There's a lot of discussion around at the moment on the issue of gay characters in YA and children's books.
See, for example, James Dawson's brilliant post on Tracy Baines' website Tall Tales and Short Stories, Lucy Coats' excellent post on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure and the many Twitter posts at #YesGayYA.
I'm very much in favour of having gay protagonists in children's and YA books and it's good to see this issue being aired. But as an author who happens to be straight, I came across one or two comments when I brought out my Charity's Child, suggesting that perhaps straight authors should steer clear of writing gay characters or, at least, ones that occupy central roles in the story.
I can sort of understand the reasoning behind this. Maybe there's a 'you can't possibly understand what it's like to be gay' feeling. And I suppose they're right - up to a point. But writing is all about imagining yourself to be someone else. That's why we do it, some of us. That's the fun of it - casting yourself in unfamiliar roles and trying out new personalities. I have a theory that quite a few writers are failed actors - failed in the sense of never having got properly started, in my case!
And I do know what it's like to feel different and excluded - I spent most of my school years feeling that way, for reasons other than sexual orientation.
Anyway, I'd love to know what readers - gay, straight and bi - think of Charity's Child, which is coming out as an e-book very soon. It was originally aimed at the adult market but my publisher, Circaidy Gregory Press, felt it had YA/adult crossover potential, so we are aiming it this time at older teens (14+)/adults. Watch this space!
