A Conversation with Queer-Lit Champion Lee Wind, Author of A Different Kind of Brave
“I know I have three audiences: Queer teens and their peer allies; adults who are allies to those Queer teens (including librarians, teachers, parents, and other family); and Queer adults who are reading for their inner teens.’’—Lee Wind
Without a doubt, fabulous LGBTQ+ progress has been made over the past ten-plus years. Many millions of people unexpectedly changed their minds in support of gay marriage, according to surveys, in addition to voting their support for legislation protecting LGBTQ+ citizens from discrimination and hate crimes.
All of which is especially good news for teenagers who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer as they make their way through high school and into adulthood. It’s thrilling to see these kids being embraced by their classmates and peers and to know that they are much more likely than any previous generation to openly express their sexual orientation. In fact, 20 percent of Gen Z (18 to 26 year olds) identify as LGBTQ+ (only 7 percent of adults do).
But experts are having a hard time understanding why 69 percent of gay, lesbian, or bisexual teenagers admit to lengthy bouts of sadness in the past twelve months according to a recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 17,000 kids—a much higher rate than their straight peers. Even more tragically, more than one in five of these youngsters reported that they attempted suicide.
Might it have something to do with the nationwide outbreak of Republican legislation that seeks to put restrictions on identity, books, theater, hairstyles, language, and other forms of LGBTQ+ expression? Media coverage of these fraught political battles serves as a constant reminder that great swaths of our nation do not approve of anything other than heterosexual identity. Other experts believe the mental health crisis amongst LGBTQ+ teens is mainly caused by family rejection, and many teens confirm that acceptance by parents is a critical factor in their well-being.
In today’s interview, Lee Wind talks about his closeted pre-teen years and how he maintained a treasured relationship with his father through a shared love of James Bond movies. A Different Kind of Brave, Lee’s latest of many acclaimed books, captures that Bond attitude and pushes queer YA lit in a new direction, one that is sure to appeal to action-adventure lovers, gay and straight alike. Rebecca Foster surely thought so, based on her starred review in Foreword’s March/April issue and her kind words in the interview below.
In the acknowledgments, you mention that you loved watching James Bond movies with your father. How did you decide that they were going to play a major role in your novel?
I knew I was gay when I was eleven years old, but it didn’t feel safe to come out to anyone, least of all my family. My dad and I approached things from such different perspectives. Even in tennis, which we both played, success for my dad was winning the point. Success for me was a long rally. Bond movies were that rare sweet spot—we both loved the action sequences, the gadgets, the quips … The car driving off the pier and becoming a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me? The best!
But the Bond girl moments … meh. I felt pretty left out (though I did love the campy snark of the Bond girl names—Octopussy? Dr. Goodhead? Really?) So about five years ago, when I set out to write a gay teen action-adventure romance, I kept thinking, what would have been my dream book to read when I was a teen? Beyond making it queer, I found myself wanting to not just pay homage to Bond movies, but to kind of give them a cultural critique at the same time.
The two main characters help me do that: Nico is living a life of adventure, but it really sucks. In fact, the book opens with a big action sequence of Nico escaping from a gay reprogramming institute (very Mission Impossible, very Bond), and he’s on the run for most of the book. But there are all those other kids still imprisoned there, and Nico can’t shake the sense of responsibility for freeing them.
And then there’s Sam, who’s living this life of privilege and idolizes James Bond so much he wants to stop being so sensitive, to stop caring—but then he falls in love with Nico. And in the course of trying to save Nico by being like Bond, Sam realizes that James Bond is a terrible role model.
And then Nico is racing to save Sam from danger Sam doesn’t even know about, and the whole thing builds from there…
The font plays a big part in signaling time, POV, and format changes. Were you responsible for the typographic choices?
All credit to the amazing design team at Interlude/Duet Books/Chicago Review Press and their collaborative process—they came up with great options, I shared my two cents, and it just kept getting better and better! C.B. Messner designed our amazing cover featuring the cool gadget hummingbird drone, Sam racing an exotic sports car, and Nico speeding to save Sam on a dirt bike. Devon Freeny (managing editor) had the great idea to take the Sam and Nico icons and split them so the Nico POV chapters have Nico at the top and Sam’s POV chapters have Sam. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that at the very end of the book, when Nico and Sam are finally a team, the icons come together in an echo of the book cover—Nico and Sam racing side-by-side.
I loved the novel as a 40-year-old cishet woman (in the same way that I love the Heartstopper books), but do you have a sense of how teenagers are responding?
Not yet, but I’m so excited for teens to read this and hear if they fall in love with Nico and Sam, too! In a lot of ways I wrote it for teen Lee, and since I don’t have a time machine to send it back to myself, I’m paying it forward by sharing the novel with readers now. One of the amazing things I’ve found with my other books is that I get a lot of adult readers who are reading for their inner teens. There’s a healing in finally being included, even if it’s decades later.
I also love the Heartstopper books (and the TV show), and that gay teen romance surrounded by an amazing group of queer friends is a feeling I really tried to emulate in this book. Characters don’t exist in a vacuum, and I wanted to give both Nico and Sam people around them who cared and were fascinating in and of themselves … and I wanted the whole cast to be hella queer, too!
In your author’s note, you describe this as a book you wish you’d been able to read as a teenager. As the Chief Content Officer for the Independent Book Publishers Association (among other roles), you’re passionate about books’ role in young people’s education. Are we seeing the necessary flourishing of queer stories in children’s and YA literature? What else could be done to support LGBTQ youth?
I’m excited to have—and to write—books that are more than a coming out story. We need coming out stories, sure. We’ll always need those. But we also need the Queer love stories. The Queer adventures. And the Queer marriage stories, too! We are seeing so many more Queer stories in KidLit—and that’s absolutely something to celebrate. When I started blogging about Queer KidLit back in 2007, there were maybe thirty five books total. For the last few years, ALA’s Rainbow Book list has featured over one hundred Queer KidLit books every year, and I’m not even trying to be comprehensive any more when I post on my blog or social media. I’m just sharing Queer KidLit stuff I love.
At the same time, we’re seeing an organized backlash, trying to shove Queer people back into a closet by making libraries, schools, and our world less safe for us. We have to fight back. We have to vote. We have to stand up, and make our voices heard—and not just for Queer KidLit. Efforts to erase Black history and culture come from the same toxic playbook.
Even though I only learned about him as an adult, my idol from Queer history, Bayard Rustin, said it so well back in 1986 when I was a teen: “if we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all. And we will win the rights for gays, or blacks, or Hispanics, or women within the context of whether we are fighting for all.” (Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin, eds. Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise)
Along with publishing books, you’ve issued a podcast and you’re the official blogger for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. How does working in different media spark your creativity? And how do you tailor your writing to the different audiences you expect to reach?
With my marketing hat on, I know I have three audiences: Queer teens and their peer allies; adults who are allies to those Queer teens (including librarians, teachers, parents, and other family); and Queer adults who are reading for their inner teens.
The podcast was a response to my books being banned. I thought, if I put the audiobook of my first YA novel, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, up as a free podcast it can go around all the banners and reach the people that really need it. Seeing ourselves in fiction is empowering, and I want to empower readers!
Blogging is more short-form, five minutes or less, where I share advice or craft info that inspired me. And I’m a reader who also loves gay movies, and action movies, and wishes there were more gay action movies! So it all filters into my unique worldview, and that’s what I use when I wear my author hat.
The novel seems to leave the way open for a sequel. Will we get more Sam and Nico spy adventures?
I hope so! I’ve got books 2 and 3 already outlined (and a rough idea for book 4) but it all depends on A Different Kind of Brave finding an enthusiastic audience. If it does well, then Nico and Sam will indeed have to face A Different Kind of Enemy …
Rebecca Foster
