When I first saw the blurb for your book, I skimmed through it and thought it was about an encounter between two plant homosexuals. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this story actually centers around a gay man in his 70s. Why did you want to explore the lives of much older characters, especially since people your own age are rarely the main characters in gay novels?
This book originally grew out of an idea I had for at least a year before this version actually took shape. It’s about a character from another story that will probably never see the light of day. In that story, I wanted to take a slightly comedic approach to make mental health, depression, and anxiety feel more relatable by focusing on this character’s houseplants and how much new houseplants she buys. So, for example, if I see her front window stuffed and they’re dying, I think, “Oh, Sarah must be in trouble.” I like the idea of ​​using this more lighthearted method as an entry point to more serious topics. That was the first idea that landed in my idea document, which evolved into the next story. bloom.
I also really like the idea of ​​dealing with death and how that grief manifests itself in the inability to keep up with household chores and normal routines. So this houseplant was suffering because of that. And to your point, I think older LGBTQ people are probably not represented as much as they should be in our stories. And often they are often portrayed in an overly stereotypical or kind of satirical way. To be honest, I don’t know where the exact inspiration came from, other than that I knew it and wanted to write a story that included an older gay man’s point of view and point of view. So combining that original idea with what Morris was experiencing kind of worked out.
Source: BuzzFeed – LGBTQ – www.buzzfeed.com
