Look At A Book: Everything Under The Rainbow

This week, I’m highlighting my most popular print book and third most popular ebook (behind Lighter Fluid, which I covered last week, and Cats Alone). This is probably the book that I’m most proud of out of all of my releases and the one that has had the most positive impact on my readers, that I know of (if you’ve read and enjoyed this book, feel free to let me know in a comment below!). It’s also my only short story collection as of right now, so that makes it even more special! Without any further ado, let’s take a closer look at Everything Under The Rainbow!

Everything Under The RainbowThe Essentials

A short story/advice collection for LGBT+ teens in the UK.

Genre: Contemporary, LGBT+, Short Stories

Age Range: Young Adult

Length: Twenty Short Stories

Themes: LGBT+ issues for young people in the UK (family, bullying, identity, friends, school, mental health, etc.)

Excerpt – From ‘Smoke Rings & Pride Flags’

“So, what are you here for?” Incredibly grateful for Leo’s question, I leapt out of my depressing thoughts and rushed to find an answer for him.

“I’m bisexual!” For a few seconds, I didn’t understand why he was laughing. I didn’t really mind—his laughter was nice to listen to, just like his voice but with an added helping of joy. Then, it hit me.

“Thanks for telling me, but I sort of meant ‘I’m here to make friends’ or ‘I’m here to change the world’,” he used air quotes for each little reason, “like, I’m here because a youth worker dragged me here. ‘Beneficial for my mental health’, or something like that. So, wanna try that again?”

“I—uh, they came into school. Shirley and Mike,” he nodded, so I kept going, “and, at the end of the assembly, I sort of went and asked if I could join. I think—I think I just wanted to make friends.”

“Support system,” he said knowingly, taking another drag from the half-gone cigarette, “that makes sense. You automatically have something in common with everyone here. Even those lot,” he pointed his cigarette at the crowd, who had started arguing over who got to wear the pride flag, “if you can believe it. Yeah, that’s fair enough. You’ll fit in just fine, give it a couple weeks.”

“Did you…” not really knowing how to phrase the question, I thought for a few seconds, giving Leo the chance to take a long, long drag on his cigarette, before puffing out something which looked sort of like a deformed ring, “did you feel scared, or sort of alone, when you first came here?”

“I mean, I was here when it all started, so everyone was a bit new and nervous,” his eyes became a little distant, maybe looking into memories from long ago, “it’s probably worse for you, joining when everyone already knows each other. It’s the difference between going from primary to high school and going to a new school in the middle of the year, you know?”

“That makes sense,” I leaned back onto the bench a little, regretting it as the cold metal sent a chill through my back. Leo glanced over.

“Bring a coat next week,” he advised me, the knowledgeable tone back in his voice.

Casually, he draped his arm around me.

Blinking a little, I wondered what to do for a second. It only took that second for my nervousness to be shouted over by a need for warmth. Leaning my head onto his chest, I fell into a warm embrace which smelled like cigarettes and the boys’ changing rooms at school: cheap deodorant. Somewhat reassuringly, there was nothing ‘else’ about the interaction—no roaming hands, no close face, no whispered words. Just a hug. A sideways hug, but a hug nonetheless.

I hadn’t been hugged in years.

The Background

Everything Under The Rainbow actually came about in a quite interesting way. In my second year of college, I chose to do an Extended Project Qualification alongside my three A-Levels, initially intending to release the second edition of Twisted Bloodlines for the project. The teacher in charge of the elective advised me to really go out of my comfort zone and do something a bit different, but I was still dead set on writing a book for this EPQ, so I decided to go with a short story collection. Then, I thought about what I could add to it – whether it could be a genuinely helpful resource, as well as some entertaining and relatable fiction. After a lot of research and many drafts (and a ridiculously long final report, which I didn’t realise was going to be printed out by my teacher and could probably be used as a weapon due to its weight), Everything Under The Rainbow was released into the world! It’s dedicated to BYOU, my local youth LGBT+ voice group, and, to my delight, led to a couple of articles and even an interview on BBC Radio Manchester! Below, you can see some of the early drafts for covers of Everything Under The Rainbow.

Is It Right For You?

Although I have a pretty specific target audience of LGBT+ teens in the UK for this short story collection, I think the fiction and advice can be enjoyed and appreciated by a wide variety of people. If you’re the parent or carer of an LGBT+ young person, you might like the insight into a teen’s perspective and the resources in the collection could be helpful too. Equally, this is why I think it might be a good read for teachers and other people who work with young people. But really, regardless of your closeness with the LGBT+ community, it’s always interesting to see different perspectives, and this collection follows twenty different perspectives associated with the LGBT+ community – so why not give it a try?

Lighter Fluid can be read for free here or purchased here, if you’d like to support me!

(You can also tip me on my Ko-Fi page if you’d like to help out more directly!)