The Zebra Stampede Tour gallops across America, this Fall. Are you ready? With the success of my recent England tour, the release of "I'm Going To Be a Zebra"  and my new album, "This is Spoken Groove" (Buy the book or download the new album!), it's time to invade the United States again.  From the end of October through November I'll be traveling from Austin to the East Coast, all the way up to Canada, over to Illinois and back down to Texas.

If you live anywhere west of the Mississippi and want to put on a show or have me come to your town, contact Andy Baker (andy@resoundmedia.co.uk), my manager and head of the Resound Media team.  He'll give you the scoop on what it takes for me to perform my one-man-show, conduct writing or dramatic workshops or otherwise make people's eyes open to the wonder of life with some Spoken Groove.

The really exciting news is that I will be traveling on the Zebra Stampede Tour with my new wife, Victoria Lobel.  I'm getting married today, in a few hours.  I'm so excited (it's why I'm up writing) to be joining my life to the most beautiful person I've ever met.  I can't wait for you to meet her.  Plus, we'll be figuring out how to merge her incredible dance, speaking and production talent into Spoken Groove.  get ready.  If you'd like to see pictures of her and me, look us up on Facebook.

The rest of the England tour was, of course, packed and rather incredible.  In fact, from the first moment my plane touched down I had to scoot across London to a tv interview.  After all day interviewing I had to blearily find my way to a train station to get to my good friend and businessman, Robert Orford.  A few hours of sleep later and it was off to the train station for a 7-hour trip to St. Austell, in Cornwall.  Steven Hulbert set up an amazing show with Lyrical Soldier, and we rocked it.  The next morning was another 8-hour train journey up to Leeds (It gave me time to compose new Spoken Groove creations on my Mac).  After a youth performance with Philippa Hanna that night, preaching in a Preston church the next morning, a full day of workshops in Gloucester on Monday, another full day of workshops in Tetbury on Tuesday and a show that evening in front of the altar of an ancient cathedral, I finally got some time to sleep and take a couple days off.

Man, it felt good!  The next few days carried radio interviews with Mike Rimmer and Luke Weston, a sneaky performance and another TV interview at Big Church Day Out and then a Sunday night speaking gig with a tattooed Anglican priest in Sheffield.  That all set me up for the real reason I was in England, the filming of my Live DVD at the Lantern Theatre, in Sheffield.

Philippa Hanna, Roo Walker and I put on 3 nights of the wildest, most entertaining performances I've seen in a long time.  I've never felt so honored to be included with such talented performers.  The accounts of people telling me their lives had been changed by the words, music and artistry that night still sing, "Keep doing this," in my ears.  Someone even handed me a check for £1000 out of the blue, not knowing that I'd been praying for money to go on my honeymoon.  The video footage is being edited and mixed right now at the Resound Media studios.  I can't wait for you to see it.

After the magic of the Lantern theatre, I polished off the England tour with MCing for Philippa Hanna at a Sheffield, homecoming show, a train ticket with the most connections ever to Milton Keynes, a Sunday morning preaching gig, too many friendly faces afterward, crammed Indian food in my mouth, a screwed-up train journey to Loughborough, a packed coffee house gig, an overnight stay in a huge, English manor, more train riding, a radio interview, a video shoot, a late-night performance in London, a mad dash to the train, a few hours of sleep and some incredible hospitality by Paul and Jenny Hayward, and an early flight the next morning from Gatwick airport.

Of course I wasn't done when I left England.  I still had to meet Vicki and a team from the Austin Poetry Slam to perform at the Southern Fried Slam in Atlanta.  When we got down rocking everyone's socks off and just missing the finals by a technicality and a couple whiskers, Vicki and I finally came home to Austin.  The past month has been a blur.  Wedding preparations and consulting work left me barely enough time to prepare for the Young Writer's Workshop I taught at Wizard Academy.  But the kids and parents who came wrote some of the most amazing writing I've seen by people who didn't think they could ever write anything.

Now I look forward to seeing Vicki's eyes sparkle at me on the other end of the wedding aisle.  I can't wait for the ring, the vow and the kiss that makes us man and wife.  My heart races to dance with her, be with her and fly off to a honeymoon where love will restore our sanity. May you be overwhelmed with the love of God who has better things planned for you than you could have ever hoped.

We'll see you soon,
Peter