If you could inject yourself with serotonin, I imagine it’d feel about the same as reading The Passing Playbook. It’s a book about a trans kid who joins his new school’s football team, a rivalry turned romance, and a found family that will have you grinning uncontrollably. In other words, it is the perfect way to kick your Pride month reading off.
If, for some reason, you’re still not convinced, our reviews will be up for The Passing Playbook in the next week, and don’t forget you can follow Isaac on twitter right now!
Let’s start at the beginning. How did you first get into writing?
How far back do you want to go? When I was in first grade we had something called Writer’s Workshop where we were able to write whatever we wanted. I remember writing fan fiction based on Bunnicula, a series about a vampire bunny. My mom moved house recently and found a lot of my old writing including that story! I’ve always enjoyed creative writing and took a couple courses in high school and college, but it was more of a hobby. One year I decided to try Camp NaNoWriMo and hammered out a manuscript. From there I learned more about writing and the business of publishing.
What are your favourite genres to read and write, and are there any genres or tropes you wouldn’t write?
Obviously I love YA as an age group. I tend to read across genres depending on my mood. I also read a lot of adult mysteries and domestic thrillers. Sometimes I like sinking my teeth into a weighty fantasy. There isn’t any genre I wouldn’t read or write. One thing for sure is that I couldn’t write a story without queer characters.
How do you get inspiration for your books and what’s your writing process? At what point do you let other people read your drafts and who are they?
I get inspiration from everywhere: radio programs, articles, TV shows, snippets of conversations I hear in passing. Sometimes ideas come to me as a scene that I want to write, other times I’ll have a character in mind and need to find a story for them.
I call myself a reformed plotter. I used to do really detailed scene-by-scene outlines but I’ve found that if I spend too much time in the plotting stage then I avoid writing completely.
I need to know five things before I start writing:
- The opening scene
- What sets the story in motion
- How will the direction of the story change at the midpoint
- What decision does the character need to make in the third act
- How has the character changed at the end
I tend to draft quite quickly, but it’s a mess and nobody should ever read it. I then retype what I drafted and that’s when it starts to look like a book. Most of the hard work is done in rewriting and those five things mentioned above change as the story changes.
Right now, the only people who see my work initially are my agent and editor. With tight deadlines it’s hard to build in time for critique partners.
Which three authors would you say influenced your writing the most?
Robert Muchamore. He’s a British author who wrote a series about child spies. He’s probably the only reason I kept reading for fun in high school. It was also the first time I had ever seen a gay teenage character in a book and in the early ‘00s it wasn’t as common to have that rep in a children’s book as it is now.
Angie Thomas. I especially love how she balances humor with more serious topics in her writing.
And I can’t think of a third. Not because there isn’t one, but there are too many and I don’t want to leave anybody out!
And for something that is also very important to us & what we put a lot of emphasis on when blogging. What does ownvoices LGBT representation mean to you?
For me, ownvoices isn’t about dictating who can write what. You never know how someone identifies and sometimes writing can lead people to discover new parts of themselves. I’d love to see more LGBT elements in books from all writers, but giving LGBT writers the chance to tell our stories is so important.
I’ve heard it said that cis or het actors playing queer or trans characters means that they’re acting the sexuality or gender.
I think the same is true in writing. Yes, fiction is made up, but ownvoices writers aren’t making up the experience of queerness, unlike non-ownvoices, so there’s a layer of authenticity there.
That said, no writer should feel like they have to publicly disclose their identity in order to classify their work as ownvoices, but those who choose to do so should be celebrated.
What’s one piece of advice you would like to give your younger self?
You’re never too late to start. And on the flip side, you’re starting exactly when you need to. Especially with writing, there’s this emphasis on youth or being the first. I’ve found that every setback in my life has had its own payoff. Something I tell interns who I work with at my day job is to listen to “Vienna” by Billy Joel when you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing with your life.
Which of your characters would you most want to fight a zombie apocalypse with?
Spencer’s Mom. She’s a type A, former nurse. She bullet journals and is prepared for everything. She was raised in West Virginia and knows her way around a hunting weapon. I’d trust her with my life.
Is there a famous franchise or simply a movie/TV show you’d like to be able to write for?
Not famous exactly, but, as a teen I was obsessed with Newsies, the musical about the newsboys’ strike in 1899. I think it would be fun to write stories about those characters. I certainly read enough fanfiction to prepare!
Do you have any secret non canon ships in your books you wish people would write fics for?
There’s this character, Grayson in The Passing Playbook, who I feel really bad for because I keep giving him love interests that don’t work out. I try to relieve my guilt by saying that he’s going to graduate high school and go to a super liberal college like Oberlin and blossom, but if someone wants to give him a little love, it would make me feel better!
Rec us some great LGBT books you’ve read recently!
The first is The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass, which is coming out July 13 and the second is Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala which came out last year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isaac Fitzsimons is the author of The Passing Playbook (Dial BFYR/PRH, 2021). He writes Young Adult fiction featuring intentionally marginalized characters so that every reader can see themselves reflected in literature.
His background includes performing sketch comedy in college, learning how to play three songs on the banjo, and, of course, writing.
His dream vacation would be traveling around Europe via sleeper train to see every top-tier soccer team play a home game. He currently lives outside DC and works for an arts advocacy nonprofit in the city.
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