When someone asks me why I write, the easy answer is that I can’t not write; but that’s only part of the story. My objective in writing is to create connections that foster understanding and acceptance of each other. Tolerance is better than hatred, but who wants to be tolerated? Acceptance is my goal.

Some of the hallmarks of my identity as a writer are an extremely broad range of interests, an avid curiosity, and a very active imagination. Also, as it happens, my mother imbued in me a strong sense of justice. So when I began to write fiction as a means of encouraging acceptance, my imagination was caught by what looked like fascinating cognitive disconnects around the issue of homosexuality.

As science shows more and more compellingly with each examination of this characteristic, it is a natural and normally occurring phenomenon (in countless animal species as well as in humans), and it’s determined at least as much by biology as by any other influence. And it’s not changeable. Yet so many people, both straight and gay, hold onto the conviction that it’s “unnatural” and “abnormal” and “immoral” when it’s none of those things. So that led me to the conclusion that these convictions are based on something other than reason. Other than thought. Other than reality.

Which led me into the incredibly rich territory of areas such as psychology, social conditioning, and even brain structure (ever heard of the R-25 complex, the primary job of which is your survival, and which supports the conviction that something that’s right for you is right, in an absolute way, for everyone?) —all of which contribute to the perpetuation of the patently false conclusion that if someone is gay, there’s something wrong with them.

So maybe I won’t write homosexual themes into all my books—or maybe I will—but certainly it seemed like the perfect place for me to start. In A Secret Edge, you’ll find hints of themes having to do with religion and faith (do not confuse the two) that will carry forward into future books in ways that present my understanding of the relationship between existing religious institutions and homosexuality.

One of the primary concepts I hope to communicate is that we’re all in this together, and when anyone lives by the premise “It’s all about me” they’re hurting themselves as well as others. And since that applies to me as much as to anyone else, I welcome your comments about what you’ve read, here or in my books, and what you’d like to read. Tell me if you think I’ve missed an important point, or if what you’ve read has helped you understand yourself, someone else, or this human community as a whole any better than before.

And most of all, thank you for reading.