When you’re writing a story, what comes to you first, the character, the story or the issue?
I never know what the issues are. It’s not until someone reads the book and says, this is what this story is trying to say. It’s always character driven. I have a character or few characters in my head and they just start speaking.Speaking of characters, one of my favorite books of all time is The House You Pass Along The Way. I think it’s so beautifully written. For a book like this, do you have a particular reader in mind when you’re writing it?
I don’t. I thought of The House You Pass Along the Way as kind of a girl book. I didn’t think deeper than that.So you don’t write your book for the young queer girl in rural Mississippi. You don’t think along those lines?
Never. I think more along the lines of race. I want to create characters that are nonwhite so kids of color can see themselves. What happens with that is other kids see themselves too. In the case of The House You Pall Along the Way, there are a lot of kids out there who probably haven’t had that situation that Trout and Staggerlee have, and a lot of have, who have fallen in love with their best friends. Young adulthood is about that impasse where you ask yourself, “Who will I become?” It doesn’t matter if they’re going to become straight or bi or trans, but they’re becoming. So no matter what the situation is, it is about a character becoming. That is what they attach to.I know in the book If You Come Softly people were mad because the lesbian in the book was a racist. I think there’s a notion that we can’t portray lesbians in this bad light. But the reality is, people can have a consciousness about one thing, like queerness, but will not have a sense about race. I think you can be homophobic and fighting against racism. And I think you can be queer and completely racist. I think people have this sense that if you’re marginalized in one way you’re going to understand the margins of all people. Again and again I’ve seen that that is not true.
Who reads your books? Am I your only 40-year-old fan?
No, a lot of people. I hear from a lot of moms. I hear from a lot of people in literature who are becoming teachers or librarians I hear from a lot of mothers of boys who say,, “My boy is finally reading.” Which I think is interesting because I started out writing a lot of girls books. I have a lot adult fans. I guess it’s kind of even the number of letters I get from middle graders and young adults and adults.What do the kids say when they write in?
They ask me questions about my life, about my dog about how do I get my stories, am I going to write a sequel, why did such and such die, why do I love writing. All the generic questions. A lot of them say you told my story.Are you out as a queer writer?
I’m a writer who’s queer. I’m a writer who’s black. I’m a writer who’s a mom, All of these things define me. It makes me nervous when an identity tries to push the others away. As opposed as letting me be a writer first.I get featured during Black History Month. That’s a problem. I stopped going to schools during February because that’s Black History month. Oh it’s February, let’s think about all the Blacks. Oh it’s June, let’s think about the queers. Oh it’s March, let’s think about the Women. And that’s problematic to me. How come we only get one month out of 12? And the Blacks get the shortest one. It’s not enough for me anymore. I don’t want to be pigeonholed. I don’t want people to not think about me 365 days a year and not think about queers and not think about Black people and not think about women. I think they get off the hook by being able to push it to the side until they need us. I feel like we, as a community, we’ve let that happen. One of the reasons I haven’t done a whole lot of queer interviews is because of that. Put me where are you featuring Judy Blume. I want to be featured there. Where are you featuring R.L. Stine? I want to be featured there. So now I’m at the About.com site.
