Cindy: I did an essay on People.com a while ago about how my book came out of the closet before I did. And this is an anecdote that I like to share because I do think it’s funny how I was extremely straight when I first wrote my book. And the story was also straight. And then, at some point, I decided that both the main characters would be queer. And I was like, “‘Haha, isn’t this so funny how I’m straight, but I’m writing something like this?’ Just me being silly and kooky, as always.” And now here I am with a long-term girlfriend of four years. So in this video, I wanted to expand this topic further and talk about why representation mattered in my novel, even when I thought I was straight. The book started off as a very straight, colorblind story before, years later, I had revisited the draft and decided to incorporate race and sexuality. Not so much because of diversity, but more so because I believed it would add layers to the narrative themes.
The book currently has a rating of 3.26 on Goodreads based on 850 ratings.
Have you read her book, ONTD? Thoughts?
