I'm willing to lay money on the fact that you've never heard of Andy Peters. But, dog ear this name in your cerebral filing cabinet. Andy Peters. Andy Peters. Andy Peters. Say it. Remember it. 'Cause this kid is good.
I actually came across Andy while promoting my book, "Naked Metamorphosis" on the cyber freeway. RVA Quick Book Blurbs had compared my book to the work of Gregory Maguire's. Andy Peters is hugely influenced by Gregory Maguire and the two of us found a common bond. Since November, I've had the distinct pleasure in having a friend in Andy. He's read my book and I've read his. It's specifically the reason I wanted Andy to roll by "The Authors Speak".
There are a lot of people writing young adult fiction these days. Makes sense, since Hollywood sees the genre as a veritable gold mine. And, like any mainstream, the field has a nice 10% that is quality and a cluster of books that are certifiable crap. Andy writes young adult fiction. I read his book "The Registration", which is a tale of a youth of Atlantis, and adored it. It is, in fact, a real shame that it's not been published, as it definitely sits in the 10%.
So, while waiting on the author's Holy Grail - that "big break" - Andy does what all writers must do: Write. Currently, Andy's everywhere! He writes for "La Bloga", a Latino literary site (http://labloga.blogspot.com/), Ganymede just picked up his story "the Vain Prince", which is a lot of fun, and he's receiving accolades on his work while searching for his grail. Recently, of his piece "The Vain Prince", Chroma Journal said: "An adorably amusing fairy tale. Peters’ fairytale anti-hero, Adalabert, is rather like a queer Turandot, and his prose swaggers along like a drunken queen in a nightclub, the very antithesis of what a fairytale should be.”
I took a few moments to chat with Andy about his work, gay themes in modern lit (and the lack thereof), and a writer's life.
Eric Mays: Andy, I had the privilege of reading a draft of you YA book, "The Registration". I liked it a lot. What's going on with that project right now? I'd love to know.
Andy Peters: [Following the advice of an esteemed colleague, I changed the title of the novel to "The Seventh Pleiade" so...] The Seventh Pleiade is on submission at a publishing house. Keep your fingers crossed! This has been a tough project to place – YA epic fantasy with a 15-year-old gay hero. Not exactly "on trend" in the publishing world, but I'm keeping hope alive.
In the meantime, I'm drafting a new novel about gay men and angels. It's nice to have one project "out the door" and another to come home to that's just in a germination phase.
EM: If it doesn't get any notice, are you thinking of taking it the Gregory Maguire route and turning it into a huge, epic musical? I see someLes Mis heaviness there.
AP: Hmmm...I actually listened to The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack a lot while I was writing it. Big dramatic music for a big dramatic narrative, I guess. I can definitely imagine orchestral crescendos in several places.
EM: You wrote "The Vain Prince" for Ganymede, right? It's a fairy tale (which I'll lump "The Registration" into as well). What is it about the fairy tale that inspires you? Why is it easier to write a fairy tale than deal with the real life situations?
AP: You know, fairy tales are just great, enduring stories. Of course, I read them as a kid. My grandfather had volumes of Grimm's Fairy Tales, perfectly bound in green hardcovers, I think he got them from a book-of-the-month club back in the 40's and 50's. I liked the sense of fantasy and medieval times, but it was also the tragedy, the emotionality that drew me in. I think in part that comes from my Waspy upbringing. Reading in general, fantasy in particular, as well as theatre and movies, gave me a chance to let loose internally when I couldn't externally. It wasn't OK in my family to cry, complain or be angry while growing up, but it was perfectly acceptable to be moved and inspired by other people in the context of entertainment. So I read a lot at a young age and started writing pretty early too.
I think it's also that fairy tales have such power in our lives. They're lessons that we learn and they really do affect the way we think about the world. Feminists pointed out the sexism in stories like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Traditional fairy tales are obviously heterosexist as well. So the opportunity to take a fairy tale and turn it on its head is wonderfully liberating for me. It's a way to reassign power. You know that Gregory Maguire is one of my favorite authors, and what he did with The Wicked Witch of the West in his Wicked series was a big inspiration to me.
As to your second question, writing fairy tales is easier in a sense because you have a template to work from – the characters, their motivations, and a really great ending, unless you choose to tweak it. The originality, for me, comes from the author's voice and the way he or she subverts the story. For example, my short story The Vain Prince has been compared to The Frog Prince and the opera Turnadot. I actually had Beauty and the Beast in mind when I first started writing it, but I ended up diverting from the plot just about completely. I wanted to write a really romantic story about two guys, and I don't think you can get more romantic than old fashioned fairy tales. So while subverting the heterosexual romance, I wanted to maintain the things that are compelling to me in great love stories – two people against the odds, love being the only thing that matters even when there are huge divisions like social status, and the incredible sacrifices people make to be with the person they love.
EM: You also blog for La Bloga. PLease excuse me but, I'm not sure you're Latino, so I'd love to know how this gig came about.
AP: I'm not Latino. This is how it came about. My good friend Liz Vega is the Bloguera on Sundays, and when I launched my website (http://andrewjpeterswrites.com) we got to talking about opportunities for collaboration. She offered me this awesome opportunity to contribute articles about Latino LGBT authors and East Coast authors to broaden the scope of La Bloga. I've always been a fan of Latino literature – Junot Diaz and Michael Nava are two of my all-time favorite authors, so I'm really proud to be writing for the blog. My partner is Puerto Rican so I have some life experience with Latino culture as well.
In March, I did an article on literary all-star John Rechy who is well-known in Latino circles and gay circles but never really combined both worlds in his writing. More recently, I did an interview with Alex Sanchez who is part of the newest wave of YA authors writing stories about contemporary gay teenagers.
EM: I've got to go back to "The Vain Prince", Andy. Seriously, I'm thinking now that this is the story to flip into a musical. It's got all the elements going for it, right?
AP: Ha ha. Y'know, I actually wrote a musical with a friend of mine in sixth grade. This is an embarrassing story. It was called Suzy McKay, and it was pretty much a rip-off of Annie (at the time, the musical and the movie were big, this was like 1981). We actually tried to get it produced at our elementary school, which always did a musical with the 6th graders. Well, they decided to go with Pete's Dragon, a Disney film probably very few people will remember, but it was a popular grade school musical choice in the 80's. Anyway, just to give you a taste of my precocious theatre genius, one of the musical numbers was called: "Just Me and My Pets," and featured spunky little Suzy tap dancing around the stage with a troupe of cats and dogs.
So yeah, my musical career peaked a little too early, but maybe The Vain Prince is a second chance. I could see it Off, Off, Off, Off Broadway. Like maybe Rehobeth Beach, Delaware.
EM: You've told me that you only consider yourself an "aspiring" writer. Really? I have to disagree with you, man. You're cranking out stories left and right. Plus, (while publishing industry may be suffering) it seems that there are so many outlets out there right now with the Internet and the "blogosphere". Isn't this actually helping you?
AP: There are a lot more opportunities for writers to get noticed. And a well-established writer gave me the advice: Get your work out there, doesn't matter how, just get it out. So blogging and on-line publications have opened up new doors for those of us who are building a platform or audience. Really, the opportunity to connect with readers has grown exponentially. Writing for La Bloga, or my own website, gives me more readers than I would probably get from any print journal or even getting one of my books published. I think the conventional wisdom is that a moderately successful book sells about 1,000 copies. I can get 1,000 visitors to my website in a few months. So I think you're right. Things are changing for writers. The immediate connection with readers that the Internet affords is just tremendous and rewarding. I'm also proud to say my short story "In A Wine Phase" was picked up for publication by the e-zine Wilde Oats (http://www.wildeoats.com/). The issue comes out in August.
EM: So you write. You write some more. You write even more. Andy, when you're not doing this, what is it that you do?
AP: I'm extremely lucking to work for an amazing not-for-profit Long Island Crisis Center that provides a lifeline to young people experiencing many kinds of personal crises. We have a round-the-clock suicide hotline, a street outreach program for homeless teenagers, and, my pride and joy, a program for LGBT adolescents. I've been a social worker for 15 years. I've moved up the ranks and now mainly do administration and grant writing, which keeps my grammar sharp.
Otherwise, I'm spending quality time with my partner and our cat Chloë.
EM: I want to take a moment to discuss sexuality in modern lit, if I may be so bold. Some of these dark and urban fantasies on the scene right now are getting relatively graphic with their descriptions and depictions of sex. Yet, none of it seems to fall into the category of homosexual. It still seems that modern lit shies away from homosexual themes. Why is that, do you think?
AP: I think there's an audience for literature that depicts homosexuality, but I think the reality is that it's always going to be a niche. It's just a fact of minority status. Depending on who you ask, we LGBT's are 2-10% of the market. Then maybe there's another 10% who would pick up an LGBT-themed book because they feel some affinity for the LGBT community or because the book got a good review. I've actually become pretty non-jaded about the whole issue because I think about my own experience as a reader and I have to admit I'm pretty narcissistic. I mean, I will quite rarely pick up a book with graphic heterosexual or lesbian content unless it's strongly recommended or relates to research I'm doing. Otherwise, I read for pleasure and to discover characters I can immediately relate to.
EM: For awhile there, it seemed that all "gay lit" was nothing more than erotica. Have we started seeing that change? Isn't it important for some of that to pour into YA books, as that's a solid age for several kids to deal with these issues?
AP: Absolutely gay lit has changed. There's romance, mysteries, fantasy, thrillers, pretty much you name it. I recently blogged about the vampire craze and researched Amazon to find a slew of gay vampire novels riding out the trend. For me, being a traditionalist in a sense, it's unfortunate that you can't find that variety at your local bookstore. The big chains have their Gay/Lesbian sections (a few shelves), and it's still largely erotica and coming out self-help books and celebrity non-fiction. Plus the gay bookstores we had in the 90's like A Different Light are pretty much extinct. But you can find a ton of gay-themed books in many, many genres on the internet.
LGBT YA really excites me. When I read Alex Sanchez' Rainbow Boys series, I felt this tremendous sense of validation for these kids I've worked with over the years plus it transported me back to being a gay kid again with all the possibilities and challenges. I happen to have a lot of friends who are YA librarians, and they're big proponents of LGBT books. I think this is an area where a lot of progress has been made. For a long time, gay teens didn't have any YA characters to relate to. When I was growing up, I sought out books with some gay representation and ended up with stories about male hustlers and drug counter-culture (William Burroughs and Paul T. Rogers), which on one hand were fabulously written and provocative but didn't really provide much of a guidepost for what I was experiencing.
For more about Andy, stroll by his website: http://andrewjpeterswrites.com/?page_id=9. To purchase "The Vain Prince", follow this link: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/ganymede-stories-one/6171857 (and don't let the Lulu thing stop you. It's really a good tale). Keep your eyes peeled, because Andy's name will be out there soon enough.
Tomorrow is an exciting day! We've got "Interview with a Vampirologist". Theresa Bane will join us to discuss the vampire craze (coinciding with the launch of "True Blood Season 3") that's sweeping the world right now. If there's anyone that is the end all, be all on vamps, it's probably Theresa. Her books and research are fascinating!
We'll also pay a brief visit to author and friend of the Authors Speak, Jordan Krall; his latest book, King Scratch
, is now out.Until then, keep reading!
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