Word.

I would like to know how you can pass judgement on someone so quickly when by your own admittance, you say that have not read any of Mark's books and have no intention to do so?

How can you make your accusation when you say "I am going to judge a book by it's cover"? No one with half of a brain judges a book by it's cover.

Why is two boys kissing "inappropriate"? Do you honestly believe that two people simply kissing, whether they are male/male, female/female, or male/female, is considered "sexual"?

You, by your own words, say that you "assume" there is sex in the books. You make an accusation that "judging by the pictures" that there are sexual acts in the books.

In my opinion, and this is only my opinion at this point, but I think your accusations are very close to being civil. If it were me, I would certainly look into that possibility.

It is people like you that claim to be gay, want me to go back into the closet and hide, for you make me embarrassed to admit that I am in fact a gay male.

You are a sick individual to make the accusations that you obviously make here, without even delving into fact (by reading the books). Because a "middle age" writer displays two boys kissing on the cover of his books you say that you "do not think that he should be traveling around to youth groups". Again, another sick accusation on your part and one that I think you should be sued for.

From your opinion we should think it's bad that a "middle aged writer" cares about the teen suicide rate (due to being gay) and wants to do something about it in his works?

We should think it's bad that a "middle aged writer" wants to show an unknowing public exactly what a gay teen goes through in high school, being the recipient of prejudice and many times assault, because of people like you that "assume" there is something there that is not?

I hope Mark goes after you in civil court for all that your worthless self may have. It is people like you that disgust me to the point of almost becoming sick to my stomach.

You Nick, or Nik (as you spell it in your profile on AOL)...whoever you are...are as bad as those that bash gays because of what they are. You are the lowest of low on our planet and should get down on your belly and crawl, just like Satan himself. You are an embarrassment to the gay community and I honestly feel sorry for you, for you have obviously only discovered sex and not what true love is all about.

Your obvious attitude here makes your opinion worth nothing, nada, ziltch. Seek therapy and get back to us when you may have something sensible to say.

You cant judge a book by its cover?..its a cliche but there you go! If you havent even tested your opinions then they count for nothing.

Frankly, I totally disagree with this man. But that doesn't give me the right to attack him. He is entitled to his opinion no matter how much I disagree with it.

As for a response to it. I think you are overreacting. For one thing, the cover which has the two boys kissing naked (the cover of A Better Place) is not the original cover and really has next to nothing to do with the book. The two boys on the front can't even possibly BE the characters in the story as described. At the same time, it is somewhat inopproapiate, not because teen boys kissing on a cover is innopropirate, but because that is not really the point of the story.

As for the accusation that an Author who writes about teens and has them have sex (which having them not have sex is totally unrealistic) is doing so to get in their pants is highly short sighted. Remember that the characters and the author are two very different things. It is highly foolish to think that an author's characters neccesarily represent the authors views. Also, what is the difference between a gay author wriitng about gay youth going to a youth group to talk and a straight author who writes about straight youth (most of which are not youth themselves) going to a school or other youth centers to talk about thier work? A lot of which does contain sexual acts.

I think you should take the old saying to heart "Don't judge a book by it's cover" and read them before making a desision. I will not say that there isn't sex in the stories, because there is. But read them yourself before deciding whether to like them or not. They aren't everybodies cup of tea, but to judge a book so harshly without even picking it up is shortsighted.

I hope you heed my words, and on a different topic is isn't a good idea to go around accusing people of pedophilia (which this was dangerously close to), you could get hurt bad.

Takeshi

I strongly suggest that one reads the books before criticizing the author. As to getting into teens pants... I really don't think that's the author's intent.

I do think that the new covers don't do the books any more justice than the old covers. They ARE certainly more sexy than the old covers and sex sells (A&F anyone?). But they do make the books a little harder to read in public.

I like this author's style and having grown up a gay boy in the rural midwest I find that they do speak to me in a way that many other gay books don't.

How narrow minded can you be. If two people truly love one another what difference does it make how old they are. I sure hope you don't date anyone younger than you. I just wouldnt be right

A 50 year old

I'm glad that Mark is including sexual content in his books. When people are in love, that's what they do. Have sex!

I’m hardly on Roeder’s books, but I have just completed reading SOMEONE IS WATCHING, and feel it is the type of book that would have been great for me to read, if I were ten to fifteen years old, as I was at one time, and wondering if I was gay, and what I should do about it. What would the feelings be like? How could I avoid being harmed, hurting myself or others, and live with integrity. Instead, when I was young, I was reading Steinbeck and the Hardy Boys series, and frankly, as fine as Steinbeck is as an author, none of these books would give me the least insight into my sexual orientation -- being gay -- which would turn my life upside down.

Even today, there is little on TV that young gay people could relate to, like they could relate to feelings and situations in SOMEONE IS WATCHING. Also, many gays, like myself, do grow up in rural settings, and I really enjoyed reading about this in Roeder’s book.

The sex is less explicit in SOMEONE IS WATCHING than you’d find on Network TV or in most romance novels.

I agree with you on one point. I’ve always wished that books, gay or straight, didn’t have glib illustrations on the book jacket. Sometimes the author is not in control of what a publisher puts on the cover, and publishers will put whatever their marketing stats show makes a book sell the most.

Before Mark’s book, I read Hollinghurst’s THE FOLDING STAR. The cover illustration is fantastic on that book. I also preferred the book to Hollinghurst’s novel that won the Booker prize, which I’ve also read. Both are at the high end of the literature scale, up there with Kafka and Proust, so I wouldn’t recommend it to young people, unless they have very intellectual tastes. And oh, both his novels are much more explicit than Roeder.

To address what you wrote about grown men, writing about boys, when boys or younger authors should be writing about their own experiences. Well, children’s literature is not usually written by children either. When you are a kid, who is probably gay, you are hovering between a Brokebackish state of denial and concealment, or you are going through so much struggle and confusion in trying to understand your own orientation, that you can’t understand or see things clearly, until years later, when you are an adult.

I don’t know what the quintessential author is for writing the best books for teen gays, or straights to be reading. Seems like Roeder’s books are almost aimed toward that type of reader through, rather than adults (young or old) who are looking for an erotic charge.

SOMEONE IS WATCHING is a somewhat homespun ode to Tom Sawyer in its sense of camaraderie and adventure. Unfortunately, it lacks the wit and writing level of Mark Twain, but it certainly is right up there with a Hardy Boy book.

This site is pretty annoying with all of the popups (blocked, except I had to release my blocker in order to post), and my virus checker got two virus message while I'm attempting to post this. Well, not Roeder's fault, just the consequences of using a free discussion board thing from Bravenet. What a nightmare though.