A warm welcome to author Roan Parrish joining us today to celebrate her new release “Out of Nowhere”.
Welcome Roan 🙂
The Lovelies of the Youth Alliance
I love secondary characters. As a reader, very little delights me more than encountering secondaries that feel like they have whole lives and habits and preferences that are fully formed—as if, by taking just a step to left, I could find myself in their story instead of the one I’m reading. As a writer, I love writing them because it’s a chance to play around with personalities on a small scale. And when those characters do go on to become the protagonists of their own stories, well … that’s even more fun.
In Out of Nowhere, Rafe works at the Youth Alliance, a queer youth group in Philadelphia. I had a blast writing these scenes because it was a chance to write not only secondary characters, but teenaged secondary characters, with very strong opinions about pop culture, fashion, and each other (these are a few of my favorite things). Who are the youth of the Youth Alliance? Here’s a meet and greet where the kids introduce themselves to Colin for the first time:
‘The kids all look at each other in an attempt to avoid going first. Finally, the kid who called Rafe “Conan” speaks up. He’s one of the oldest ones there. He’s wearing a white wifebeater and has the arm muscles of someone who only lifts weights to look tough.
“I’m Carlos,” he says. He tips me a little head nod, like he’s giving me permission to hang out with him or something. Jesus, I feel like I’m back in high school again. I nod back.
“Ricky,” a skinny white girl says, pointing to herself. She doesn’t look older than fourteen, but she has a nose ring and a crude tattoo on her thin wrist. Her bleached-white bangs almost cover eyes ringed with black makeup. I smile at her and she looks away.
“Hey, sweetie. I’m Mikal, but you can call me anything you like,” says a pretty-boy black kid wearing denim overalls and a shiny purple shirt. Is this kid flirting with me? I expect the rest of the group to turn on him—Carlos looks like the type to react poorly to a gay kid—but most of them just smile.
“Uh, Mikal works for me,” I say, trying not to be a total asshole.
Most of the others say their names too quickly for me to retain. Among them are a tall blond guy wearing a plain white T-shirt and jeans like a Gap model who mutters his name like he wants me to forget it; a pair of brightly dressed girls who introduce each other, but do it so quickly I don’t catch either name; a beautiful girl who looks Latina—or, shit, is it Hispanic? I really need to ask Rafe about that—and says her name like she’s daring me to use it. One guy just waves at me, smiling sweetly. He looks about fourteen or fifteen and has bright blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin that look otherworldly against his all-black clothes. The smallest one says his name is Stuart, but he says it so softly I can hardly hear him and one of the older girls, who introduced herself as “Dorothy, but way smarter than that dumb-ass white girl in that Oz movie,” repeats it for me.
Last is the oldest and biggest of them: a tall muscular guy I would’ve put in his early twenties, except that Rafe told me only kids up to age eighteen are allowed here. He’s black, with a shaved head and white glasses, and his expression is serious and a bit suspicious. Like he’s waiting to decide if he’s happy to have me here or not. He’s taller than me—maybe six foot two—but not as tall as Rafe, and his worn white chinos, white tank top, and white Converse are all spotless.
“DeShawn,” he says in a voice softer than I expected.’
Later, we meet Mischa and Anders:
‘“Y’all’re nuts,” a voice says from the back. It’s one of the kids who came for the first time last week. I think her name is Mischa. She stands out in this group because she looks like she should be playing soccer in an orange juice commercial or something. She doesn’t dress interestingly like Mikal or DeShawn; she doesn’t have dyed hair or piercings or tattoos, like Ricky and Dorothy. Mischa has straight honey-blonde hair pulled back in a smooth ponytail, a slight tan, and light blue eyes. She isn’t pretty, exactly, just really healthy looking. She’s wearing a green tank top and jeans and looks completely, blandly normal.’
‘Last out of the gate is the kid in all black who was into Harry Potter. Rafe called him Anders. He’s clutching his violin case in hand. When he gets closer, the first thing I notice is that his expression looks different than it did last week. Then he looked… I dunno… sweet and happy, even if he was shy. Now, his expression is shuttered, distant, like he’s thinking hard about something. And if he reminded me of Daniel before, with his dreaminess and his little-kid enthusiasm for some weird book, now I can see it quite clearly.’
And who knows—maybe some of these folks will get their own stories someday …
Out of Nowhere (Middle of Somewhere #2) by Roan Parrish
PUBLICATION Dreamspinner Press, February 29, 2016
BLURB:
The only thing in Colin Mulligan’s life that makes sense is taking cars apart and putting them back together. In the auto shop where he works with his father and brothers, he tries to get through the day without having a panic attack or flying into a rage. Drinking helps. So do running and lifting weights until he can hardly stand. But none of it can change the fact that he’s gay, a secret he has kept from everyone.
Rafael Guerrera has found ways to live with the past he’s ashamed of. He’s dedicated his life to social justice work and to helping youth who, like him, had very little growing up. He has no time for love. Hell, he barely has time for himself. Somehow, everything about miserable, self-destructive Colin cries out to him. But down that path lie the troubles Rafe has worked so hard to leave behind. And as their relationship intensifies, Rafe and Colin are forced to dredge up secrets that both men would prefer stay buried.
BUY LINKS
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Roan Parrish is currently wandering between Philadelphia and New Orleans. When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.
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