When deciding whether or not I wanted to published my debut book The Friendship Ruse, there were a lot of things to consider.

First of all, I’m not a gay guy, which is what the book is about; I am, however, part of the LGBT community. But humans write about aliens all the time, so I decided even if I wasn’t a part of the community, I could and should write about it.

The next big consideration was to write it as a novella or a novel. In my head, I originally had the idea for a three-part book that was fairly long, but when I finished part one, I realized it had a very defined beginning, middle and end. I think it’ll do the story more justice as three novellas in a series — I’m currently writing the second one!

The last consideration was that the story is Young Adult, but seeing as I read more YA than other age ranges, that’s a-okay!

After hitting “Publish” a few days ago, I can honestly say that the psychological effects of self-publishing are so good. Just having my writing out there and available is what I’ve always wanted. Also, writing this book has been so much fun, and it’s made me more comfortable in my own identity.

Get out there and write, folks!