Tony Brasunas

The adventure continues. I feel grateful that I get to do this — tour with my story and share it with others. It is a delight.

The east coast tour was a whirlwind of ups and downs, of places and faces, and if you saw me out there, I might have been in any of a number of emotional and physical states. Thank you for meeting me where I was.

The truth is, connecting with people about Double Happiness is immensely fulfilling and I thoroughly enjoy it, more even than I had guessed.

Now Double Happiness continues to take me around this country, asking me and letting me personify all over again the young soul within me who experienced China and set out to write about it. In addition to the written words, this is how I get to share the story with others. I’m not always that person anymore, and it is this tour and connecting with you and experiencing again the serendipity of the road that kindles in me again the fires of the dragon’s breath I describe in the book’s prologue. It’s spicy and sweet to taste this, and also to know it’s the taste of the beginning of the end of this this second life-changing journey, publishing the book.

Thank you for spreading the word about Double Happiness. For those of you who can, please do come out and see me and Double Happiness on the tour.

I will be in southern California in two weeks:

Saturday, May 3 (SANTA BARBARA)
6pm : Reading & Signing
Granada Books
1224 State Street, Santa Barbara

Sunday, May 4 (LOS ANGELES)
3pm : Reading & Signing
Beyond Baroque
681 North Venice Blvd., Venice

Monday, May 5 (LOS ANGELES)
7pm : Reading & Signing
Home of MJ Park
Silverlake

And then I will be in the Pacific Northwest the second week of June.

June 11-13 (PORTLAND, OR)
Events TBA

June 14-16 (SEATTLE, WA)
Events TBA

Check back here very soon for more on the Oregon and Washington Double Happiness events.

For now, have fun, take chances, and enjoy the journey,
Tony

Friends, I think it does. At least the kind of traveling that creates new experiences.

Travel inspires creativity, fresh perspectives, and an open enjoyment of something you haven’t enjoyed before. There are two kinds of happiness — as those of you reading Double Happiness know — a joy in our desires fulfilled and a delight in awareness of what already exists. Travel often brings me both.

The book tour, this trans-American journey of words, has been a whirlwind of wonderful places and faces, new and old. Every day seems to fulfill a desire and bring me closer to an awareness that what already exists is good. My desire was for this tour to be all booked in advance by the publicist I hired. What already exists are: a large network of people and places throughout this country who are already interested in Double Happiness; and a range of experiences ready to flow organically around the book. This trip is reminding me of all of this — that my desires are important and that what already exists is good. It is the union of these that creates double happiness. This book may be touring me more than I am touring this book.

What else can I say? Every event so far has been a sweet experience, from a bookstore in St Louis to a library in Charles Town, from a restaurant in Princeton to a comfortable home in New York (a few photos are at right), and so much more. After working on this book alone for many years, connecting now about Double Happiness with other people is a desire fulfilled.

Today I have two events — one here at my alma mater, Amherst College, and one this evening at a gallery in Rosendale, NY. If you’re in upstate NY, please come out tonight! If Boston is home, or not too far away, come out and see me Monday evening! All are welcome. If you have to travel a bit to get there, make it the kind of travel that brings happiness.

Have fun, take chances, enjoy the journey,
Tony