Ask the Author: David Avery
Answered Questions (19)
David Avery
Hi, Paul - thank you for reaching out and for posing such an interesting question.
In the realm of gay fiction, Alan Hollinghurst's THE SWIMMING-POOL LIBRARY and THE LINE OF BEAUTY really impressed me and perhaps influenced me in terms of how well, smartly, and honestly they were written. I also really liked Paul Russell's SEA OF TRANQUILITY (I felt like I had never read anything like it when I first read it - maybe time to go read it again!) and THE COMING STORM (for raw eroticism, which felt real to me in ways that fiction usually doesn't, particularly gay-themed fiction that is written for female/mainstream audiences).
I was blown away by Jeffrey Eugenides' MIDDLESEX. I didn't think it would be for me, but a friend badgered me to read it. Once I started, I could not put it down. As a writer, I am humbled by his brilliance and abilities.
For his body of work overall, I have been extremely impressed and most likely influenced by Edmund White even though, and apologies for my impertinence, I have found the quality of his books to be uneven sometimes. I feel guilty even thinking that, because he was such a trailblazer and is in many ways the grandfather of gay fiction.
Thank you again!
In the realm of gay fiction, Alan Hollinghurst's THE SWIMMING-POOL LIBRARY and THE LINE OF BEAUTY really impressed me and perhaps influenced me in terms of how well, smartly, and honestly they were written. I also really liked Paul Russell's SEA OF TRANQUILITY (I felt like I had never read anything like it when I first read it - maybe time to go read it again!) and THE COMING STORM (for raw eroticism, which felt real to me in ways that fiction usually doesn't, particularly gay-themed fiction that is written for female/mainstream audiences).
I was blown away by Jeffrey Eugenides' MIDDLESEX. I didn't think it would be for me, but a friend badgered me to read it. Once I started, I could not put it down. As a writer, I am humbled by his brilliance and abilities.
For his body of work overall, I have been extremely impressed and most likely influenced by Edmund White even though, and apologies for my impertinence, I have found the quality of his books to be uneven sometimes. I feel guilty even thinking that, because he was such a trailblazer and is in many ways the grandfather of gay fiction.
Thank you again!
David Avery
Hi, Patrick - thank you for reading and for reaching out with your kind words. I apologize for being a tease, but I don't have any updates about the sequels at the moment. I will definitely be writing more at some point as the characters and the stories are all alive in my head. Thank you again!
David Avery
Hi, Michael - thank you very much for asking. I am going to write another one (I envision MY BARE NAKED HEART as the first in a trilogy). I just need to get a little more focus!
David Avery
Hi, Frank - thank you very much for reading MY BARE NAKED HEART and for your kind words. I will be writing the other 2 books, but am currently behind in my writing. Please stay tuned and thank you again!
David Avery
Hi, Suzi - thank you very much for your kind words. I am embarrassed to say that I am behind in my writing with respect to books 2 and 3. Freddy was pretty awful! I don't want to give away too much, but he won't play a meaningful role in future books, other than as a bad memory. He transfers to a college back in Ohio and loses the Magnificent Seven forever. Thank you again and please stay tuned!
David Avery
Hi, Ron - thank you for asking. I am pained to say that I have not finished it yet and don't have a clear date in sight! Writing MY BARE NAKED HEART took a lot of physical, mental, and emotional energy for me, so I have to steel myself for the next 2 books I hope to write and finish. Thank you again.
David Avery
Hi, Tyler - thank you for reaching out. I don't want to give away too much, but Dusty and John storyline is actually just getting started. It's all written (in my head) - I just need to finish getting it on paper. :)
David Avery
Hi, BB - MY BARE NAKED HEART contains numerous scenes of explicit gay sex, and the narrator is not shy about describing his recollections of the penises of his buddies in the dorm during a time when he was coming to grips with his sexuality as a college freshman. If you are worried about whether anyone gets penetrated in the book, this is definitely not the book for you!! Thank you for your question, as I am eager to steer people away my book if there is any chance at all that they would be offended in any way.
David Avery
Hi, George - thank you for the response, and I love Wesleyan. I never mentioned where I attended college, but I had Middlebury in mind when I wrote it. Thank you again!
David Avery
Hi, Glen - thank you very much for the kind words, and I am very happy you enjoyed the book! I hadn't planned on writing about Freddy in any further detail, but I haven't ruled it out. These characters are alive inside my head and I know what happens to all of them. It may amuse you to know that Freddy transfers from Inverness after freshman year and eventually becomes chairman of the Republican party in his county in Ohio. My next book (if I can ever get it going!) has a heavy focus on Dusty and is in some ways a continuation of MBNH. The third book I have planned has a heavy focus on Daniel and is set in large parts on a Greek island one summer when John is editing one of his books and Daniel comes to visit when they are in their 40s. Thank you again!
David Avery
Hi, Matt - thanks very much for your kind words and so glad you enjoyed it! Yes, my next book will feature more about John and Dusty. I don't have an ETA yet - I still have to finish writing it. It's all there in my head, I just need to get all the words out. Thank you again!
David Avery
Hi, thank you very much for reading and for reaching out. MY BARE NAKED HEART is fiction that is set in my father's generation and not mine. But, many of the elements are based on real events (and certainly real emotions) and the showers are based on the showers in the dorm and fraternity house I lived in during the 80s. If you attended Bates, Bowdoin, or Colby (the Maine colleges that come immediately to mind for me), that is the type of environment I was depicting. You are astute to make the connection to Churchill's words and, yes, I intend to write 2 more installments. Thank you again.
David Avery
Hi, Ray - thank you for asking, and I am glad you enjoyed my book. Yes, I am currently planning to write 2 additional books that would follow the lives of John, Dusty, and the other guys (everyone except Freddy). I've been mapping them out (and need to put pen to paper!).
David Avery
Hi, Kat - Thanks for reading MY BARE NAKED HEART! Yes, there is more to come. I am envisioning 2 more books in the series. I wish I could tell you when the release date for the next one is, but I have to write it first! It took me 2 years to write MY BARE NAKED HEART, though I am hoping the next one will be faster. Thanks again!
David Avery
Write for yourself, not other people. I have been writing my whole adult life with an eye towards what I thought the market wanted. I never got it quite right and nothing I wrote really electrified me. Until now. When I sat down to write my new book, MY BARE NAKED HEART, which I am releasing in paperback and on Kindle in 2 days, I asked myself: What book would you most be interested in reading and what elements would it have?
I like prep school and all male environments and stories about the friendships that arise both in those settings and during difficult times. I also like reading gay fiction that is both literary and erotic (e.g,. Alan Hollinghurst and Paul Russell). I'm also a sucker for sexy gay love stories, particularly during an era of self discovery. Unlike my earlier efforts when I was writing for the market and not for me, MY BARE NAKED HEART came together so easily and the words spilled out as quickly as I could write them (unlike my earlier efforts, when I had to pull them out of me rather than letting them flow). I don't think there's a very big commercial market for sexy gay love stories, but I am so proud of MY BARE NAKED HEART and am so glad I was able to write the book I most would want to read.
I like prep school and all male environments and stories about the friendships that arise both in those settings and during difficult times. I also like reading gay fiction that is both literary and erotic (e.g,. Alan Hollinghurst and Paul Russell). I'm also a sucker for sexy gay love stories, particularly during an era of self discovery. Unlike my earlier efforts when I was writing for the market and not for me, MY BARE NAKED HEART came together so easily and the words spilled out as quickly as I could write them (unlike my earlier efforts, when I had to pull them out of me rather than letting them flow). I don't think there's a very big commercial market for sexy gay love stories, but I am so proud of MY BARE NAKED HEART and am so glad I was able to write the book I most would want to read.
David Avery
Being able to write the stories you most want to read. Finding beauty in words is a pretty cool gift, too.
David Avery
I really didn't have writer's block on this book. I know that's an annoying answer, sort of like a super model saying they eat whatever they want and never get fat (and I am not a super model!). The main characters and the story just kind of came to me over the space of a day or 2 when I was thinking about the type of book I would most like to read, the characters I would most like to read about, and a setting that would be interesting to me. In the past, when I have struggled with writer's block, I found that when I exercised (running in particular) and listening to certain music that called to mind certain characters, the writing I did afterwards was much easier.
David Avery
I'm currently taking a breather from physical writing as I prepare for the launch of this book. But, I have 2 others planned in the same series. I think about them actively in my head, but have not set pen to paper yet. But, I will!
I also have 2 separate (straight) love stories I have outlined in my head and on paper and will likely jump into those as well after I launch MY BARE NAKED HEART.
I also have 2 separate (straight) love stories I have outlined in my head and on paper and will likely jump into those as well after I launch MY BARE NAKED HEART.
David Avery
I was thinking about the type of story I would most like to read, and it kind of just came to me. I had been thinking about the book A SEPARATE PEACE and about how I had tried to read through the lines of it when I was in high school in search of whether the male characters had sexual love for each other and not just fraternal. That book, which left me wanting, was written in a different time, and I wanted to set out and write a book that was written in the fresh, honest voice of how young men think. I also have long been fascinated by my perceptions of same sex sexual repression in the 1950s, a period that pre-dates me. So, I set out to write a book that would have been difficult to publish in that time because of the gay love story. It all just flowed from there.
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