Amy Ettinger & Dan White reading at the Martin Luther King Jr. library in San Jose

Hi, everyone.  I am very excited to announce that my wife, Amy Ettinger, will read with me on October 10, 7 p.m, at the Schiro Room, adjacent to the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, located in Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at SJSU, not to be confused, under any circumstances, with  the Steinbeck Museum down in Salinas, although my mentioning of this distinction will probably cause even more confusion.  A reception will follow. Amy Ettinger has written for the New York Times, New York Magazine, the Huffington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Sierra, Backpacker and other publications. Her personal essays delve into issues ranging from parenthood, childhood, mortality, creative competition among spouses and growing up on “the other side” of Silicon Valley. She will read a selection from her recent work. I am a former Steinbeck Fellow, an occasional teacher and freelance travel writer, the institutional voice of…

Cheryl Strayed at the Capitola Book Cafe: “My feet are fine. They’ve been restored to their original beauty. It’s taken a while for my toenails to grow back.”

Plus: Mary Karr sings and dances, and much more. Well, it’s been a very eventful month here in Santa Cruz, and since I always bring my little black notebooks to all these events anyhow, I figured I’d share a few journal highlights with you.  Never, in all my years, did I think I’d get to see the great memoirist and poet Mary Karr shimmying, shaking her hair, stomping her boots and singing back-up vocals — and in one case, lead vocals! — with songwriting legend Rodney Crowell at the Rio Theatre right here in Santa Cruz.  In a couple of instances, I had to pinch myself to see if I was hallucinating. Was Mary Karr really up there on the stage, enthusiastically harmonizing to –>“It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night that Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long?” Karr, who must have very good genes — she looked…