The Story is About   +  mainstream

So first off, I want to thank Kristi for inviting me to be a part of her GLBT Lit Days! This is such an awesome idea and I love that she’s doing it. I also want to say that you will never see me on a guest blog again here because she will ban me for being so bad at guest blogs. It was nice seeing you all at least once!

Anyway, before I go, I wanted to talk about my gay literature experiences growing up. I’m not that old (24) but when I was a teenager, we were just starting to get mainstream GLBT literature. Of course, when I was a teenager, I was also way shy so I never got to read any of those books out there, for fear of being discovered by my friends, parents, or other peers. Accepting myself was one thing and it happened very quick for me, most likely due to my brain always telling me I’m right and everyone who disagrees is WRONG. I mean, if I liked the same gender, of COURSE it was okay. Why would it be wrong in any way? I was a naïve little kid, but that’s a whole other story. Basically, what I’m saying is that accepting myself was the easy part, but actually telling others or having others find out? It terrified me.

So, until I had a car when I was 18 and graduated from high school, I didn’t read any mainstream gay fiction. Also, you’d think after waiting so long to read some, that my first book would be memorable but I honestly can’t remember which I read first because they all blur together. It was one of the big three- Geography Club by Brent Hartinger, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, or Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez. All of them are amazing books and gave me more confidence in myself as well as in those around me. My friends wouldn’t disown me if they found out I was gay, and they didn’t when I finally did tell them in January 2005.

One of the other things that these books helped me realize was that I would find love in my life at some point. Until then, I had not met any other gay guy (well, ok, barring one incident that I’d kinda rather forget about) and so wasn’t sure what would become of me. I mean, I knew there were other gay people in the world, but since I hadn’t known any in Virginia, I wondered what I’d do. These books handled teen gay romance really well; not every relationship worked out, but it still gave me hope. I don’t really know how to express the effect that those three books had on me, but it was a big one.

Now, six years later, I’m much more experienced in the whole gay world, both real and fictional. I’ve read quite a few more gay books, and I’ve also had a couple boyfriends (with a real keeper happening right now *fingers crossed!*) and what drives me now is to write gay teen love stories. If any of you read my blog, I answered a question a few weeks ago in my Ask Book Chic feature where I said my dream job would be to write gay romantic comedies for Simon Pulse and their line of rom-coms. I want to help put out more gay works into the world that inspire and give gay teenagers the hope they need, wherever they are.

Thanks again for hosting this fabulous event, Kristi, and for allowing me to come by and say my piece! I see the bodyguards are here to take me away from the premises and they’ve got a restraining order. I really need to get better at writing guest blogs… Bye all!

Check out James' blog, Book Chic!