When did you first start writing?
I'm not exactly sure when I first started writing, but I do remember my first attempt to write a book. I was in the third grade. I really loved the book, The Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume. My eight-year-old ego boomed with the knowledge that I'd read a book with "Fourth Grade" in the title when I was seven and in the second grade. Anyhow, I was dead set on writing a sequel to the book that made my head swell. I think I got, maybe, ten or twelve loose leaf notebook pages in before I realized that, not only was there already a sequel (Superfudge), but I had in fact read it. Boy was I pissed.
What's the story behind your latest book?
In some ways it's a personal story. For many years I've been stuck between a romantic rock and a casual sex hard place, never really finding comfort or desire on either side, and so by default I'd landed in limbo, caught smack dab in the middle of this spectrum. I guess I hoped that in writing Searching for Swimmers I might finally figure out where I stand and maybe even discover what I really want out of life.
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