“I’ve led an extremely adventurous life… as I only discovered a few years ago. I’ve met all kinds of extraordinary people and so essentially that’s what I’m doing: writing about people, places, and things and less about myself,” said Picano. “I’m like the character watching all this happen.”

Carlos T. Mock, who was on the group book tour with Picano similarly expressed: “One of the nice things about the books—the reason I really like them—is they not only tell his story but he tells the story of gay culture during the 60s and 70s.”

Nights and Rizzoli depicts a life through the lens of a gay man in New York who lucked into a job at the elegant Manhattan bookstore—Rizzoli—that captures Picano’s life as well as the lives of many others.

To read the rest of the interview, visit Windy City Times