11 year old child receive a name starting with 'M'?  

If their child is a girl, would Marisa name the baby for her late Cuban mother or if a boy, would he be a Myles Jr or some other male name?   Would the career obsessed Cubana slow down her legal, media and advocacy track for mommyhood or would Myles be more of the stay at home dad as they discussed at the end of Good Peoples? 

Speaking of juniors, what's up with Carlos Roque, Jr?   How is he progressing under the parental guidance of Jackie and Carlos Sr?   Is the group home that Jackie and Kenya were running still active?    What's up not only with Kenya and Amir Moore, but with their twin daughters Deja and Jade who would now be about college age at 19?   What's their Aunt Tanzania up to?   Did Jasmine and Darius stay together or move on to other people as Jasmine pursued her college education?  

As for the questions focused on the characters from 4 Guys and Trouble, we know that Mike and Bunches AKA Dr Erika Truitt got married, and Ibn's being Ibn, but did the same thing happen for the other characters in that novel? 

Did Tiffany get married to Maryland state senator Harold Hawkins III and repair her friendship with Erika?  Are Colin and Stephanie still together and did that newly blossoming relationship result in them getting married?  Did Dexter find someone else in the wake of his breakup with Denise?   Did she marry Kwame?.

What happened to Sharice?  Terence?   Did Erika keep her promise and adopt Tiana who would now be in her early twenties?  

We know Stacy went on to cause the end of a Moore family marriage in A Family Affair , but is she still wrecking homes?  

And Ibn, Ibn, Ibn?   Has Ibn finally met the woman that made him want to give up his playa playa card?  Does he still think about losing Tiffany?   If he hasn't given up his playa card, what other wild situations did Ibn find himself in as alluded to in the A Man Most Worthy book when he showed up at Adele's with his frat neophytes who had just gone over, and his hilarious cameos in Amir's barbershop in A Family Affair? 

As for the Newark based characters in A Man Most Worthy, we can probably presume that John and Josephine Sebastian and Gloria and Jules Anthony are still together because both couples had seriously rocky roads to their dual  reconciliations and marriages.   But there's still questions you can ask related to that novel.

How did Gloria adjust to being the stepmother to Jules' then seven year old daughter Nakira, and what's Nakira doing now that she's 18?  

Did the now 34 year old Scent get her doctorate and find love?   Are Hakeem and Rashahn still living up to the motto of their problem solving business and dishing out well deserved beatdowns?  

In case you forgot:  "No problem too big or too small to be fixed, no azz too big or too small to be kicked."

Going back to Nakira, would be interesting to see a novel in which Tiana,  Nakira, Jade and Deja bumped into each other at college with Scent or Jasmine as one of their professors,  Marisa doing a guest lecture, and Ibn making a hilarious appearance doing his usual frat mentoring.

But then again, that's up to Marcus Major.   Would be nice of him to unleash another book for his devoted fans like moi who would love to once again immerse themselves into his Philly-DC-Newark centric character universe and see what's transpiring in the 2k10's.    

Hey, Ibn Barrington's exploits are worth two novels and a movie by himself.

Denny's New Book 'West Of Sunset'

You know I've had the pleasure of having novelist Denny Upkins as a guest poster here at TransGriot from time to time.

But Denny's also a talented author in addition to being a fierce human rights warrior, and since I believe in supporting the people who support my community, definitely wanted to talk about Mr. Upkins new book that dropped April 30 entitled West of Sunset

West of Sunset is Mr. Upkins' second novel and follows the release of his debut novel Hollowstone, also available through Parker Publishing.. 

West of Sunset tells the story of Brecken Everett, for whom life never contains dull moments. 

When he’s not dealing with a demanding course load and honing his magic as top student at Lightmage University, he’s working as a private investigator and using his skills to protect the innocent from the darkest forces. In two action-packed adventures, Breck demonstrates that outnumbered and outgunned is when he’s at his best:

(Part One): Brecken is enlisted to aid Jacob and Joshua Phoenix; twins who are the last Pyrians, an ancient race of beings who mysteriously vanished from Earth eons prior. Along with their friends Elroy and the seraph Nemesis, the Brothers Phoenix have been on a quest to uncover clues to their past. The biggest clue to date leads them to Scotland where they recover and research a lost relic. After obtaining their prize, it appears as though Brecken, the twins and the others are in for a fun-filled vacation until they receive a visit from a pair of demons with designs on the relic. With Brecken’s aid, the twins are determined to stop the imminent threat, but are also determined to have some fun in the process.

West of Sunset will be available in both print and digital format and TransGriot will be one of the blogs that proudly hosts a guest post from him on his virtual book tour once it commences.

Looking forward to that when it happens, and much success Denny with this new novel.

#RedefiningRealness Conversation With Janet Mock

Looks like I'm going to have to hurry up and install a camera on my computer since post Creating Change I'm getting more people asking me if I would or can participate in Google Hangouts like this one.

Here was a recent conversation about her now New York Times bestselling and groundbreaking book Redefining Realness.

Janet's Big Day

Today's launch of her book Redefining Realness was the fulfillment of a dream for Janet Mock to become a published author.  It's also concrete proof that just because you transition, you don't have to give up on making your dreams a reality. 

If you come up with a plan, stick to it and put in the work to make it happen our dreams can be realized.

As Janet wrote in her blog post  'A Dream Realized: Redefining Realness Is Finally Here', she states:

For so long I believed that good things could not happen to me, that my dreams and goals and desires and fantasies could not come true. This is how I’ve navigated the world for so long, with feelings of doom, of inadequacy and pain, of letdowns and failed expectations following me. As I write in Redefining Realness, “Happiness was fleeting and accidental; goodness wasn’t in the cards for a girl like me.” I wish I was at some elevated space with myself where I could say I’ve conquered those feelings, but I have not. And this book is not going to fill that craving.

You can read the rest of Janet's post by clicking this link.