Book excerpt: Ivan E. Coyote is a master storyteller and performer; her beautiful, funny stories about growing up queer in the Canadian north and living out loud on Canada's west coast have attracted big audiences whether gay, straight, or otherwise. Missed Her is Ivan's fifth story collection, following 2008's Lambda Literary Award-nominated The Slow Fix, 2004's Ferro-Grumley Award-nominated Loose End, and 2006's Bow Grip, her novel that was named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association (now in development as a feature film).In her passionate and humourous new collection, Ivan takes readers on an intimate journey, both literal and figurative, through the experiences of her life: from her year spent in eastern Canada, to her return to the west coast, to travels in between. Whether discussing the politics of being a butch with a pet lapdog, or befriending an effeminate young man at a gay camp, or revisiting a forty-year old heartbreak around her grandmothers kitchen, Ivan traverses love, gender and identity with a wistful, perceptive eye, and a warmth that's as embracing and powerful as Ivan herself.