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. I think this happens to writers sometimes; we get so caught up in a story we're creating that we don't see the obvious parallels.
I came out in high school. I was out in college. Then, I made some choices (some in my early 20s and some in my later 20s) that were surprising for an openly gay guy. I decided to go to ESPN, where there were no openly gay men. I decided that I wanted the career of a sports writer so badly that I would just be a "normal guy" and not disclose my sexuality.
As you'll see in the book, this doesn't always work out so well. How do you "be you" while simultaneously masking a part of yourself? There is no neutral; it would be nice to think we live in a world where you can just be without making a big deal about who you are attracted to, but that isn't this world. As people get to know you, the lies begin to mount. How do you foster friendships when that's going on?
The other part of the book that mirrors my life is that Rafe, as he likes to be called, moves from his home in Boulder, Colorado, to an all-boys' boarding school in Natick, Massachusetts. That's when he decides to be "Openly Straight."
I moved to Bristol, Connecticut in 1999. To ESPN, which was (especially at that time) basically a frat house. From? Denver, Colorado.
How dense am I not to have noticed that parallel?
Anyhow, the book comes out in June from Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic). Early reviews are (extremely) encouraging. I think you're going to like this one.
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