Gay teen fiction goes goth!

Gay teen fiction just keeps getting better and better — and increasingly diverse! And what's more appropriate for Halloween than a gay teen ghost story? We recently caught up with Steve Berman, the author of Vintage, a creepy yet somehow sweet book that is currently making a splash in the ever-expanding pool of gay teen lit.

AfterElton.com: So a gay ghost story! What was the inspiration?

Steve Berman: Back in '97, I was in L.A. on a freelance gig and met this goth boy. We did the number/e-mail exchange, so back in New Jersey, I started writing a story that I thought he'd like to read. The opening scene in the graveyard in the book is very close to what I wrote a decade ago.

AE: I've been saying for a while now that the next wave of gay teen lit will be "genre" books — mysteries and fantasies and ghost stories, but ones that feature gay teen characters. And here you are! Was this conscious on your part, a way to write something fresh? Have you been a fan of this genre all along?

SB: I've always been a fan of speculative fiction — fantasy, horror, scifi. I wrote and sold genre stories before I ever wrote anything gay. I'm actually a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. These days I love combining queer and fantastical elements in fiction. And, yeah, I agree that gay readers are really hungry for stories that aren't just about coming out or being the outsider.