From Sequoyah, author of “A Special Place” and its two sequels, “The Concord Five” and “The Oberlin Five” as well as “Aaron and Andreas,” “Climbing Bear” and “Mountain Magic”:

Authors speak to teens -- what an overwhelming task is described in those few, simple words. Yet who -- especially which author -- would turn down an invitation and opportunity to do just that?

First, a bit about myself. I am an author, if only published on the Internet. My stories, with one exception, deal with teens -- gay and straight, because, frankly, I think I know people in their teens and early twenties better than I know any other group. Don't get me wrong. I have great-granddaughters and a passel of teen grandchildren and a grandson and granddaughter in their twenties. I know, or think I do, those two age groups because I have lived among them and continue to do so as a teacher. In my years in the classroom and now on the Internet, I have found marked changes in the students before me, but essentially with the same problems I faced in my teen years -- life was simpler then, but the agony and glory of those years remain the same, I suspect. As you might gather, I am straight and have been married to the same woman for forty-seven years. So I understand the attraction of being committed to a person for life AND the fear which such a commitment can call forth.

My life has been lived among people, often hurting people, and has been one in which I have known the best and the worst in them. After college and a brief stint in the Army, I worked as a chemist. Then, after seminary I was ordained an Episcopal priest. After years in parishes, I started teaching in a public high school -- essentially all black -- and both taught and had parishes for the last thirteen years before my retirement.

I started writing a short story, A Special Place, at the request of a gay African-American who had been beaten by a stepfather when he discovered the young man was gay. The young man suggested I write a story which included the things we had talked about -- sex, commitment, love, being gay and being proud; just human things. My purpose in writing was and is to address those issues, issues about which I am passionate, issues facing all teens, but often matters of life and death to gay teens.

Why through stories? Because stories can be real fun, interesting, gripping -- a whole lot of good things which a lecture (or an essay, “Author's Speak to Teens”!!) cannot be. I was often asked by students in lit and comp classes why they should study literature. In asking their questions there was some statement about “never needing to use” what they were being taught. I usually gave them three reasons, the same I would give if asked why teens should read good stories -- gay or straight.

First, reading should be a joy and a pleasure. What you read does not have to be “good literature,” just something you enjoy. Second, reading should broaden your horizons, give you a larger world in which to live, and, in fact, through reading you can live in worlds which do not exist: perfect worlds, worlds in which all comes out well, worlds filled with hope and love. Finally, and to the point of this project, reading allows you to experience different ways of living, values, visions, without endangering life and limb.

Now to the heart of the matter. The teen years, even if everything goes swimmingly, are difficult years. In the teen years you begin to separate yourself from your parents, you begin to develop and live with your own value system, you discover your own sexuality. At the same time, your body undermines your self confidence, your hormones battle for control, peers’ values put tremendous pressure on your own. In short, you are caught in the twilight zone between childhood and adulthood and life in that zone, at best, is difficult. It can be doubly difficult when you are “different” because of your sexual orientation or confusion about it.

It is to address some of the problems the teen years bring that I write. Specifically, I am concerned about teen depression, suicide and self-deprecation. All of these situations are addressed in the stories. Rather than go into these situations here -- where it would be dull, dry reading -- read the stories. They are more fun.

This brings me to the dilemma I face in posting the stories to the Internet, namely porn. To be blunt about it, as was the student who asked me to try my hand at writing stories, much -- perhaps most -- of the stories found on Nifty, where I first posted and continue to post, are “just fucking and sucking and sucking and fucking.” So why post there? Because that's where the readers are! Let's face it, if you want something just to get off, you'll find it. If you want something more interesting, with greater depth, you'll find that as well. And you can find both on Nifty.

Having said that, I will quickly add, you can save yourself a lot of time and be a friend to another teen by telling your friends -- Internet and otherwise -- when you run across a good story and find sites which recommend good stories. As a matter of fact, THIS site suggests good stories.

To go back to the third reason for reading, here's how that works:

One of the growing and terrifying problems is the increase in the number of teens becoming HIV positive. You can learn about that by showing up at tearooms and becoming HIV positive. Not recommended! OR you can read of someone who does. You can meditate on ending your life OR you can see the devastation caused when a character in a story does the deed. You can learn firsthand of the shallowness of a life lived to “fuck anything which will stay still long enough,” OR you can read how bed hopping destroys.

But finally, as an author, I'd say, “Don't spend a lot of time reading essays about stories, read the stories. It's a lot more fun and besides, in all the stories we know you are the hero. Wonderful, unique, beautiful you!”