Kicking Off Prom Season, A Podcast About My Prom Novel

It's May and that means prom season is in full swing. So for your listening pleasure, Simon & Schuster has a podcast on YouTube that I did a few years ago about my debut novel A REALLY NICE PROM MESS. This is my first novel for young adults which tells the story about a gay couple who goes on a secret double date to the prom which doesn't stay secret for long and then complications/chaos ensue (see police, drug dealers, strippers, et al). The book was nearly banned in 2009 by a library in Wisconsin just because there were gay characters in it. Anyway, the podcast is about 4 minutes long and, in it, I talk about about the book and my prom experiences, as I went to a few! You can purchase the paperback on Amazon and I guarantee it makes for fun summer/beach reading.

Missouri High School Loses In Gay Prom Date Case

A Missouri high school failed this week in it's attempt to keep a male student there from bringing his boyfriend to the prom. The school initially pointed to a policy in the student handbook that said "girls invite boys, boys invite girls". But when the adept student in question, 17-year-old Stacy Dawson decided he was going to fight, he contacted the Southern Povery Law Center and they reminded the school that Stacy has some constitutional rights, per previous court rulings.

The whole story is on Queerty as the high school administrators are that site's official "Douche of The Week". I think it's great not only that Dawson can go to the prom but that he actually challenged the school publicly and won. It's a measure of how far things have come in terms of LGBT rights in just a few years. In 2005, my first novel A REALLY NICE PROM MESS was about a similar situation dealt with very differently, when the lead wants to take his b.f. to prom but does so secretly on a double date with two girls. (He's at a private school so there is not court-ordered option, and he's semi-closeted too.) Unfortunately, the secret gets out on page one and the night becomes a comedy of errors.

Fortunately for Dawson, his real world prom will be neither comic nor an error--it will just be a romantic night with his main squeeze. Cute! :)