1. What inspires your authorship?
I'd say two things inspire my writing: one is an undying urge to figure out the truth about something. Often that's an emotional truth. I'll have a question in my head about some aspect of my life, like, with Openly Straight, why is it that even though I'm an honest person, sometimes I have an urge to just pretend I'm straight to avoid a conversation with a stranger? I start writing about it, and suddenly there's a story. And in writing that story, I learn something about myself, and express it to the rest of the world, in case it is meaningful to them, too. The second thing inspires my writing for young adults. It's giving them books that I wished I had as a young person. Stories that would have filled my heart and made me feel far less alone.
2. What advice do you have for young writers/creators?
My advice for young writers is to focus on the writing, not on what you're going to do with it. It may be that you are a genius and will have a best-seller by the time you're 21. That is very rare, but it happens. What is more likely to happen, what happened with me, is that your writing will build on itself. By writing, you will become better and more seasoned with each story, with each page. Also, it will train you to do what most writers have to do to make it in this difficult field, which is to focus on the process rather than the product. Because for most of us--and I say this as someone who has been very successful--given the hours put in writing and the money I make? It'd make more financial sense to get a minimum wage job. Seriously. Don't do this to get rich. It may happen, but never count on it. Do it because you absolutely love it.
3. What is the message you hope rings out to the world from your work?
I hope when people around the world read my books they feel the warm heart at the center of them. I want to spread love and kindness with my stories, and I want people to feel loved, and less alone. I am sometimes known as an activist or an advocate because of the LGBTQ nature of my work. I'm so glad if I inspire change in some way, but really the change I want to make is on a personal level. I want to help people who are young and gay love themselves, and I want to help others who are not open their hearts to those people.
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