Author Guest Blog – Page 7

I’ve got a girl in the war

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: asexual, Non Binary, Representation|

by Marieke Nijkamp “The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children the dragons can be killed.” With these words, the late, great Terry Pratchett famously misquotes G.K. Chesterton’s Tremendous Trifles. It’s not a misrepresentation of Chesterton’s ideas though. For Chesterton, too, stories were St. Georges, dragonslayers. But I’d like to think it goes further than that. Stories tell readers dragons come in many ways and many forms—from false friends to overwhelming dystopias. Stories do not just tell readers dragons can be [...]

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M.E. Kerr and Deliver Us from Evie

By Helen|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 12th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Book Review, Guest Blogs|Tags: classics, Queer Girls|

by Sara Zarr I knew about M.E. Kerr long before I read her. When I was growing up in the seventies and making regular visits to our neighborhood library, there was a beat-up paperback on the spinning rack of “teen fiction” that caught my eye: Dinky Hockey Shoots Smack by M.E. Kerr (HarperCollins Publishers, 1989) DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! How could I not notice a title like that? The cover image had the title spray-painted across a brick wall like graffiti. At age nine or ten I made a mental note to myself to read that [...]

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Are They LGBTQIA? Let Your Characters Tell You

By Helen|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 10th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Allies, LGBTQIA, Minor Queer Characters|

by Karen Sandler As a cis white author who’s inching ever closer to old lady status, I experienced a couple fortunate circumstances in my youth that shaped me as a writer. First, when I transferred to a new high school in 1970, the circle of friends who drew me in were largely gay, lesbian, and transgender. Second, when I started writing more seriously in my early 20s, several of the members of my critique group—which included luminaries Katherine Forrest and Montserrat Fontes—were gay or lesbian. I don’t mention this to brag that I’m “all that and more” or [...]

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When Books Save Lives… And When They Don’t

By Kale|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 9th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Bisexual, gay, Latin@, Mental Health|

(warning for discussion of suicide) by Alex Sanchez Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez (Simon & Schuster, 2001) When my first novel, Rainbow Boys, was about to be published my editor asked me, “Do you realize this book isgoing to save lives?” I wondered if he’d confused my book with someone else’s. But then the novel came out, and I began to receive emails from readers. Some said the protagonists had become their role models. Others said they’d read the book over and over when they felt lonely and afraid. And then came responses like this one: [...]

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On Building a Better Tomorrow

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 8th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Advocacy, Allies, Minor Queer Characters|

by Ellen Hopkins I write contemporary young adult fiction. To date, I’ve published eleven bestselling YA novels-in-verse, and each storyline is unique. I’ve written about addiction, abuse, suicide, prostitution and the drive for perfection, both internal and external—issues that touch teen lives every day. The books are diverse, but they all have in common queer characters somewhere in their pages. Burned by Ellen Hopkins (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006) Sometimes they’re main characters. Other times, they’re peripheral or barely seen. For instance, in Burned, Pattyn has a gay uncle who’s been shunned by his ultra religious [...]

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Tanuja Desai Hidier’s “Dimple Lala/ GayYA Bday Party Playlist”

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:49-05:00May 7th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Fun Things, Guest Blogs|Tags: Intersectionality, Minor Queer Characters, Other Media, PoC, Queer Girls, Realistic, South Asian|

4 original songs from Tanuja’s ‘booktrack’ albums When We Were Twins (songs based on her first novel, Born Confused) & Bombay Spleen (songs based on her new novel, sequel Bombay Blues) to celebrate GayYA’s 4th birthday! And for now, and always, I knew: Love had to be allowed in wherever, whenever, and in whatever form it took. We didn’t have to shrink to fit it, box it to casket. And even then, when we found it dying, could opt for ashing down rather than burial, scatter it to all five corners of the earth and ether. Whatever could [...]

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Author Guest Blog: Kimberly Derting

By Olivia|2020-03-28T13:41:49-05:00May 6th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Advocacy, Allies|

By Kimberly Derting I have three kids, and I’ve raised them all to be conscientious and loving—to see people as people rather for their sexual orientations or skin colors or religious beliefs. But it’s my youngest daughter—my 14-year-old—who is fierce about these principles, to the point of being rabid. This was what she asked for as her 14th birthday. "Why ban gay marriage when you can ban kidz bop?" She wears it everywhere, until eventually I have to sneak it into the wash. I think, secretly, she wants to overhear a whispered slur just so [...]

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The Love that Does Not Know Its Name

By Kale|2020-03-28T13:42:00-05:00May 5th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: LGBTQIA, Queer Girls|

by Elizabeth Wein Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion, 2013) Occasionally, in the heat of a conversation and unable to quickly recall this week’s in-favor politically-correct acronym, I find myself saying, “So, I heard about this new LGBT-QRST book…” Then I think, OMG, that’s not right! What did I forget? Someone is going to be so offended! My problem with labelling is that I don’t like boxes. I don’t like age-banding of books, and I don’t like genre categorization – I don’t like being branded. I write historical/fantasy/adventure/spy/Arthurian/mystery/war novels. The hero of four of my [...]

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Have You Ever Considered Writing About Straight People?

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:42:00-05:00May 4th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: LGBTQIA, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Representation, Trans|

by Robin Talley Last week I spoke to a group of middle schoolers about what it’s like to be a writer. It was an all-girls school, and the students were earnest, smiling, and full of questions. For the most part, they asked the same sorts of things everyone else asks ― how do you deal with writer’s block, when did you first start writing, what made you want to write a book about school integration ― but quite a few girls also had questions about the fact that my books star QUILTBAG characters. I was delighted. When I [...]

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They Turned My Gay Teen Novel Into a Movie. Here’s What I Learned.

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:42:00-05:00May 3rd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: gay, Other Media, Queer Guys, Realistic|

by Brent Hartinger Geography Club (HarperTeen, 2003) They've turned my 2003 gay teen novel Geography Club into a movie. It came out in 2013 (and it's on Netflix now if you're curious). Since then, people have asked me how it all happened and what I've learned from the whole experience. What did I learn? The story starts when I graduated from college and decided to try to make a career writing novels and screenplays. It was the early 90s, and one of my first books was a young adult novel about a gay teen named Russel Middlebrook and his misfit [...]

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