Can you tell me of what made you decide to, first of all-... come out as yourself and not your grandmother's name, and write it?

That's a...

I will try to keep this as short as possible because there's many answers to your question.

Yeah, one is, as I write to readers in a personal letter on the back of the book, and this gives nothing away, I grew up gay in the Missouri Ozarks, had no idea in the '70s how to come out.

I mean, there was no vocabulary for doing that.

And had a mother and grandmother that truly loved me unconditionally.

And I had an older brother that I lost when he had graduated high school and I was just entering high school, and I thought my brother would give my family everything they wanted, you know, a wife and, uh, grandchildren.

[laughs] I don't know.