Hi guys! This book is mlm (bxb). I typically don't write mlm, because while I'm queer and have consumed a lot of media about queer men written by queer men, I can't pretend to nail exactly the queer man's experience. It's like how like Casey McQuiston gets flack sometimes for having written Red, White & Royal Blue, because they aren't a cis queer man, or how Becky Albertalli got so much for Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda that she felt she had no choice but to out herself.
I sincerely hope that I am not misrepresenting this specific part of the greater queer community that I love and cherish. If you feel I am, please, please let me know. No queer person is a monolith; it's impossible to showcase everyone's experiences. But research can only do so much, and if my writing is not apt representation, then for the sake of my readers and myself, and for the sake of the quality of the novel, I want to correct any errors in my storytelling.
I would also like to note that I do not condone the fetishization of any person, especially young, vulnerable queer persons. Sometimes when (particularly, straight) women write something with two boys, it's done through a lens of both boys being seemingly attractive to a female audience. (There are tons of great essays on the romanticization, glorification, and fetishization of queer men in fiction.) I hope my lack of wanting these characters to be fetishized comes through. And as such, I will be deleting any overtly sexualized comments---questions like "who's the top" and such just aren't relevant. I hope you understand.
Just, honestly, I just couldn't imagine this book in any other way. The idea initially came to me when I saw a trailer for the 2013 film The Kings of Summer during a binge of season two of House, and was also in my own very-kinda-weird-very-very-fast-moving situationship. ONC 2023 has given me the means to try putting it on paper after giving me the last important piece of the puzzle. (Yass, ONC!!!)
Please share/link/tag any queer authors you wish to share inline here, or feel free even to promote your own work in this specific spot. I want to build up other queer (take a shot every time I say 'queer') writers on this site, because I know how hard it can be to break through. So let's hype one another up! <3
Thanks for being here! I hope you enjoyed BOYS OF WEST DENTON.
YOU ARE READING
Boys of West Denton ✓
Teen FictionWATTYS 2023 SHORTLIST | WATTYS 2023 FANS CHOICE AWARDS NOMINEE Initially looking for nothing more than a feelings-free summer fling before college, reckless Harris McCammon and anxious Seb Krause might have stumbled into more than they bargained for...
