Would You Like to Go on a Gay Men's Literary Weekend Retreat this Spring Near NYC?
Jon Tomlinson, who started the NYC Gay Guys Book Club, and I want to see if there's enough interest in this idea to move it forward. If you're intrigued, "soft register" in the Google Doc.

Hey Caftaners! First of all, I hope you all have a good weekend—and I should have another good interview you up very soon.
However, this is about something else. I have a query mainly for Caftaners living in or near NYC: I've been talking with Jon Tomlinson, the founder of NYC's Gay Guys Book Club (which has some 4K guys on its list and usually has about 50 come to every monthly meetup in the West Village), about organizing a two-night literary weekend for gay men of all ages in some lovely setting in the Catskills or the Berkshires, or something like that, in May or June.
We're trying to get an early head count on how many men would be interested in this and if you'd be willing to pay likely somewhere between $500-$1,000 for a weekend that would include:
• lodging (NOT travel - however we are going to look for something that is a short cab/Uber from a commuter station)
• at least some (if not all) meals
• programming that would likely include a(n optional) memoir- or poetry-writing workshop, a night of readings/literary conversations (we would invite some writer/poet types, in addition to myself - a novelist) and a "fireside" convo about a book that had been chosen before the weekend for people to read.
The fee would also be inclusive of a fee for Jon and me to reflect the work and time it will take to organize this, and modest stipends for whatever literary talent (maybe 2-3 guys) we invite as featured guests to read, lead workshops, etc.
Again, at this point, we are just trying to see how many people are interested. We'd like a minimum of 25 people. We can't set a maximum until we identify a venue. If you are interested, please go into this open Google doc (read the top first!) and include your name, email and answers to a few other questions. Doing this is non-binding, but we will log the order in which people said yes and then, if and when we are ready to really book, will reach back to you in that order until we book up to whatever our max is. (Of course, if we don’t hit the max that way, we’ll publicize it more.)
We were thinking how nice it would be to do this in some lovely springtime setting where gay men of all ages can divide their time between literary programming and also have time to themselves to relax, socialize, take walks, perhaps swim (based on the venue) etc.
So if you're interested, go into the Google doc and take it from there. I will follow up with y’all as to whether this moves to Phase 2.
Thanks and see you again soon, mis Caftanistas! xTim