I later started writing puppet plays in first grade and continued doing so until fourth grade. Short stories, most of them unfinished, started bubbling out in Jr. High and high school and it wasn’t until my senior year that I started working on something much longer. That, too, remains unfinished. I started writing a novel while in college. Unfinished. See a pattern here? I didn’t. All of this was apparently practice for after I graduated from college since that’s when I finished my first book, which took 3½ years for the first draft alone. The first draft of my second book took 3½ months to complete and I believe it was a bit longer for this latest one. I figure writing must be in my blood considering I’ve been doing it since I was eight, sometimes several times a day and I’m pleased to say I’ve never gone blind doing it that often.

Tell us a bit about your latest book, and what inspired you to write such a story.

My first book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Sexual Orientation, connected with readers in a way that I hadn’t anticipated or even considered. Gay or straight, they found something to relate to with the main character, Andy, and his coming to terms with his sexuality. It’s never an easy journey no matter what one’s orientation, ethnicity, culture or gender is, and there are universal experiences we share. All I did was take something that’s frequently dramatic, turn it on its head and make it funny. One thing people enjoy doing together is laughing and as I was laughing writing it, they were laughing reading it. Straight readers weren’t threatened by anything in the story and gay readers didn’t feel cheated or pandered to. It was a fine line to walk.

I wondered if there were any further adventures for the character once that story had been told. After all, what does someone do after they come to terms with their sexuality? As best as I remember, they date. Straight people date. Gay people date. Straight people have nightmare dates. Gay people have nightmare dates. Some people think they sing terrific karaoke and they really don’t. Hmm. Could there be more universal experiences we all share? We all want the same thing at the end of the day; someone to love, someone to love us, someone to grow old with and someone to say “yes, absolutely you can go get that second tattoo you’ve been wanting!” The search for a partner is this part of Andy’s story.