Love Bytes says hello and welcome to author Kristina Meister joining us today to talk about new release “Cinderella Boy”.

Welcome Kristina 🙂

Allies

I grew up in a very strict household that I tend to divide up into two eras—the two dads. My biological father was a cop and my step father, a minister. A lot of expectations were put on me and rules were inflexible. My queer identity was, for the most part, something I wasn’t really allowed to share. My biological father wanted a son, you see, but got me instead. He taught me to shoot a gun at age six, to climb trees, to end a fight, but there was this strange line I couldn’t cross or I’d hear “That’s not how ladies behave.”

After my mom remarried, suddenly everything was bible verses and weird ideas about female identity and the supposed sanctity of sex. My step-dad said a lot of things to me over the course of my time living with him, ranging from homophobic to transphobic, to your everyday, average disavowal of the things with which I identified. “Why do those people have to talk like that,” or “That’s just disgusting”. Once, when I was talking about going away to college, my step-dad made a joke about me going out and dying my hair blue, because I’d made no secret about wanting to as soon as I was an adult. I protected myself as usual—by turning it into a joke, saying something like “Oh yeah, dad. I’m going to get some tattoos and come out as a lesbian.” He stopped dead in his tracks and in his somber pastor’s voice said, “If you did that, I’d be very disappointed in you.”

That crushed me completely. It taught me to fear my family. It taught me I was completely alone. It taught me that there was no way I could share with them the part of myself that was the most open, accepting, generous, and caring. They taught me that I couldn’t show them the vulnerable aspects of my identity, which meant that they taught me how to fear others too.

I should mention that at the age of eleven, I met the man who is now my partner. He was one of my odd friends, with whom I always had a special bond. But he was a handful—no joke, an actual kid genius. Got an AA at the age of 13. Graduated with a BA in pure math at the age of 18. By the time I was exiting high school, this arrogant son of gun was starting graduate school. Everything was magical for him. He had this casual way of dealing with teenage nonsense. Adults were impressed by him. I just found him pretty exceptional, and he thought the same of me, but I could never feel close to him. There was always a barrier there.

Finally, on Valentines Day, a friend of mine convinced me to tell him who I really was, and since I was in a foreign country and communicating via email, it seemed a bit safer to do. I built up courage, drank a bit, and with my heart pounding, I wrote him an email. All that crushing fear and he was like…

“Cool.”

It was my ongoing relationship with him that gave me the ability to come out to my parents. It was during the Prop 8 nonsense in California, when people were voting on gay marriage. My mom and dad had a sign in their yard supporting a strict ban on it. They didn’t know that my nephew, living with them, had come out as gay to me and my husband. They didn’t know I wasn’t straight. It took every bit of writing talent I possess to explain why that sign needed to come down.

You’ll be happy to know that my family are now allies. My mother and step father did some soul searching and prayer and realized that there was more at play than they should judge. They ask me questions now and I try to give them perspective on LGBTQ culture. They now wonder about things like, “Are we going to have to change your pronouns?”. My biological father ended up remarrying and having another daughter…another daughter who was remarkably similar to me, dated girls and boys and trans persons, didn’t want to hear what was “ladylike” and had her sisters as a support network. I didn’t have to do much to explain to him that it’s not as simple as boy parts and girl parts. He’s a different person now, and honestly, I never feel afraid to talk about those things with him. I never feel as if he doesn’t get it, because he’s worked hard to understand.

So I suppose what I’m saying is that you cannot feel the shame others want you to. You have to shut it out. Don’t close yourself off because they want to isolate you. Find someone you can trust and share a bit of yourself. Bit by bit you’ll be closer to that wholeness, and once you’re confident in one person, you can grow to be confident before others. It’s a slow process, sometimes painful, but you can do it.

About Cinderella Boy

Being perfect isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Sixteen-year-old Declan is the perfect son . . . except for one tiny issue. When his sister Delia comes home to find him trying on her clothes, he fears her judgment, but she only fears his fashion choices. One quick makeover later, Declan is transformed into Delia’s mysterious cousin Layla and dragged to the party of the year, hosted by Carter, the most popular boy in school.

When Carter meets Layla, he fumbles to charm her. He adores her sense of humor and her poise. But when she vanishes in the middle of the night, he’s left confused and determined to solve the mystery of who she is.

As their school year begins, their high school embraces a policy of intolerance, and both Declan and Carter know they must stand up. Carter is tired of being a coward and wants to prove he can be a knight in shining armor. Declan is sick of being bullied and wants desperately to be himself. If they team up, it could be a fairy-tale ending, or a very unhappy ever after.
Buy Links:

Riptide Publishing 

Amazon

About Kristina Meister

Kristina Meister is an author of fiction that blurs genre. There’s usually some myth, some mayhem, and some monsters. While Kristina’s unique voice and creative swearing give life to dialogue, her obsession with folklore and pop culture make for humor and complexity.

She and her mad-scientist husband live in California with their poodles Khan and Lana, and their daughter Kira Stormageddon, where they hoard Nerf toys, books, and swords—in case of zombie apocalypse.

Connect with Kristina:

• Website: kristinameister.com
• Twitter: @kristinameister
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristina.meister

To celebrate the release of Cinderella Boy, Kristina is giving away a swag bag! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on July 7, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!