I'm glad you like them, Top Kat. I've got one more, in fact, about how Debra Hyde came to write about Romania, and then I'll be done with cutting-and-pasting and be running entirely barefoot.


Debra Hyde

When the call for Mitzi's Foreign Affairs came out, I was home-bound with my disabled son. His illness was profound enough that the possibility of exotic travel was inconceivable to me. I honestly thought I might never see another far-flung place.

But I had toured Romania in the 1970s in a youth orchestra and I drew on those memories to write Remembering Andrei. All of the story's details come from my experiences during that three-week adventure, right down to “Andrei's” meal-time wooing – except that happened to my roommate!

What was imagined? The sexual encounters. However, in writing the story and recalling my experiences in Romania, I remembered how we had plenty of avenues for bridging language gaps and appreciating cultural common ground and cultural divergence. That re-examination made me realize that sexual sharing might well be as universal a language as the music I played in concert during that tour.

Writing Remembering Andrei allowed me to revisit a wonderful country and people, albeit with a sparkle of newly-imagined extra content. And who knows? Maybe sexual diplomacy could cure the world's ills. One can hope! less

I'm glad you like them, Top Kat. I've got one more, in fact, about how Debra Hyde came to write about Romania, and then I'll be done with cutting-and-pasting and be running entirely barefoot.


Debra Hyde

When the call for Mitzi's Foreign Affairs came out, I was home-bound with my disabled son. His illness was profound enough that the possibility of exotic travel was inconceivable to me. I honestly thought I might never see another far-flung place.

But I had toured Romania in the 1970s in a youth orchestra and I drew on those memories to write Remembering Andrei. All of the story's details come from my experiences during that three-week adventure, right down to “Andrei's” meal-time wooing – except that happened to my roommate!

What was imagined? The sexual encounters. However, in writing the story and recalling my experiences in Romania, I remembered how we had plenty of avenues for bridging language gaps and appreciating cultural common ground and cultural divergence. That re-examination made me realize that sexual sharing might well be as universal a language as the music I played in concert during that tour.

Writing Remembering Andrei allowed me to revisit a wonderful country and people, albeit with a sparkle of newly-imagined extra content. And who knows? Maybe sexual diplomacy could cure the world's ills. One can hope! less

Well, folks, it's hitting 2am and my coach turned into a pumpkin 2 hours ago. I'd best head off to bed. If I missed responding to anyone, I apologise. I've been scrambling to and fro in these threads to answer people. Hopefully I caught everyone. Thanks again for inviting me and for featuring the book. I look forward to doing this again. Good night for now! less

There are many lovely stories in Foreign Affairs that are free of angst yet brimming with sensuality and featuring sympathetic characters. My favorite may be "Ukiyo," a story with a bisexual bent about a female academic in Japan on business who discovers the joys that come with the Japanese pereption of foriegn businesswomen as being a "third sex." I'll have to get Donna to give me some back ground comments sometime. Here's a sample of her beautifully delicate style:

The evening sky stretches over us, a bolt of violet silk fading to silver. Young waiters murmur excuses as they bring course after course: slices of sea bream and fluffy, snow-white conger sailing on a miniature boat of ice, eggplant and broiled river eel, wisps of ivory-colored noodles in chilled soy broth.
Yutaka pours more cold sake into my cup, a small work of art in itself with frothy air bubbles suspended like jewels in the depths of the thick glass. “What other pleasures shall we rediscover?" less

There are many lovely stories in Foreign Affairs that are free of angst yet brimming with sensuality and featuring sympathetic characters. My favorite may be "Ukiyo," a story with a bisexual bent about a female academic in Japan on business who discovers the joys that come with the Japanese pereption of foriegn businesswomen as being a "third sex." I'll have to get Donna to give me some back ground comments sometime. Here's a sample of her beautifully delicate style:

The evening sky stretches over us, a bolt of violet silk fading to silver. Young waiters murmur excuses as they bring course after course: slices of sea bream and fluffy, snow-white conger sailing on a miniature boat of ice, eggplant and broiled river eel, wisps of ivory-colored noodles in chilled soy broth.
Yutaka pours more cold sake into my cup, a small work of art in itself with frothy air bubbles suspended like jewels in the depths of the thick glass. “What other pleasures shall we rediscover?" less