Here's an e-mail that I received in the last week from a terrific young man who, by the way, writes very well, don't you think?

--
Well, where do I begin? I guess I am just like Bobby in almost every way. I am pretty athletic, pretty straight-acting, and don't put too much into gay culture. All of that changed after reading your book. Basically, i knew i was gay when i was 13. I came out to my parents around that time too. They were okay with it, as far as I know. But once high school started, I vowed to never let anyone know my shameful secret. I fell into the "popular crowd" at school and was well liked. Then, just like in your book, i came out to my best friend. And he reacted with little to no resitance or hesitation towards me. But after a few weeks of not saying a word, he did tell someone. And, as we all know, news travels FAST in high school. So by the end of the day, everyone knew. and not everyone was accepting. I went to Track practice that day and was met with a group of angry girls (who were in love with me up until that point) and grossed out straight guys. I could not wait to get out of there. And after that day, I felt it was my mission to eliminate homophobia and intolerance. To give myself a purpose. And now, almost 3 years later, I realize that I had a purpose all along. and that mission was to make people see that if someone was your true friend, true family member, true love or whatever, that they would stick by you 'til the end. And thats what my best friend did. Of course now I realize it was kind of a dick move (pardon my language) to tell everybody. But what's done is done, I suppose. I guess the only thing I don't have in common with Bobby is that I haven't found a relationship yet!

Thank you for your gift to the world of Burgeoning Gay Boys everywhere. Your book certainly inspired me, and countless others. So again, thank you. And thank you for your time to read this letter.

--

You're welcome, C.D.! My hope is that "Burgeoning Gay Boys" like yourself find strength wherever they need it. It ain't easy, being out there alone, so it's important to find books and other reflections that tell us that we aren't alone.

One of the things I noticed in talks at two schools this past week is that people hyper-sexualize gay people. By that I mean, they seem to have this idea that it's all about sex, when in reality, it's mostly about being different. I think that sex is probably the thing that's most similar about being gay or being straight. It's being different than friends and family, having to overcome daily homophobia, that truly sets us apart.

Stay strong, my new friend!
Posted by

...Wadorf to Your Astoria is done. Through. Finished.

This will be the final post here.

But fear not! If you go over to my brand-spankin' new website, billkonigsberg.com, you will see that I am still blogging over there. And on that site, powered by the fine folks at wordpress, you may comment using your Facebook account.

Sorry, Blogger. We liked you, but we needed more. We needed actual comments!

So thanks to those of you who perused this blog regularly.

Just four more days in 2012... Hard to believe how quickly --

Who the hell am I kidding?

This was the slowest year in the history of man. I don't mean that in a bad way. It just went slowly. To me, last December seems like years ago.

It was a great, slow year:

1. My agent sold my next book, Openly Straight, to Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic).

2. I got involved in a very cool project at ASU, to be explained/described in due time.

3.

People often ask me: Bill, how did you find the perfect man?

Okay, no one outside of my head has ever asked me that. While people do often say nice stuff about Chuck, about him being handsome and funny and kind, I have found that people rarely ask questions:

A) Like the aforementioned outside of bad movies and trashy novels

B) Of me in general in which advice of any kind is sought.

So while this has not been asked of me, I do feel as though I have some expertise on the subject.

About four months ago, I took a home test and found that my blood sugar was in the "pre-diabetes" range.

I can't say I was shocked, because it wasn't the first time I'd had that result. But I was horrified, because it was rising from the last time I'd had it checked. I decided that if I wanted to avoid having diabetes, I needed to change my diet and my exercise.

I did both.

Tomorrow is the first day of NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month. Every November, all sorts of writers take on the challenge of trying to write a draft of a novel in a month. Note that I say "Draft," because very, very few novels are finished in one draft, and while some writers might be able to draft and then revise a novel in a month, I don't think that's a very realistic goal.

For me, especially.

I'll tell you what, people who plan to vote for Mitt Romney:

I disagree with you, and not just a little. Your support of the Romney/Ryan ticket feels like a kick to the stomach, because as a gay man, this stuff is personal to me.

But you know what? Don't de-friend me.

In his Huffington Post blog post on Oct.

What would happen at an all-boys boarding school in Massachusetts if an athlete came out as gay?

This is NOT the subject of my upcoming novel, Openly Straight. In fact, it is the setting for that novel, but it is the plot of my first novel, Out of the Pocket.

I mention it because of a comment I received last week from a former student at a school I visited three years ago.

Here it is, boys and girls! The cover of my forthcoming novel "Openly Straight."

Like it? I love it!

I love that it is a visual representation of the story. Given a choice of all the labels my main character, Seamus Rafael Goldberg, can choose, he chooses the most innocuous one. He just wants to be a "normal kid."

I had no idea, when I wrote this, about how much I was writing about myself. That's how clueless I can be about myself.

Today I've decided to be one of those helpful authors and let you know what happens when you attempt to use copywritten song lyrics in your novel. So if you are not a regular reader of this blog, I'm guessing you found me because you just used those lyrics to Rapture by Blondie in your novel, and then you thought, "Wait. Can I do this?"

The answer is: yes and no.

I love using lyrics.

We are back from our first full-fledged vacation in about three years!

Chuck, Mabel and I went to Northern California for two weeks, and what can I say? Paradise!

We had such an amazing time doing nothing and loving it. We drove about 900 miles each way and stayed for nine days at a place called Driftwood Bungalow in Manchester, California. It's about 150 miles north of San Francisco, about 30 miles south of Mendocino.

Nothing is there, and that's how we wanted it.
Loading