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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2003)
BOOKS ....... v....... onalJ Olson has become a Swan. The prolific travel writer, playwright and author has a new hook and a new name. Olson’s sixth novel, My Three Husbands, is published under the pseu by F loyd S klaver donym Swan Adamson. (His previous novel, Queer Com ers, is a fictionalized account of the events surrounding 1992 s Measure 9.) “I was going out on a limb on this kx>k," he says, “because 1 was writ my in the voice of a 25-year-old American woman.... The voice had to he hers. When 1 wrote My Three Husbands, I felt like a kxik with that title and the name Donald Olson would he a very dif ferent novel from one with •in ambiguous (sounding) author.” Although he inten tionally chose a sexually ambiguous name to avoid preconceived notions, in Scandinavia (home of O lson’s ancestors) Swan is a popular man’s name and the name of his great uncle, a “hard-drinking” logger from Minnesota. “He was not a literary character at all,” notes Olson. “Rut his name always had resonance to me in a land where everyone Donald Olson kicks back at home in Northwest having spent the was a Johnson or a Larson summer publishing a new novel and producing his latest play or an Olson. I’ve always telling about the manifestations. They can wanted to use the name Swan Adamson— it tell you what happened, and they can conjec seems so much more romanticand dashing ture, hut no one really knows.” than Donald Olson." T he closest Olson ever came to a spirit My Three Husbands is a comic novel set in was at Heceta Head while researching Ore Portland that follows the adventures of young gon Ghosts. T he only lighthouse keeper’s Venus, who has been unlucky in love. When house left on the Oregon coast, the building the thrice-married woman becomes engaged to has been turned into a bed-and-breakfast. husband No. 4, her two gay fathers offer the “I’d like to believe 1 heard the ghost," Olson newlyweds a luxury honeymixin at a wilder says. “W ho knows? But 1 heard a series of ness resort in Idaho. The catch: Both dads are rappings, and the rixim got so hot I could tagging along. barely breathe.” “I think it's the only novel with a family But that’s the closest he’s ever gotten so honeymoon,” Olson laughs. “It’s kind of a far. “I’ve never had an experience where I family story, very much about relationships actually encountered a ghost, but many of with a lot of gay subplots. The gay dads have my friends have, and I believe them .” been in a relationship for 20 years, and it’s W hile novels and plays are his true pas contrasted with Venus’ relationships, which sion, Olson actually supports himself by writ last nine months at the longest.” ing travel books such as England for Olson certainly knows about long-term Dummies, which received the 2002 Lowell relationships. He and his partner, architect Thomas Travel W riting Award for Best Gary Larson, recently celebrated their 25th G uidekxik. T h e honor is presented by the anniversary. They met in 1978 at the Rafters, a Society of American Travel Writers to rec downtown piano har/disco. Today they live in ognize outstanding publications in the field Northwest Portland in what Olson describes as of travel journalism. “a treehouse." His nine travel tomes also include London for Dummies, Germany for Dummies, Fodor's esides novels, the 53-year-old pens travel Oregon and the third edition of Frommer's Gay kxiks and plays. His latest play, Oregon & lu’shian Europe: The Top Cities & Resorts. Ghosts, just completed a sold-out mn at the Olson’s articles have appeared in The New Lakewixxl Theater Company in Lake Oswego. York Times and numerous other publications, With original music by Olson, it tells the story including Sunset and National Geographic's of three haunted houses in Oregon: the Heceta Guide to Small Town Escapes. “The amount of Head lighthouse near Florence, the Geiser travel writing I do allows me to pay my expens Grand Hotel in Raker City and the White es in life,” he explains, “but novels remain my Eagle in North Portland. first love.” Oregon Ghosts combines Olson’s fascina Olson is at work on a sequel to My Three tion with history and the supernatural. “I’ve Husbands, titled Happily Ever After, and a trav always had an interest in ghosts,” he shares. el guide akiut day trips from London, k ith due “1 started reading akiut parapsychology at 8 out next summer. j n or 10 years old. People tell about ghosts by Traveling by Swan Portland author lets loose Three Husbands and a stateful of ghosts BY MABTY DAVIS ju s t r m NOW OPEN 24 HRS Visit our Web site at www.justout.com Write a Just Friends voice personals ad View all the newest Just Friends voice personal ads Send in classified ads Send in letters to the editor Send In transitions and notables Order a subscription E-mail Just Out staff Locate our distribution points B
