Blogfest 2009

My book, Rainbow Boys, has been challenged and banned. It makes me sad, angry, and frustrated that there exist people who think they have the right to determine what others should or shouldn’t read.

Of course sex scenes are okay! More than okay. Sex is a huge part of teen experience. As teenagers we go through puberty, our biological coming of age as sexual beings. It’s irresponsible for adults to ignore that. We need to be honest with teens about sex and sexuality.  And authors need to truthfully describe the experience of sexual awakening in books for and about teens.  Otherwise we’re being dishonest through omission.

Constantly. Each book I’ve written has gone through at least a dozen rewrites, often more. It’s part of the creative process. Write, read it over, revise, read it over, have somebody read it over, rewrite, repeat, repeat, repeat… until the point at which I start switching back to what I previously wrote—or worse, I want to throw the whole thing away. Then it’s time to stop.

Sure, lots of times with lots of things. Sometimes I do give up on something and sometimes I don’t. I think that life constantly challenges us to figure out when to give up on something and let it go—and when to stick with something, hard as it may be, and get to the other side.