Featured Author: Zoe Lynn

Zoe Lynn strives to give LGBT youth stories they love with heroes they can relate to. Zoe Lynne began in October of 2012, with the sole focus being to create books with LGBT youth in mind. It is my hope to deliver characters who are both real and fantastic, characters you love and love to hate, but more so, characters you can relate.

Connect with Zoe Lynn on Twitter @ZoeLynneBooks or visit her website: http://www.zoelynnebooks.com.

Q&A with Author Zoe Lynn:

1. What part of the story was the most fun to write? The most challenging?
   
   Writing Freeing Stella as a whole was a major challenge for me. It’s about a Transgender youth who hasn’t come out of the closet yet, who lives as a boy at school, but as a girl away from home. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t, or rather, didn’t know much about being transgender going into this book. I had the pleasure of getting to know a transgender youth through my time with a local gay youth group. I spent hours talking to this child and learning what it was like to live a day in his body, to be in a house with parents who didn’t understand him. One of the most profound things he said to me was he often wondered why God would do this to him—this meaning put him in a body he didn’t belong in. The child touched my soul and I learned so much from him.


2. Which of your characters is most like you?
   
   I think it’s a combination of Ashlynn from Being True and Brynn from That Witch! I have Ashlynn’s desire to help people, with Brynn’s shyness.


3. What other interests do you have outside of writing?
   
   I have a secondary love for Graphics. Making book covers is my Zen. Beyond that, I have a love for music. It doesn’t really matter the genre—though I can’t stand listening to country.


4. Is there any LGBT charities or resources that are near and dear to you that you would like to give a shout out to?
   
   Yes, MAGY—Memphis Area Gay Youth. Being in the Bible belt, Memphis isn’t exactly known for it’s gay community. Since moving back home, I’ve found that not only do we have a Gay Community Center, but the Unitarian church down the street allows MAGY to have their weekly meetings there.


5. What would you like young readers to take away from your novels?
   
   A sense of pride and self worth, and that warm, fuzzy feeling people get after reading or watching something so intense it impacts them. I want them to feel like they have an ally, whether it be my characters or me as the author. I want them to feel like there are people in the world who understand their plight and won’t judge them.

Now Available from Zoe Lynn:

Freeing Stella Stella Marshall feels invisible to everyone but her sister Jessica and best friend Jenna. Thanks to their Friday night LGBTQ youth group meetings, she can be true to herself and cast aside the boy she was born as, Steven. The rest of the time, she locks herself away, because if her super conservative, Christian parents ever found out…. 



When her little sister admits to liking a girl as more than a friend, it becomes ten times harder for Stella to keep up the charade. She wants to stand by Jess and take some of the heat away, and that means coming out of the closet—even if it costs Stella her family and the girl of her dreams, Lillian Nelson. Unfortunately, it’s too frightening to give up the security of hiding behind Steven. But Stella knows she has to be brave, for herself and her sister.

Love in the Spotlight There's nothing in the world Steven won't do for his best friend Becca, including ditching his schoolwork -- something he would never do -- just to escort her to some club so she can chase down her dream boy who happens to be the drummer in some kind of band. He didn't expect to set eyes on the most godly creation under the stars, and sure didn't expect that gorgeous hunk of man to have the voice of an angel.

While Becca and Mr. Dreamboat drummer boy get to know each other better in the diner parking lot after the big show, Steven and Thorne discover a mutual love for pancakes and hot maple syrup -- not that flavored crap -- that opens doors to a relationship Steven never expected to find when he agreed to go out with Becca that night. But will Thorne ever be able to stand-up to his homophobic bandmates and come out so he can finally find love?

That Witch! Cassidy Ryan and Brynn Michaels attend the same high school, but they live in different worlds. Cassidy’s a popular cheerleader, and Brynn’s the social leper. One is all sunshine and rainbows, while the other could’ve been carved from an Edgar Allan Poe book.

Both girls have their problems, though. Cassidy is coming into her birthright—a long line of ancient magic Cassidy isn’t ready to have. Brynn is coming into her sexuality—something that will definitely cause problems with her very conservative family.

When a teacher assigns Cassidy and Brynn to work together on a project, the girls find themselves in a heap of trouble, because what they feel for each other can’t be denied. If they have any hope of changing ignorant and frightened minds, they’ll have to listen to their own hearts first.

Being True 1: Finding Ashlynn Every Friday night, Jenna and her best friend, Stella, attend their local LGBTQ youth group meeting. It’s a great place for support and friendship, but Jenna wants to fall in love. In walks Ashlynn, a purple-haired girl who wants to know how bad coming out of the closet can be.

Living in two different worlds, Jenna and Ash have vastly different ideas about the difference between sex and love, the definition of virginity, and how to face a world out in the open where they can admit their true feelings… whatever they may be.