![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In the Spotlight: Scott Heim
Jul. 29th, 2009 07:10 pm
The Book: The body of a teenage boy is discovered in a Kansas field. The murder haunts Donna—a recent widow battling cancer—calling forth troubling details from long-suppressed memories of her past. Hoping to discover more about "disappeared" people, she turns to her son, Scott, who is fighting demons of his own. Addicted to methamphetamines and sleeping pills, Scott is barely holding on—though the chance to help his mother in her strange and desperate search holds out a slim promise of some small salvation. But what he finds is a boy named Otis handcuffed in a secret basement room, and the questions that arise seem too disturbing even to contemplate. With his mother's health rapidly deteriorating, he must surrender to his own obsession, and unravel Otis's unsettling connections to other missing teens . . . and, ultimately, to Scott himself.
Amazon: We Disappear: A Novel (P.S.)
The Author: Scott Heim (born 1966) is an American novelist from Hutchinson, Kansas, currently living in Massachusetts. Heim's first novel, Mysterious Skin, was published in 1995. He grew up in a small farming community there, and later attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, earning a B.A. in English and Art History in 1989 and an M.A. in English Literature in 1991. He attended the M.F.A. program in Writing at Columbia University, where he wrote his first novel, Mysterious Skin
. HarperCollins published that book in 1996, and Scott followed it with another novel, In Awe
, in 1997. Scott has won fellowships to the London Arts Board as their International Writer-in-Residence, and to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab for his adaptation of Mysterious Skin. He is also the author of a book of poems, Saved from Drowning
(1993). After living eleven years in New York, he relocated to Boston in 2002. Mysterious Skin
was adapted for the stage, premiering in San Francisco; it was subsequently adapted to film by director Gregg Araki and Antidote Films. Scott's third novel is We Disappear (HarperCollins), published in February 2008. Heim's fiction, nonfiction, and reviews have appeared in The Village Voice, Out, The Advocate, Interview, Time Out New York, Nerve, Christopher Street, The Minnesota Review, and many other periodicals.
http://heim.etherweave.com/
Top 100 Gay Novels List (*)
External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (simple - without photos)
External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (wanted - with photos)
*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.
Other titles not in the top 100 list:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top5
The Book: The body of a teenage boy is discovered in a Kansas field. The murder haunts Donna—a recent widow battling cancer—calling forth troubling details from long-suppressed memories of her past. Hoping to discover more about "disappeared" people, she turns to her son, Scott, who is fighting demons of his own. Addicted to methamphetamines and sleeping pills, Scott is barely holding on—though the chance to help his mother in her strange and desperate search holds out a slim promise of some small salvation. 
The Author: Scott Heim (born 1966) is an American novelist from Hutchinson, Kansas, currently living in Massachusetts. Heim's first novel, Mysterious Skin, was published in 1995. 
. HarperCollins published that book in 1996, and Scott followed it with another novel, 
, in 1997. 
(1993). 
was adapted for the stage, premiering in San Francisco; it was subsequently adapted to film by director Gregg Araki and Antidote Films. Scott's third novel is 
Daniel is a thirty years old guy like many in New York. He flew from a small town in Wiscounsin hoping to become an actor at Broadway; during high school he was the classical misfit, not actually out as gay but nevertheless the target of those guys who considered themself normal. As often in those cases, losing himself in daydreams was the only way to survive and playing a role on stage was another way to escape reality. In a small town, Daniel's ability to perform was something special, but in New York City he was only one other daydreamer; Daniel left his small town since he didn't fit there, but it's not better in New York City. Young and alone, Daniel was starting towards the path of selling himself, more for being noticed (and having enough to eat) than really for money. Who saved Daniel from that sad destiny, was his makeshift family, full of wonderful characters like Bette Midler, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, all in drags. In his small town, when Daniel thought to himself as gay, he never once imagined himself in drag, but then he realized that it was another way to play a role, on stage, but also in life. On stage Daniel wore glitters and satin, out of the stage he had still a mask. His own was 2Di4, a female impersonator of Lady Diana; and it worked for many years till the day the real Lady D died in a car accident. Daniel was not only playing a role, 2Di4 was also his life, and losing his source of inspiration was like losing again himself. 
Daniel is a thirty years old guy like many in New York. He flew from a small town in Wiscounsin hoping to become an actor at Broadway; during high school he was the classical misfit, not actually out as gay but nevertheless the target of those guys who considered themself normal. As often in those cases, losing himself in daydreams was the only way to survive and playing a role on stage was another way to escape reality. In a small town, Daniel's ability to perform was something special, but in New York City he was only one other daydreamer; Daniel left his small town since he didn't fit there, but it's not better in New York City. Young and alone, Daniel was starting towards the path of selling himself, more for being noticed (and having enough to eat) than really for money. Who saved Daniel from that sad destiny, was his makeshift family, full of wonderful characters like Bette Midler, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, all in drags. In his small town, when Daniel thought to himself as gay, he never once imagined himself in drag, but then he realized that it was another way to play a role, on stage, but also in life. On stage Daniel wore glitters and satin, out of the stage he had still a mask. His own was 2Di4, a female impersonator of Lady Diana; and it worked for many years till the day the real Lady D died in a car accident. Daniel was not only playing a role, 2Di4 was also his life, and losing his source of inspiration was like losing again himself. 
If Leopold was a woman, it would have been the classical heroine who no romance author chooses as main character. Usually a widow, or a fallen woman, in the Regency romance they are friends, mistress (usually abandoned at the beginning of the story), housekeeper. Some daring romance authors made them the main heroine, but seldom, and usually with no much success. And so that Ava March decided to write the story of a corresponding male version it's quite original, and daring as well. In the few M/M historical romance you can find around, the men are strong and dominant figures, full of sense of honor, or innocent young boys, the male version of the damsel in distress. If the man is a rake, it's probably due to a poor childhood, to a lack of love that made him aloof.
If Leopold was a woman, it would have been the classical heroine who no romance author chooses as main character. Usually a widow, or a fallen woman, in the Regency romance they are friends, mistress (usually abandoned at the beginning of the story), housekeeper. Some daring romance authors made them the main heroine, but seldom, and usually with no much success. And so that Ava March decided to write the story of a corresponding male version it's quite original, and daring as well. In the few M/M historical romance you can find around, the men are strong and dominant figures, full of sense of honor, or innocent young boys, the male version of the damsel in distress. If the man is a rake, it's probably due to a poor childhood, to a lack of love that made him aloof.
