What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan: Book Review
Brooks with Mark Twain at Village Books and Paper Dreams in Bellingham on June 26, 2026 The Chuckanut Writers Conference in Bellingham, Washington, has been good to me. When I attended the 2019 conference, I pitched an early draft of Landscape in Lavender to agents and took classes on how to get published. This led […]
Landscape in Lavender: Q & A with Deborah Kalb
Jen McCormick interviews Brooks at Barnes & Noble University of Washington Bookstore on Saturday, June 27, 2026 The following conversation was published on June 23, 2026 on Deborah Kalb’s online column: Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb: Q&A with Brooks Kolb Why did you decide to write this memoir? Landscape in Lavender began in a very […]
Parting the Curtains
When I was writing Landscape in Lavender, I felt an urgent need to release my story into the world—even before I fully understood what it was about. As if I were pointing a camera at an object and turning the lens, my desire to share my story only grew as the image came more sharply […]
Landscape in Lavender is Coming Soon!
Pre-Order on Amazon Brooks’s Substack – Landscape in Lavender is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. About Landscape in Lavender When society regards you as an outcast even before AIDS starts killing your gay brothers, coming out of the closet is hard enough—yet it’s […]
A “Landscape in Lavender” Playlist
When I was writing, revising, and later editing “Landscape in Lavender,” I felt as if I were simultaneously living in two distinct time periods—our current day and the 1980s. Sitting at my writing desk, I plunged myself into the past so thoroughly that when my husband, Dennis, entered the room to let me know he […]
On Writing A Memoir
Golden Gate Bridge from Buena Vista Park, San Francisco After eight long years of my writing and publishing journey, my baby, LANDSCAPE IN LAVENDER, will be released into the world in only four months’ time. Crack out the champagne, let the celebration begin! Especially after being rejected by over fifty agents. In fact, there would […]
Taking Flight In My Senior Years
“We show up, burn brightly in the moment, live passionately, and when the moment is over, when our work is done, we step back and let go.” – Rolf Gates As of this writing I am 72 years old, the same age Mark Nepo was when he recently published “The Fifth Season,” his luminous book-length […]
Landscape in Lavender: A Young Man’s Search for his Gay Identity is now available for pre-order on Amazon!
http://Landscape In Lavender: A Young Man’s Search For His Gay Identity: Kolb, Brooks: 9798896363804: Amazon.com: Books When society regards you as an outcast even before AIDS starts killing your gay brothers, coming out of the closet is hard enough—but it’s only the first step. Afterward, it can be challenging to cultivate self-respect, find the lasting […]
In Memoriam: Sherry Markovitz
Story by Dennis M., edited by Brooks Sherry Markovitz, our dear friend and next-door neighbor, was one of the Pacific Northwest’s most talented and prominent artists. Sadly, she died on October 24, 2025, after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. https://www.emmickfunerals.com/obituaries/sherry-markovitz Blue Donkey by Sherry Markovitz Sherry was my next-door neighbor and my very good friend. […]
The Star Grand, Brisbane
When I began writing a Substack column, never did I imagine that I would devote an essay to a single hotel. Then my husband and I checked into the Star Grand Hotel in Brisbane, Australia, and everything changed. Never having set foot in Brisbane before, we took an uber from the central rail station to […]