C. G. Moore's debut novel, Fall Out, publishes this Thursday.  Written for Young Adults, the book focuses on sixteen-year-old Cal Adams and the aftermath of his, not-so-much 'coming out' as falling out and the fall out this causes with his family, friends and foes.  We are delighted to welcome C. G. Moore (Chris), to the blog as he talks to us about his early encounters with gay representation.

My earliest memory of seeing a gay character on the television was during an episode of Will and Grace when I was about eleven or twelve. I didn’t get the jokes. I didn’t really understand the subtext of what was happening but I knew that Will and Jack were gay. When I looked at them, I didn’t see myself. I saw stereotypes – gay men that were presented as being hyper feminine; didn’t want to mess up their hair, flicked their wrists, sashayed when they walked. Still, it was more than I saw in the books I was reading. I stopped reading at this age. For a variety of reasons but key to this was not being able to see myself in the books I read. Not a cipher. Not a stereotype. Not a supporting character. It wasn’t until I was eighteen, the age when I finally accepted that I was gay, that I read David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy. I have a special place in my heart for the book because it was the first time that I remembered seeing a gay protagonist. I craved the world that Paul lived in, how everyone was so accepting at school and his relationship with Noah. I was always a bit of a low-key romantic at heart.

Today, LGBTQ+ creators and stars are in a position where they can subvert stereotypes and show multi-faceted aspects of our community. In film, TV and books, we see the complexities of character rather than ones that are boxed in by their sexuality. When I wrote Fall Out, I wanted to contribute to the stories which reflected LGBTQ+ experiences, continuing discussions around LGBTQ+ issues and people. I wanted to write the world I grew up in; one where I was bullied on a daily basis; one that I wanted to escape so desperately. Today, I have come out of the other side, but the pain of adolescence still lives with me, sticks to me, is lodged deep down in places too tricky to extract. I wanted to use that pain to represent the world I grew up in and offer hope; I wanted gay teenage boys to read Fall Out and see themselves represented.