because I write a lot about different queer themes and attitudes and ideas.

And so I have a great editor who makes sure, "Hey, are you, you know, how are you doing this correctly?

Or in the right language and tone?"

Like, so I wanna represent my transgender friends and our transgender community.

I'm not transgender, so I've gotta make sure that I'm doing that as well as I possibly can.

But it's important for me to do those representations.

So, no, the only weird editing questions would be, "I'm not sure about this, are you?"

And so we have these conversations like that about what's appropriate or not appropriate.

Especially in a young adult novel, because, you know, we're dealing with teenagers who have hormones.

How much of that do I put in there?

So sometimes we have some really interesting conversations about that.

And at the end of the day, I appreciate Lindsay, my editor on this, who kind of says, "Sometimes it's better to shut the door and just let your reader guess as to what's happening when it comes to those moments."

And I kind of like that.

- Understood, understood.

Well, and that's the other thing, you know, some people who, you know, "I don't want that kind of subject in my library or don't want my child reading that," you're not writing this to recruit people to the cause.

Obviously, you know, this is supposed to be fun.

This is supposed to be interesting for people.

- Number one, it's entertainment, right?

This is a story of an underdog who gets... so "Singlets and Secrets."

Aiden walks into a high school wrestling room because he's been bullied.

He wants to get tougher.

He's done with this stuff, all right?

But the wrestling team is homophobic.

So with the exception of a couple of fun characters, including our JV captain whose name is Mateo, and yes, Aiden is gonna fall for that JV captain.

And initially it becomes a beautiful story of friendship with the questions of, "Is Mateo like me at all?

Will they, won't they?"

And it becomes kind of the friends to rivals to, well, I'll let you read this story and see what happens.

But that's the entertaining part, right?

That's the romance and the life.

And it's very heartwarming.

At the same time, because I'm this big "The Karate Kid" fan and a martial artist myself, it is full of, I mean, the coolest fight scenes I can think of in my mind, right?

So I wanted this rivalry where ultimately then Aiden drops outta that wrestling program.

He finds a mentor in his high school English teacher who also runs a martial arts club, all right?

So there's a connection there to my experiences too.

But his high school English teacher in the story, the name is Mr.

Samuels, he's kind of my Mr.

Miyagi in the story, all right?

But Mr.

Samuels teaches Aiden and other outsiders who don't fit in with traditional sports self-defense.