Yes, I have exquisite taste.
Growing up gay through the 80’s and 90’s meant that David didn’t get to see himself in the movies or TV shows he watched for a very long time. Not exactly finding much in common with straight men, he identified more with women - their passions, their struggles, their art… It wasn’t a coincidence that David wrote from a woman’s perspective in his initial novels before wanting very much for the next generation to not have to go through the same thing he had - and vowed to write queer characters in all of his works. Because representation matters. But women remain in his blood, and many of the characters he loves, and artists he adores, are women. Because Madonna showed him at a very young age what “fabulous” looks like.
Television
Obviously, David’s favorite shows, movies, books and music have influenced his own art. If you squint hard enough, you’ll probably find glimpses of them in what he creates.
Film
David would describe his writing style as cinematic, as he was heavily influenced by visual media and would often try to describe what he was seeing with words. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, sometimes more, sometimes less. But he has a LOT to say about his favorite movies. He watches TONS of different kinds of movies: Superhero movies, indie dramas, foreign films, silent films, action, science fiction, fantasy, animated and especially horror movies. Horror was his first love in cinema and remains his baby. But he balances them out with films from the Criterion Collection and watching every movie nominated for Best Picture each year at the Academy Awards, obsessively predicting the winner in each category. He makes terrible guesses. Every year.
Books
Okay, let’s talk books, shall we? That’s what we’re here for. David loves books. His three great loves are YA, graphic novels (and comic books in general) and classics. Let’s take a look at each of them in turn to get a better sense of where he became this particular shade of gay. First up, let’s get a look at where the YA market was when he first started diving headfirst into reading.
YA
Okay, that was some weird, retro stuff. But YA has come a long way and is diverse and amazing…even if David still has a fondness for the gritty stuff that came before. Here are some of his favorite contemporary YA novels.
Comic Books & Graphic Novels
Before reading YA for fun, David had already begun an obsession with reading in the form of comic books, an obsession that began with seeing a trading card of a very pretty brunette girl holding a purple dragon. From there, he began reading about her exploits in the series Excalibur, which blossomed into a love for the X-Men, and kept expanding until he was finding obscure literary comics like Love & Rockets. To this day, he still strikes a balance, as he does in most things.
Classics
And if for some reason, you’re still here - maybe sitting on the toilet or bored while waiting for a flight at the airport, here are some of David’s favorite classic novels. He strives to read one every month, but he’s lucky if he reads one every two months.
Adult Contemporary
And then there’s this hodge-podge of the rest of it. Did I mention that I was an English major? And a bookseller? I’m basically surrounded by walls of books ALL the time.
Young Reader
Finally, the middle grade books that inspired me growing up, and that I enjoyed as an adult.
