Today Isthmus, a wonderful Madison-area magazine covering arts, politics and culture, ran a nice story about my debut: http://isthmus.com/arts/books/matt-ge...

And tonight I'll be reading at the Cambridge Community Library: http://www.hngnews.com/cambridge_deer...

In addition to select pieces from "Raised by Wolves," I'll also be reading an all new story that's never been published in newspaper or book form. Here's a sample:

A couple years ago, I decided to lose some weight. I stopped eating things that everyone knows make you fat, and subsequently lost 60 pounds. The result was that everyone thought I was dying. For some people, shedding weight can really turn things around, in a good way. But for others - and apparently I fall squarely into this category - being thin brings with it a distinct aesthetic unpleasantness. Like an emaciated, sallow-faced Santa Claus, my newfound leanness robbed me of my more jolly attributes. Over the course of a few months, literally dozens of people approached me, walking slowly and silently like they were trying to sneak up on a deer, and asked, “Are you okay? I mean, how is your health?”

To make matters worse, they tended not to believe me when I told them how I lost the approximate poundage of a small sofa.

“I just stopped eating sugary things and drinking beer,” I said. “Little, common sense things like that. I also stopped eating cheese, which is nice because dairy wreaks havoc on my stomach.”

I might as well have said I lost the weight by running ultra marathons with my pet unicorn. In space.