Goodreads asked Cameron DeCessna:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Cameron DeCessna Clay Parker: Growing Up Gay in 1953, stems from my own experiences growing up in the moun tains of Western Maryland. My maternal grandfather, Howard, worked for the B&O Railroad and would often take me along to isit the massive trainyards in and around Cumberland. It was still the era of steam power, so I, like Clay, loved to watch those iron monsters at work. The rest of the story came from my immagination as I spoeculated what it might have been like for a boy like Clay to cope with his different sexual nature during the early part of the 1950's. My gay coming-of-age took place during the sixties and was somewhat different.

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