I get soooo many emails asking me: what happens to Ben after Openly Straight? Do he and Rafe get back together? Will he ever come out? Is he going to be okay?
It’s no secret to those of you who visit this website regularly, or who read the comments on the “Ask Bill” page, that there’s been a significant amount of clamoring for a sequel to Openly Straight. Some of that clamoring has come with threats of bodily harm if I do not write one. Some has been kinder than that.
I want to say, up front, that it was never my intention to write more about these characters. I felt that the story was about Rafe’s personal growth, and that at the end, he’s grown in some ways. Game over. What I didn’t understand, though, is that the central romance of the novel is, for many readers, the main attraction. For those readers, the story feels … unfinished. I understand that now.
So…
There is nothing official to report, But–
I am toying around with the idea of a sequel to Openly Straight.
It would be from Ben’s perspective, and it would cover the second semester of the year at Natick.
That’s all for now. I just thought some of you would be happy to know that.
Later, people!
xo
Bill