A warm welcome to author Steven Harper joining us to talk about new release “The Importance of Being Kevin”.
APPLES AND ROLE MODELS
Last fall, my husband Darwin and I went to an apple orchard. These places abound in Michigan, an apple state. They’re half U-pick, half amusement park, half bakery. The apples aren’t any cheaper than the store AND you have to pick them yourself, but it’s a “family outing” thing, so I suppose you’re paying for the experience.
Anyway, Darwin and I ate hot donuts, drank spiced cider, and picked lots of apples. I wanted cooking apples, so we wandered through the orchard to hunt for Golden Delicious. We filled our bags with fat yellow fruit and hopped aboard a hay wagon that hauled us and the other apple pickers back to the farmhouse over a bumpy, jaunty road.
On the wagon, I had my arm around Darwin and he had his hand on my leg. No one on the crowded wagon noticed–or they pretended not to. Two boys in their late teens were sitting next to each other, close but carefully not touching each other. Then they noticed us. After a while, the first boy put his arm behind the second, and a bit later, the second boy shyly touched the first boy’s hair. No one bothered them, either.
This is why we need openly gay people. Younger people learn from role models, whether they’re on a pro team, in a movie, or sitting on a farm wagon.
BLURB
Kevin Devereaux’s life can’t get worse. He’s on probation. He’s stuck with an unemployed ex-convict dad. And he lives in a run-down trailer on the crappy east side of town. To keep his probation officer happy, Kevin joins a theater program for teenagers and falls hard for Peter Finn, the lead actor in the show—and the son of the town’s leading family. Despite their differences, Peter returns Kevin’s feelings, and for the first time, Kevin learns what it means to be in love.
But Peter’s family won’t accept a gay son—let alone a boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks—and in their conservative town, they must keep the romance secret. Still, they have the play, and they have each other, so they’ll get by—
Until a brutal attack shatters Kevin’s life and puts Peter in danger of going to jail for murder.
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Steven Harper Piziks was born with a last name no one can reliably spell or pronounce, so he usually writes under the name Steven Harper. He grew up on a farm in Michigan but has also lived in Wisconsin and Germany, and spent extensive time in Ukraine. So far, he’s written more than two dozen novels and over fifty short stories and essays. When not writing, he plays the folk harp, lifts weights, and spends more time on-line than is probably good for him. He teaches high school English in southeast Michigan, where he lives with his husband and youngest son. His students think he’s hysterical, which isn’t the same as thinking he’s funny.
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Visit Steven’s web page at http://www.stevenpiziks.com or http://www.stevenharperwriter.com . You can also find him on Facebook as Steven Harper Piziks and on Twitter as Steven Piziks.