The Art of Hero Worship (25 page)

CDP: You have succeeded in crossing over
from Young Adult to Adult fiction, is this step based on your
personal life, considering that your own children are now
adults?

MK: That’s an interesting question, and an
interesting way of looking at it, but I don’t think my children’s
growing up has much to do with this new focus on Adult fiction.

The motivation is largely
topic-related. As you know,
The Art of
Hero Worship
deals with several topics
which I wanted to illustrate as being dealt with by adults. Liam
and Jason are in college, so truly this book is a New Adult
book.

They are setting off on their own for the
first time, leaving their families, and discovering who they are. I
didn’t want a constant parental presence to be beside them during
this period of self-discovery. I wanted to look at how two young
men endure their troubles and face new challenges on their own.

In this book, the topics address how adults
handle a mass public shooting and a situation where two men bond in
an indestructible way, despite the fact that they have never before
considered themselves gay.

Yes, these topics could have been written
from a YA perspective, but I wanted to contain a certain amount of
mature detail and writing for adults gave me freedom to do
this.

CDP: The complicated issue arising out of
the book is one of Jason’s subservience to his hero Liam and the
title is very clever. Do you first come up with a title and then
write the book, or is it the other way around?

MK: Depending on the book,
it can go either way. With my latest YA release, from the very
beginning I knew I wanted to name the book
Clean
. I knew it was going to
involve teenage substance abuse.

However, with
The Art of Hero Worship
,
I thought long and hard about the title after I wrote the book.
When I finally decided upon the title, I went back through the book
and enhanced all of the parts that would bring to the readers’
minds the title of the book. So, again, there is not a hard and
fast rule as to which comes first.

CDP: Is hero worship all sex and drama in
your view?

MK: In
The Art of Hero Worship
, sex is
definitely one way in which Jase worships his hero, Liam. He uses
his body to please Liam in precisely the way Liam desires in order
to be satisfied. (Happily, this also satisfies Jase’s sexual
needs.) The other aspect of hero worship in this book, is
emotional. In order to worship Liam’s secretive soul, Liam learns
to discover important information for himself—to be patient in
waiting for Liam to unfold at his own pace, to take time to think
when he needs to consider his options and to allow Liam the
same.

It is really an attitude of hero worship
that Jase possesses, a willingness to do everything in his power to
help Liam to feel cared for, sexually satisfied, and in control. In
Jase and Liam’s case, this does not involve a great deal of drama
in terms of emotional quarrels, but instead, some patience, some
biting of the tongue, and a great deal of sexual openness.

CDP: Are you considering writing another gay
adult book?

MK: Absolutely. I have
several ideas with regard to the relationship dynamics I want to
explore, and one of these is the relationship between a gender
fluid man and a pansexual man. I have done a great deal of research
on different aspects of this topic and am now forming the story. I
would like to again explore a lesbian romance, possible adult, as I
received a Rainbow Award for best YA Lesbian Fiction for 2015
with
Come To My Window
.

CDP:
Shakespeare so well put it in "As
You Like It",

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women
merely players.

They have their exits and their
entrances,

And one man in his time plays
many parts...

then, we are all heroes, or
central figures in our own lives. We are the players on the stage
of our life. Yet, many of us insist on living our lives as if we
are a Cinderella type of main character... you know the one who is
looked down upon, despised, taken advantage of, not loved, not
appreciated, etc. etc. Yet if we are the hero, then we can take
charge of the situation and plunge ahead and make changes -- we can
rescue the fair maiden or lost soul and raise them (lost parts of
ourselves) to a better life. Did you write Liam with this in
mind?

MK: This is a
fantastic and thoughtful question, and I will focus largely on the
last line of the quotation, “And one man in his time plays many
parts,” as Jason and Liam each play different roles at different
times in
The Art of Hero
Worship
.

Interestingly, I see both Liam
and Jason as part active hero and part “Cinderella in
need of saving.” At first glance, Liam appears to be the strong and
brave, and very obvious, hero, taking charge of dangerous
situations and plunging ahead into their relationship without
hesitation.

The
situations in which he thrives
include life threatening ones, as well as relationship igniting (as
he is willing to take a risk) and sexual situations. He seems to
know exactly what he wants and what to do, where Jason is
hesistant, waiting for direction, and in need of
assistance.

However, as
the story unfolds, the readers will find that Liam is in need of
a
different sort of saving,
which only Jason can provide. He needs to be rescued from the
demons that plague his mind, and have plagued him since a family
tragedy occurred in his freshman year of high school.

Jason, is the
perfect man to apply a sense of reason
to Liam’s mental torture, and to embrace the need for
emotional openness in their flegling relationship.

CDP: Yet, it is Jason who realizes that Liam
can't stay behind and wait for someone else to rescue Liam. Just as
we can't close the door and hope it all takes care of itself. Jason
understands that Liam is not happy with something in his life and
Jason also knows that it is up to him to take a step forward toward
creating the life Liam wants for himself. Do you feel this is
intrusive?

MK: Yes, Jason is intrusive. He recognizes
that Liam continually shuts him out, in terms of what is causing
his great emotional pain, and Jason cannot accept this.

He also sees that Liam’s pain is harming
their status as an intimate couple, which is also unacceptable. So
Jason pokes his nose into what Liam does not consider his business.
However, Jason does so as he believes it is the only way he can
save them.

Finally, Jason must draw a line in the sand
when he feels he can take Liam’s tendency toward secretiveness and
compulsive heroism no longer.

CDP: A hero never gives up. A hero keeps on,
past adversity, past losses, past apparent defeat, and keeps on
until the situation is resolved.

Who do you feel is the real hero in the
book?

MK: I really do hate to
choose! In honesty, I believe there are two heroes in
The Art of Hero Worship
.
There is an obvious and active hero, who is willing to risk his
life to save people and to risk his pride by taking a chance on a
new kind of love. And there is a hero of the heart, who pushes the
couple’s fledgling bond as far as it needs to go to
survive.