'One-Man Show' by Will Kostakis

The big piece of advice I give aspiring writers, young and old, is to write and write often. Write what comes naturally, write what takes effort, write what scares you and write what makes your heart full.

And never, ever delete a word.

It isn’t just about honing your craft, this is an exercise in preserving who you are and where you’ve come from.

In my early teens, I was consumed by one goal: to become an author. I wrote manuscript after manuscript. As a twenty-seven year old, I envy my former self’s ability to balance school with writing over 100,000 words in a year. As school became too much of a burden, I wrote less. And I wrote poetry. I freed myself of the burden of larger projects, dipping my toes into creative writing with a handful of free-verse lines when I could. My grip on language improved, and after years, I built a collection of poems that captured my teen years.

I recently revisited them in order. It was like tracing a line through my past. I watched myself grow and relived my life in all its shades. After the read-through, one stayed with me:

 

One-Man Show

I roll my world into a ball –

my pride, my joys, my tasks and tortures –

with carefully chosen words that vaguely imply.

I can keep my secrets close for now, but

as the amphitheatre fills, the audience

will expect more. Details.

And then my skeletons will dance,

as I, the poet, whore extracts from my diary

for applause and quarters.

But you’ll remain unknown, unwritten,

behind the curtains I will never draw,

until attendance slows, my one-man show

is cancelled, and all I have

to show for it are coins, pages, and

you, my best kept secret.

 

I was seventeen. It was the first time I had risked writing about being attracted to guys. Reading it back, I’m proud of how far I’ve come. A younger me predicted a closeted, secretive life. Now, not only have I drawn on my gay teen experiences for my novel The Sidekicks, but I am out professionally. My pride is mixed with anger though. Ten years is not a particularly long time, but a seventeen-year-old me had been taught to hide himself, to be ashamed of his feelings, and to prepare for a life in the shadows.

And if ever I need a reason to represent diverse sexualities in my work, it’s that poem. No teen should ever feel as I did. We need to write, share and celebrate diverse experiences, so that our readers can envisage a future free from shame and secrets. Stories can change their world, and it’s our duty to write them.

About Will:

Personally, Will Kostakis is ready to catch a ball two seconds after it’s hit him in the face. Professionally, he’s thankful he’s chosen a career that requires little (if any) coordination. After dabbling in celebrity journalism and reality TV, he now writes for young adults.

His first novel, Loathing Lola, was released when he was just nineteen, and his second, The First Third, won the 2014 Gold Inky Award. It was also shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year and Australian Prime Minister’s Literary awards.
The Sidekicks is his third novel for young adults.

As a high school student, Will won Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year for a collection of short stories.

For more information about Will and his books, please visit his website.

Why We Need Diverse Books #DiverseYA

"We need diversity in YA books as books themselves represented life, they reflect our worlds around us whether the setting is dystopian, fantastical, historical or real-life through the characters, their emotions and their choices. Books that choose to ignore diversity despite relevance to their story do not reflect life but a diluted, unrealistic and forced perspective that limits characters and their choices not allowing the characters the chance to fulfil their potential. Instead the story becomes secondary to the authors own personal beliefs and attitudes. It becomes a sermon rather than a story allowing neither reader nor author to develop from the book. As reflecting diversity can be challenging and challenging books are not always popular, high-grossing or beloved it’s not always the obvious choice to reflect diversity even though it is the right choice.

Books that do embrace diversity allow their characters a rich character arc and emotional connection, whilst also bringing to light issues that affect the world and society. They allow us to empathise, learn and understand the characters and their situation and develop from an experience we may otherwise have little understanding of. Diversity allows books to reflect the world and from that we can understand the world embracing the differences that make us great and increasing our understanding of this complex and beautiful world."

Sarah Nuttall (@CapturingSarah)

 

 

"Diversity is about representing our generation. There's strength in all of us and we deserve to see that in characters that we will love but ones that will also challenge our perceptions of the world we live in. I deserve to be represented; you deserve to be represented; we all deserve to be represented. Race, age, sexuality, gender, taboo issues (rape, suicide, depression etc.) should all be talked about. They are real issues, often real problems, and they need to be highlighted. Without diversity, we will be left with husk stories and vapid characters. We not only need diverse books, we DESERVE diverse books. The most important thing is that, you, YES YOU, reading this: if you want to see diverse books then you need champion and support them.

 

Christopher Moore (@yablooker)



 

 

"I think it's important to have #DiverseYA so that people from all races, sexualities, genders etc. can feel represented and confident in themselves that they are accepted. Diverse books help diverse people to realise that, despite what anyone says, they are normal. And that it's okay to be who you are. I think without diverse books, particularly in YA, where teens struggling with various problems will look for comfort, the social situation would be very much worse. Books help us to understand one another and without them, I really don't know where we'd be."

 

Georgina Howlett (@thereaderrunt)

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Because You'll Never Meet Me'

'Because You'll Never Meet Me' by Leah Thomas

Review by Christopher Moore

 

Summary:

 

Ollie and Moritz are two teenagers who will never meet. Each of them lives with a life-affecting illness. Contact with electricity sends Ollie into debilitating seizures, while Moritz has a heart defect and is kept alive by an electronic pacemaker. If they did meet, Ollie would seize, but turning off the pacemaker would kill Moritz.

Through an exchange of letters, the two boys develop a strong bond of friendship which becomes a lifeline during dark times - until Moritz reveals that he holds the key to their shared, sinister past, and has been keeping it from Ollie all along.

 

Review:

 

Because You'll Never Meet Me is an incredibly touching story told between two boys who will never meet because Ollie, repels electricity and it repels him, and Moritz requires a pacemaker to live. The story is told in a letter narrative, mostly, between the two boys and is an intimate form of writing that lets us see both characters, their relationship and so much more.

 

I would have liked a little more character differentiation between Ollie and Moritz. Sometimes the lexicons feel quite similar but overall, Thomas has produced a magnificent story with endearing characters (admittedly, Ollie being the most charismatic and bubbly) that reveals so much about human nature, love, friendship and family. It's not without its highs and its lows but ultimately, it's a long-distance journey that changes both boys for the better.

 

The LGBT element is subtle and this is a perfect example of where LGBT representation can be prominent without it being centre-stage and completely taking over the story. Yes, the story does cover LGBT issues but it's not a LGBT story. It cannot be pigeon-holed as such because it is a compelling and deeply touching story that encompasses this but is so much more than JUST THIS. This is exactly the sort of story that we need. I would class it as a diverse book and as James Dawson commented this year at YALC, we have diverse books around us already but we need to champion and support them in order to push publishers to produce more wonderfully diverse stories. We don't just need DIVERSE books, we DESERVE them.

 

Rating: 5/5 Stars  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

 

Christopher Moore:

 

 

Christopher is a co-founder of the YAfictionados blog and is best known as the YAblooker. He is a twenty-four year old book blogger who has previously worked in marketing and consumer insight for various publishing houses and writes in his spare time. He loves to travel and will read anything YA-related and some general fiction and fantasy.

 

 

 

Follow Christopher on Twitter: @YAblooker

 

Find Christopher on Goodreads: Christopher Moore

Follow Christopher on Instagram: @yablooker

Author Interview: Becky Albertalli

Becky Albertalli’s much anticipated 'Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda' was published last month to global, critical acclaim. Becky is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, partial to Oreos (I should know, we’ve debated this on Twitter for days!) and has worked for seven years with gender non-conforming teens in Washington D.C.

Follow Becky on Twitter: @beckyalbertalli
Check out Becky's website here.

Buy 'Simon Vs the Homosapiens Agenda':
- Amazon
- Waterstones 
- Foyles

The Interview 

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.

Thank you so much for interviewing me! I’m so happy to be a part of this.
 
For those that haven’t read Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, can you sum it up in 140 characters?

SIMON is a nerdy, gay email love story that sounds like Elliott Smith and tastes like Oreos.

I know you’re a huge supporter for the ‘We Need Diverse Books’ initiative for children and teens. Did Simon Vs arise from this need or was it a story you had inside you?

I am definitely a huge fan and supporter of the WNDB initiative, though that’s not the reason I wrote Simon (I was actually already past copyedits when the WNDB movement entered the scene). This is absolutely a story I had inside me.

Your background is in Clinical Psychology and I know you’ve worked with non-gender non-conforming teens for seven years. Has this impacted Simon’s story?

I’m sure it has, but it’s hard to say how! I was so inspired by the awesome, beautiful kids I worked with, but I’m also really careful not to use any confidential information in my writing. So, Simon’s story is one hundred percent fiction, except the parts that were lifted directly from my high school journals.

When I read Simon, I got echoes of Stephen Chbosky, David Levithan and possibly John Green. Is it an accurate statement that these writers influenced the book? How difficult was it for you to carve a space for Simon’s voice within the genre?

That is so flattering – those are three of my favorites! But it really is hard for me to trace my influences. I never sat down and attempted to emulate any other writer, and I doubt I could have accomplished that anyway. But maybe my love for these authors helped inform my style? It’s hard to explain, but I never consciously tried to carve a space for Simon’s voice. I just created this character who felt very real to me, and I tried to stay faithful to the direction he took me.

What made you choose a male narrator? 

Simon sort of showed up in my head fully formed. He was always a boy, always named Simon, always an Elliott Smith fan, always an Oreo eater. I didn’t have any difficulty connecting with Simon as a narrator, even though he’s a boy. I think he’s Simon first and a male second.

How has the reaction to the book been from readers? Have you any stories you can share?

It’s been very surreal – mostly wonderful, but entirely strange. As a psychologist, I had basically no online footprint, and I kept my personal life very private. Suddenly, my entire life feels very public, and the internet is full of people discussing this story that feels deeply personal to me. That can be hard, but it’s also incredibly special and gratifying. So many people have reached out to me via email or social media, and it’s so magical to hear that this book I wrote has actually touched people’s lives. Of course, there’s also an entire contingent of people who think I don’t know that Tumblr is just called “Tumblr.” You guys, I freaking know. STOP THINKING I’M A DORK. (I think this is how my dad feels, like, all the time.)

How did you find the writing-to-publication process? 

For me, it was a bit of a fairy tale. Things happened really quickly for this book. I queried my agent a week after I met him at a conference. He offered representation five days later, and he sold my book four days after I signed with him. Since then, there have been ups and downs, but my teams at The Bent Agency, HarperCollins, Penguin, and my other foreign publishers have been over-the-top incredible. I feel really lucky.

Do you have any unusual or strange habits while writing? 

It’s hard to say what’s unusual! I tend to write in pajamas, and I never, use a desk (always my bed or the couch). I edit compulsively as I go along. I get distracted easily by social media. I require a lot of chocolate. I think these things are pretty common, probably.

Your style of writing is equally accessible to teens and adults. Did you envision Simon Vs having such universal appeal?

That’s so nice to say! I’m thrilled that the book has resonated with both teens and adults. I had no idea what to expect, honestly. I just sort of wrote a book I would want to read, and I guess I also wrote something the teen version of me would want to read. I actually think I liked the same kinds of stories back then, so maybe that’s part of it!

I feel as though you could have pushed the homophobic abuse further in the novel. What made you hold back?

It’s funny - I didn’t feel like I held back at all! I think for a story set in 2014 and 2015, so much of the peer reactions depend on the particular context and environment. In Simon’s case, there was some very real bullying and humiliation, but much of the focus was on the micro-aggressions he experienced. Some teens have it much worse, unfortunately, but some have a much easier time than Simon. Interestingly, you’re not the first person who has wondered if I held back – but I’ve had just as many people express disbelief that things could still actually be as difficult as I portrayed them. It’s all about the experiences the reader brings to the table. 

Would you ever write a sequel to the story? If you had to write and explore the story of one character, which character would it be and why?

I don’t know that I could ever write a direct sequel, because I can’t bear to introduce conflict into the Simon/Blue relationship. I think if I ever wrote a sequel from another character’s perspective, it would be Leah. I don’t think her story wraps up entirely when Simon’s does.

You’re on Mars and you realise that you only have 48-hours of oxygen left in your canisters. You reach for your emergency kit filled with five books (apparently, there was a food shortage and you’ve lost communication with Earth). What five books are they?

Well, my emergency kit actually contains my kindle, pre-loaded with ALL of my books, so I can put off making this decision as long as possible. Why, yes, I was the kid who would have asked the genie for more wishes.

I’d just like to conclude by saying that Simon Vs is the kind of novel I would have loved to have read at school when I was bullied. I am twenty-four and gay. It’s such an easy read and it has a very insightful message and approach. So, I guess what I’m asking you to do is, go back in time to 2004, write and publish Simon. That’s not a lot to ask surely? Seriously though, Simon Vs the Homosapiens Agenda is my favourite debut of 2015 so far and your success is well-deserved. I wish you all the best and I hope that you continue to write.

That is so incredibly nice, and it means the world to me. Thank you so much!