Julie Anne Peters’ bestselling novel for young adults has recently been published in paperback. Keeping You a Secret features a plot that will be oh so familiar with anyone who remembers what coming out at school was like. It’s also a book that has a special resonance for its author.

But that’s not all. Peters is a prolific and accomplished writer of books for younger children, and her Snob Squad series is home to characters that entertain the young ‘uns and old ‘uns alike.

We tracked Peters down to find out more.

How come you decided to write a letter at the end of the book?
It’s a growth experience to be reminded how clueless you are, how unaware and stupid you’ve been. I was deathly afraid to write a young-adult lesbian love story. I’d been working for ten years to establish myself as a children’s writer and I knew a book like this would get me blacklisted and banned. Even worse, I’d be labelled a ‘gay’ writer and be expected to write exclusively for my community. Well, duh. Of course, I should be writing for my community.

The wonderful, heartfelt letters I received from readers after Keeping You a Secret was published changed my perspective. I realized, or remembered, how life-affirming literature can be. Readers and writers create a cycle of empowerment and I wanted to let readers know how much courage and confidence they’d given me. I wanted to write them a love letter.

What's your favourite part of the Keeping You a Secret?
The first half, up to the kiss. Girl meets girl, girl is consumed by uncontrollable biological urges, girls get it on. My lesbian love story had to include the instinct of falling in love. The first half, I felt, revealed the deepest part of me.

Although they're aimed at young people, your Snob Squad series has a real camp appeal! Do you have much of an adult readership?
I keep telling my editor the Snob Squad is destined to become a cult classic. Really! If the books catch on with the campy crowd, maybe my publisher will bring them back into print. Children’s books can be read on so many levels, it’s what makes them fun to write and read.

Max, the budding butch dyke in the Snob Squad, is so cool she’s my total dream date.

Aside from Beany Malone, what were the books that nurtured your young
lesbian self?
As a young person, I devoured all the cheesy teen romances I could find. In my early twenties, I stumbled onto Nancy Garden’s groundbreaking Annie on my Mind. I remember asking my partner, ‘Are we lesbians?’ I’d never even heard that word. (See how clueless I am?) Love and romance nurture my spirit.

So, what would you direct young gay and questioning people to read
nowadays?
Today young readers have access to billions of books from large and small publishers, from independent and chain bookstores to online retailers. Okay, maybe not billions, but a whole lot more than I had growing up and coming out.

The payoff of mainstream publishing is young queer readers finding their literature on the shelves alongside books about ‘regular’ people. I get so many letters from teens expressing astonishment and joy at the validation this gives them.

In current, contemporary fiction, a few of my personal favourites are Paula Boock’s Dare, Truth or Promise; David Levithan’s The Realm of Possibility; James Howe’s Totally Joe; Ellen Wittlinger’s Hard Love; and a new anthology due to be released in the spring of 2006, The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities.

What's next for you?
My new young-adult novel, Far from Xanadu, is a story about a gay girl who falls for a straight girl, and the resultant happy-never-after. The main character’s sexual identity is both central to her character and incidental to her life, the way it plays out on reality TV.

Next year, April of 2006, I have a book coming out about a boy with two moms. The boy, Nick, is put in the position of having to choose between his mothers. It’s not enough he has one mother to push his buttons.

After that, I’m going to commit career suicide with a book of short fiction that includes a graphic girl-on-girl sex scene. This book will answer all the letters I receive from young people who ask, ‘What exactly do two girls do together?’

 What else would you like to say?
Young readers have more power than they realise. With the amount of disposable income available to them these days, teens are determining market demand by buying the books they want to read. Publishers are responding. Young people are a tremendous force in social change. Progressive librarians and teachers are revolutionaries, too. By integrating LGBTQ literature in their libraries and classrooms they’re sending the message to young people that being lesbian or gay or trans is no longer reason to hide or feel ashamed or be marginalized. There have always been book banners and censors, and always will be, I suppose. But normalizing our lives in literature is a major leap forward in celebrating diversity and difference. I have great hope for the future.

Read our review of Keeping You a Secret.

Keeping You a Secret, by Julie Anne Peters
Published by: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316737771
Price: ú5.99

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