by Lucas Rocha
Hi, guys! YA Pride invited me to write something about bookish queer joy, and that’s a subject that makes me so happy because, to me, books + queer = joy. I know that we are not especially joyful right now with all that’s happening in the world, so I want to spark a little smile on your face by sharing one of the most exciting moments in my bookish life: my first international book deal.
Okay, let’s start from the beginning: my name is Lucas Rocha, and I’m a 28-year-old writer/librarian writing directly from São Paulo, Brazil. I’m also the author of WHERE WE GO FROM HERE, a queer YA book that talks about HIV and the impact that the virus has in the lives of three boys: one of them who just found out about his positive diagnosis, one that has been living with the virus for three years, and a third one, who is not a HIV+ person, but has a lot of doubts and prejudices when he finds himself in love with a positive person.
It was my first published book ever, and the way that it arrived in the US is still something that makes me catch myself thinking: ‘OMG, did that REALLY happen???’ and that can be summarized in one word: serendipity.
This is a word that doesn’t exist in Brazilian Portuguese, but I guess that I could not find another one in my language that puts together all of what happened with me and this book in such a beautiful way. In fact, my editor used this exact word in his Editor’s Letter in the book’s ARC, and I thought it was perfect. Orlando, you’re the best.
It all begins in 2017, when I first got this book deal to be published in Brazil, where I was born and currently live. After I finished the book, my agent sold it to one of the major publishing houses around here and I was already feeling very lucky only by that fact, because the Brazilian YA book scene is also very competitive and hard to get in if you are a debut author. But I got in, and 2018 was the year my debut novel was released at the Brazilian Book Fair—the Brazilian publishing process is very fast in comparison to the US—the major event in the Brazilian bookish scene.
So, the very first coincidence (or serendipity n. 1) that happened was that 2018 was the same year that this gigantic Book Fair invited David Levithan as an official guest, and (serendipity n. 2), in Brazil, Levithan’s work is published by the same publishing house that published WHERE WE GO FROM HERE.
So, when David Levithan arrived in Brazil, one of the things that he asked my Brazilian publisher was about the new YA voices being published here. He was curious to know the works of non-English writers because (serendipity n. 3) he runs a Scholastic imprint called PUSH that publishes queer books, and they were interested in bringing new voices to US young readers. He also said that one of his editors, Orlando Dos Reis, was able to read in Portuguese and would read the novels to see if something was a good fit for the imprint (serendipity n. 4).
That’s when my Brazilian editor gave David some books and, in the midst of all of them, my debut was there.
Cut to a month later: I receive an e-mail from this unknown man named Orlando Dos Reis, with this official Scholastic signature below his name. He was praising me about the book and asking if I had any interest in being published in the United States.
At first, I honestly thought that it was some sort of joke, prank or just a mistake, because that’s the kind of stuff that just doesn’t happen! I know that the US market is extremely competitive, and the rule is that the authors’ agent goes after the publishing houses, not the opposite! The agency that represents me had just started to work with international rights! My novel had only been out for Brazilian readers for a month before PUSH’s offer! All of it was very unbelievable. But it turned out to be all true.
And, after that, it was just a series of good things (before the pandemic, if I may add): the international book cover, the translation to English (made by the wonderful Larissa Helena, a Brazilian-born living in New York that I had the pleasure of meeting in person last year, when she was in São Paulo), the ARC’s, the signed bookplates and colorful sharpies, a starred review (!) and many others that are starting to appear, and all the good work that the Scholastic team is putting together to make this book reach as many people as possible.
This was also going to be the year that I went to the US for the first time ever, and it was going to be to promote my book and to participate in a bunch of panels and events (some of them are still going to happen, though!), and it’s a bummer that this pandemic, on top of being generally awful and not being taken as seriously as it should by certain governments, turned everything upside down in terms of the book’s promotion, but I still try to be positive about it. Being able to publish my debut novel and having the opportunity to reach outside of my country’s and language’s boarders are still things that are sometimes hard to process as stuff that are really happening to me.
All of it may sound that it was all a strike of luck and that things just fell into the right places at the right time (i.e. just serendipity), but I make sure to remember all of the hard work that I put into writing this book, and that goes into publishing it. The universe was generous to me, I can’t deny it. This whole journey undoubtedly contains some of the happiest moments of my life, and I can’t wait for you to read WHERE WE GO FROM HERE and share those feelings with me.
Most of all, just like this whole journey, this is a happy book, a book that talks about found family, a book that shines a light at HIV+ lives and shows how those lives can be beautiful and happy and – as all lives should be – joyful. So come and have some bookish queer joy with me, Ian, Victor and Henrique.
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Hi, everyone! My name’s Lucas Rocha, I’m 28 years old and currently live in São Paulo, Brazil. I’m a writer and librarian, and my debut novel, WHERE WE GO FROM HERE (PUSH/Scholastic, 2020), will be out in the world on June 2nd! It’s a book about three gay boys living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, whose lives becomes intertwined in the face of HIV. It’s a story about love, friendship and overcoming prejudices, with a lot of laughter, music and, the most important, people living life at its fullest!
