Did you base any of the characters on yourself?

There is something of myself in just about every one of my main characters. In some, there is considerable likeness, while in others it’s merely some small trait, experience, or way of thinking. The characters that most resemble me are Mark and Taylor from Ancient Prejudice and Ralph from Do You Know That I Love You.

Mark is very much like me, although he is an improved version of myself. We are similar in physical appearance, but he is a good deal better looking. Our main similarity is in the way we think and see the world. Mark’s longing for Taylor is very much my own.

I had originally intend for Mark to have another name. I used my own name in early drafts as a temporary replacement for whatever name I would eventually chose. It was natural to do so, as Mark was very much me. After a few drafts, the name became so identified with the character that I just couldn’t change it.

In many ways, there is more of me in Taylor than there is in Mark. We are vastly different in physical appearance, but very similar in temperament. Taylor has my sensitivity. He’s easily hurt at times and feels the pain of the world too intently. He is also quiet and easygoing on the outside, but a bit wild on the inside. That is very much like me. Even so, Taylor is mainly based on my dream boy, a boy I’ve been waiting to meet since I was fifteen years old.

There’s an entire story behind this, but I don’t have the room to tell it here.

Ralph, from Do You Know That I Love You, is very much like me in many ways. One of the key scenes in the novel is actually cut and pasted from my journal, although the names were changed. Like Ralph, I have a great fondness for boy bands, and one in particular. His sense of excitement when getting to meet someone he admires is very much my own.

Was your high school experience similar to or different from the experiences Sean went through? And do you have any advice for gay teenagers today?

My high school experience was quite a bit different from that of Sean. There were no openly gay boys at my school. In rural southern Indiana, being gay was not accepted. It was something that had to be hidden. Terms such as “fag”, “homo”, and “fairy” were some of the major put-downs, but there wasn’t a single person that could be labeled as gay with certainty.

My advice to teenagers today is to be themselves and not let others dictate their lives. In many places, it still isn’t safe to be out, so that may not be an option, but all gay youth need to have a positive view of themselves. There are plenty of people out there, Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, and Pat Robertson to name a few, that do their best to destroy the self-esteem of all gays, but these individuals are dinosaurs. Their day is done and they will become extinct. Despite the desperate attempts of hate groups masquerading under such catch phrases as “family values”, acceptance is spreading, especially among youth. There is still a lot of name calling and bashing out there, but times are changing. When I was in high school, no boy would have dared to be out. Today, it’s not uncommon. The tide has turned and things will get better. The general population, and youth in particular, have become too intelligent to fall for the lies of the past. They know that gays aren’t against families, but desperately want to be a part of a family. They are realizing that gays haven’t sought to destroy the family, but rather that the family has failed gays. That is rapidly changing as more and more parents, siblings, and relatives are excepting gay youth as the valuable, loving people they are. Continued ->