When Two Dads Are Better Than One
By Jessica Verdi
Website: http://jessicaverdi.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessVerdi
When I began writing my first novel, My Life After Now (which was published in April of 2013), there were so many factors on my mind and story elements I wanted to be sure to get just right. The book is about sixteen-year-old Lucy Moore, a straight-A student and drama club star who makes a few bad decisions after a super bad week and, as a result, ends up testing positive for HIV. With a story like this, I was extra conscious to do as much research as it took to treat Lucy’s journey authentically and sensitively. There was one element of the story, however, that I didn’t need to spend a lot of time thinking about, because it was just already so solid in my mind that it basically wrote itself. This element was Lucy’s family structure—specifically the fact that she has two amazing dads.
MY Life After Now by Jessica Verdi (Sourcebooks Fire, 2013)
Adam and Seth were so clear in my mind the whole time I was writing that I didn’t even stop to consider that their relationship with their daughter would be something that would stand out to readers. So imagine my surprise when the book came out and the majority of reader letters I received centered around not Lucy’s HIV status, but her family! The response was overwhelming, and it was one hundred percent positive.
I wanted Lucy to have two dads for a couple very specific reasons. 1) I wanted her life to be pretty damn great at the start of the book, before she makes the mistake that changes so much. That meant the family had to be great—and who better to put in that situation than two men? Gay people have to work really hard to get their kids, whether it’s through surrogacy, sperm donation, or adoption. So that means they really wanted their child, and they never take her for granted. 2) Because Lucy becomes HIV-positive, and eventually will have to tell her parents, I thought the parent/child relationship in this case was another great way to highlight that this can happen to anyone—even the child of parents who lived through the brunt of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York City in the ’80s and ’90s, and taught their daughter everything they know about safe sex. Then, when they find out that Lucy is positive, it’s that much more impactful because they know, probably better than most parents,exactly what this virus is and what it does.
It’s been amazing to hear from so many readers about how they appreciate the strong, supportive parent/child relationship in the book. In fact, Adam and Seth made Barnes and Noble’s list of the Best Dads in YA this past Fathers’ Day. All the encouragement I’ve gotten from reviewers and readers about the family has been such a gift for me as an author—and has made me pretty damn optimistic that the days of same sex couples being discriminated against as parents are coming to an end.
The Summer I Wasn’t Me by Jessica Verdi (Sourcebooks Fire, 2014)
After the wonderful response I received about Lucy’s dads, I knew I was on the right track with my second book, The Summer I Wasn’t Me (published April of 2014). In the story, seventeen-year-old Lexi Hamilton is sent to a conversion camp (also called an ex-gay camp) to learn how to become straight. Of course, her plans to “change” don’t go so well when she meets the beautiful and interesting Carolyn. This project also required a ton of research, and was often very emotionally difficult to write (in order to get inside the heads of my characters, I had to really try and understand why someone might send their child, or themselves, to a program like this), but I knew it was an important story to tell. After the response to Lucy’s dads, I felt strongly—and still do—that writing about certain parts of our world, parts that might not get tons of media attention but are incredibly important in their own right, is important and meaningful. Exposing readers via realistic fiction, particularly teen readers who might not have a billion biases in place in their minds yet, to things like the wonderful reality of two loving parents who happen to be same sex, or the awful reality of how some closed-minded parents and religious institutions treat their LGBT children, is one very valuable way of opening the minds and hearts of our society. I’m glad I get to help contribute to the conversation, in my own small way, and I’m hopeful that mind-opening and compassionate YA, and LGBTQIA+ YA in particular, still has a long and bright future ahead of us.
Jessica Verdi lives in Brooklyn, NY, and received her MFA in Writing for Children from The New School. She is the author of the contemporary young adult novels The Summer I Wasn’t Me, My Life After Now, and the upcoming What You Left Behind. Jess is continually reminded of how lucky she is to get to write and publish stories about things she thinks are important. By day, Jess is a Senior Editor at Crimson Romance, Adams/F+W’s romance eBook imprint. She is represented by Kate McKean of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. Some of her favorite things include seltzer, Tabasco sauce, TV, vegetarian soup, flip-flops, and her dog. Follow her on Twitter @jessverdi.
Book of the Month Fan Artist Feature: Laya
We’re starting up a new feature to go along with our Book of the Month: Fan Artist Feature! Every month, we’ll be highlighting the fan art that someone has created of what we’ve chosen for our Book of the Month. To start it off, we’re featuring one of the most talented and awesome people I know: Laya.
I met Laya through our mutual love of the Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr. We got to know each other better through tumblr and twitter, trading queer book recs and complaining about Supernatural. She is now helping me out with MelissaMarrFans and we co-founded LauraLamFans. Laya makes gorgeous fan art for pretty much all the super unknown queer books that I’m in love with. She’s also done a great series of asexual characters. Most of her stuff is up on society6, available for purchase!
Laya can be found at discordanddarkness, thecoloursfalllikesnow, and layaart . She can also be found on Twitter @layahimalaya.
Here’s what Laya has to say about making fan art for the Micah Grey series: “I read Pantomime and Shadowplay earlier this year, and I completely fell in love with the world and characters. I immediately had a bunch of ideas of fan art I just had to do, especially since there’s almost no other fan art out there for the series. I really hope that people who haven’t read the books might see my art and become interested! and I plan to keep making as much art as I can for this series.”
One of our new aims with this site is to cultivate and promote queer fandom: there is a huge lack of it out there, even for really well-known names like David Levithan and Malinda Lo. And this should not be the case– there are legions of fans out there! Since my background is in fandom to begin with, we’re going to try and remedy this situation. See here for more information!
Driving Lessons
“Do you hear your own voice when you write or the voices of your characters? I know it’s a silly question, but I always wondered because when I read your book I totally heard your voice for Abbey.”
Annameekee Answers:
Annameekee Answers: Hey, are you a mind reader? Lol. Actually, when I write, I’m totally involved in it and get lost in my little pretend world of Gila High. In fact, I sometimes get so excited about what I am writing that I start to type super fast and super loud and apparently annoy people on planes and coffee shops. Perhaps I should put up a sign: “Creative writing in progress. Sit at your
Annameekee Answers: Oh, Hot Dog on Stick! Ever since they came out with a vegetarian version, I’ve been hitting them pretty hard. I like to put a big glob of ketchup next to a big glob of mustard so that when I dip, I get equal amounts of mustard and ketchup. It’s an art.
Annameekee Answers: Ah, yes- character name selection. I own at least four baby name books, but no babies. These books are my go to when it’s character development time. But, for Abbey with an e, I chose to take her name from a Beatles album because her dad was a huge Beatles fan. So, that’s the reason for the e. As far as Jef’s chapstick is concerned: I am one-hundred percent sure that chapsticks are made up of the souls of previously captured dragons who cannot stand to live a life of confinement, routine, and mundane reliability. I have never, in all my years of chapstick owning, successfully kept a tube until its finality. You just can’t hold them back from their true destinies. Or, it could be that Jef’s chapstick is in the bottom of my purse with the hairclips, receipts used as gum depositories, pens, pennies, mocha shake punch card, and two hot-pink paperclips.
Annameekee Answers: Jef, I’m pretty much freaked out during the entire process of writing my YA books. However, one of the scariest parts is writing for some of the most critical and well-read groups of readers on the planet: teenagers. I want to do them proud and write books that are funny and relevant and not “old” sounding. So, that why I secretly listen to the way my students talk to one another and make note of the words that they use. What else I have noticed by eavesdropping is that most teen struggles and concerns are really timeless. Just like when I was in high school, there’s still heartache, betrayal, new love, bffs, first kisses, and backstabbing girls who try to destroy you. And there will always be that super frightening/mean teacher, that party where everything went wrong, and that really bad decision that changed lives. Except for the words they use to describe things and the mode of communication, not much has changed since I was in high school in Tucson, AZ.
Annameekee Answers: I decided to write this series because of two main reasons: 1. The lesbian YA that was available when I started teaching was really short (like, too short) and it was kind of depressing, and 2. The lesbian YA characters in these books were all white. Like, only melodramatic white girls are lesbian? Hmm, I don’t think so. That was not my experience where I grew up, and it wasn’t the experience of my students in my classroom either. So, I decided, “Well, if you want your students to have a funny lesbian YA book with diverse characters and an uplifting plot, then you better write it yourself.” So, I sat my butt in front of my computer, night after night after night, and wrote one. I have always intended this to be a series and have tried to provide humorous and diverse stories to readers of all ages. I want readers to feel happy after reading my books. I want them to lol in public. I want them to feel really damn good about who they are and where they are going. My dream is that my books find themselves in every school library because every kid should have access to books where they see characters like them, going through similar situations. Whichever letter you are in the longest acronym on the planet (LGBTQAAII…hope I didn’t miss one), you deserve to have good books that touch your heart and make you spray milk out of your nose mid-gulp (that’s my signature dinner table move, by the way).
The truth is, I was once that confused, scared girl in high school who went to my school library and local bookstores in search of the perfect book to make it all better- to help me understand that I was okay and life was actually quite kick ass and awesome. Sadly, I came up empty handed. I write these books so that no you-know-who girl, no matter her age, will ever have to feel that way again. Recap: #JustGrace Book Launch
The JustGrace book release part was a co-launch of Rachel Gold’s new book Just Girls, and Juliann Rich’s book Searching for Grace. It was so much fun guys. You shoulda been there. 
We were invited to join Rachel for dinner beforehand (which unfortunately Kathleen was not able to make it to 🙁 ) and she asked me a bunch of research questions for her next book. She also told me the premise of it and OH MY GOD you guys am I excited for it. Like I told her then, she has a talent of fufilling what I’m looking for in queer lit, every time I’m like ugh, I just want there to be this in the world… the next Rachel Gold book is covering it.
She also talked about her hopefully fourth book, which will follow the story of a genderqueer character from Just Girls. Who. Okay. I just absolutely adore. (Remember how I said she writes everything I want to see? Yeah.) Rachel sent me a PDF of Just Girls before it was released and I sent her an email after I met the character that said “GENDERQUEER CHARACTER. GENDERQUEER CHARACTER. OMG. I AM FREAKING OUT. YES. I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW. OMG.” which she said she would count as the first and possibly best review of the book.
Juliann Rich’s book, Searching for Grace, is one of my other favorite releases from 2014, and you can read my full review of it, as well as my review of the first book, Caught in the Crossfire! I also recently wrote a guest post about on Juliann’s blog, in which I talk about just how much the Crossfire Trilogy means to me. I’ve asked Juliann, and she told me the scoop on a character that I read as genderqueer– and they are! Talk about cool authors, guys. (Juliann’s formulating ideas for a spin-off series on this character as well… so if you had any doubt as to whether you should pick up the Crossfire Trilogy, well, you don’t anymore.)
The evening was full of fun and shenanigans– there was a trivia contest with prizes for getting the answers right. Kathleen and I came home with piles of prizes, chocolate sauce and M&Ms to fit Just Girls, a full size TARDIS to fit Searching for Grace, and a beautiful illustration of the ensemble from Just Girls (which is being given in electronic format to anyone who buys the book within October if they email beingemily@gmail.com!).
New icon? 😉
Kathleen enjoys the cake.
There was an event during the mingling taken from a scene in Just Girls where a board was split in half for women and men, and people were asked to write down the things they do to stay safe. I didn’t get a picture of the end result, but it is a powerful and telling exercise.
Katherine Warde, co-owner of Addendum Books (AKA my favorite bookstore in the world where you can find pretty much any YA book ever and usually it’s signed. Seriously. Like, if you live in the Twin Cities and haven’t been there, go now. And if you’re ever in town, cross off the MOA and go here instead. It’s that worth it.) made a delicious rainbow cake. We got to talk TV shows a bit with Dawn Klehr, author of a lesbian murder mystery novel The Cutting Room Floor (Flux, 2013).
Kathleen and I were honored to be able to read from Just Girls (Kathleen read Ella, and I, Tucker…from which I learned I have no idea how to do butch) and watch the performance of Searching for Grace.
We also got to take pictures by the TARDIS! (See below.)
All in all, it was a super fabulous event. Thanks to Addendum for hosting and Juliann Rich and Rachel Gold for inviting us!
Trying out poses…
Gettin’ our bowties on…
We take ourselves very seriously.
Final pose!
Writing Noir for Teenagers
by Greg Herren
When I was a teenager back in the Pleistocene era, I didn’t read books for teenagers. I learned how to read when I was four, and by the time I was ten my reading comprehension levels were college level. I went directly from the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and other mystery series for kids straight to Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Gone with the Wind, and The Godfather. On the rare occasions when a friend or a teacher would recommend I read a book for teenagers, I was almost without fail disappointed. That was the period of the ‘message book,’ or as I liked to call them, ‘the ABC Afterschool Special books.’ Go Ask Alice, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Lisa Bright and Dark, My Darling My Hamburger—the kids never seemed like anyone I actually knew or could identify with, and the message was so incredibly heavy-handed it was like being beaten over the head with a baseball bat. Don’t do drugs! Don’t have sex! Parents don’t understand but your friends will! Don’t do this, don’t do that, blah blah blah. (Although to be completely fair, rereading some of these books as an adult I have found that they weren’t as bad as I remembered; clearly I was a horrible snob about books when I was a teenager.)
And that doesn’t even take into account what I called ‘death books’, which were basically tragic romances where the main character nobly fought a fatal illness until dying beautifully while everyone weeps.
Dark Tide by Greg Herren (Bold Strokes Books, 2014)
The problem I always had with books for teens (and for kids, really) was that it always seemed like the author was talking down to me as a reader. When I decided to try my hand at writing young adult fiction again (I tried years before I was published; I revised and rewrote the original manuscripts I wrote from start to finish to make them publishable), I was determined to write the kinds of books that I would have liked to read as a teenager—yet found myself writing a message into the first one, and even talking down to the readers. I was struggling with the book (Sleeping Angel), so I stepped away from it and realized the problem I was having with the writing was a subconscious worry that I was writing material and characters that would be considered too adult for teens. Once I stopped worrying about the possible ‘influence’ my writing might have on the readers, and started worrying about a plot that made sense, characters the readers could identify with, and the kinds of things I worried about when I wrote books for adults, the book started getting better and the writing got easier.
My most recent release, Dark Tide, was kind of a departure from what I had done before. I’ve always been primarily known as a mystery writer, and my y/a (and new adult) books had always straddled the line between mystery and horror. But with this new one, I wanted to try something different. I wanted to write something even darker than the books I’d already published, something with twists and turns that would keep the reader guessing every step of the way. But could you do noir for teens?
And then I discovered what I call Megan Abbott’s teen trilogy: Dare Me, The End of Everything, and The Fever. Abbott’s books aren’t targeted to teens, yet they are about teenagers, and they are incredibly dark. Her teens are very real; they go to class, roll their eyes at their parents, sneak out after dark, send text messages and have crushes, drink cheap wine and smoke cigarettes, and push the boundaries of what is and isn’t permissible as they experiment while trying to figure out just who they are and who they are going to become. But what happens to them is very adult, and how they deal with crimes and the darkness that lurks in the heart of every teenager makes for riveting reading. The rhythm of her words, and the way she uses imagery to move her story forward, is simply extraordinary.
Dark Tide is heavily influenced and inspired by Megan Abbott, and it was also one of the most challenging experiences I’ve ever had writing a novel. I’m a little nervous about how it will be received, but no matter what anyone else thinks, I am very proud of it.
And I’m already looking forward to the challenge of the next one.
Greg Herren is the award winning author of over thirty novels and fifty short stories. He lives in New Orleans.