Well… Last post I asked what people would like to read about — and I got emails and comments at livejournal and elsewhere that a number of you want to hear about my new book — BORDERLINE. So okay. For the next week that’s what you’ll get, because, hey BORDERLINE is coming out March 9, so if I don’t talk it up a little now what’s the point of having a blog, eh? 🙂

(Above: Me talking stuff up.)

First though — and very connected to BORDERLINE: Holly Cupala, one of the readergirlz divas is posting an interview with me — and also doing a BORDERLINE book giveaway — on March 11 at her site www.hollycupala.com . You should visit her site anyway, because, like the readergirlz site, it’s really good. Anyway, today I’ll be giving a sneak preview of the interview, by letting you know what I told Holly when asked what the book’s about and why I wrote it. I’ll also be tossing in a few pictures of me working because, hey, just hearing writers puff their books is a bit, well… pushy? One kind of wants a writer’s ego to be broken up with, uh, their ego, eh?

STRATTON, HEY — I hear you say — GET ON WITH IT! WHAT’S BORDERLINE ABOUT?

Okay. BORDERLINE is a coming-of-age mystery/suspense/thriller. The hero is Sami ‘Sammy’ Sabiri, a funny, gutsy, Muslim American. Sami has problems with a bully at the private boy’s school where he’s been stuck by his over-controlling father. But these problems are nothing compared to what happens when the FBI and Homeland Security swoop in and arrest his dad, claiming he’s part of an international terrorist plot. Aided by his best friends Andy and Marty, Sami risks everything in his struggle to discover the truth about his dad and save his family. It’s a roller coaster ride in which nothing is ever what it seems.

AND WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE IT?

Three things, probably.
My mom left my dad when I was a baby. Growing up, I was soon aware that the father I knew was very different from the father my half-brother knew, and even more different than the father my half-sister knew. As a teenager I thought, “If I can’t really know my dad, how can I know anyone? How can anyone know anyone?”
Also, one day when I was eight I was hiding under the picnic table and eavesdropping on a conversation Dad was having with my grandparents about capital punishment. I remember breaking into a cold sweat, overcome with the certainty that one day I’d be executed for a crime I didn’t commit. The idea that life isn’t fair has stuck with me ever since — and that horrible sense of how helpless we are in the face of rumor, gossip and fear.
Finally, I was a gay kid in the 1950s and 60s. Unable to be open even to the parents and friends who loved me, I instinctively learned to hide who I was in order to survive. I learned about the borders that keep us from each other, about the lines that separate and shape us. And I learned that ‘The Truth’ and ‘The Whole Truth’ are very different things.
In fact, come to think of it, these three experiences connect to the thematic core in all my work: my obsession with secrets, loyalty, betrayal, justice, and the absolute importance of living with truth.

Next post, if you can bear it — some GREAT REVIEWS!!! Broken up with very cute pictures of my kitties. 🙂