Guest Blogger David Pratt tells us about his new book.

Guest Blogger David Pratt tells us about his new book.

Todd Sweeney - by David Pratt

It’s funny that, in Pride Month, I am touting a new book with two straight cisgender heroes. Or, let’s rather say these two, Todd and Nellie, are the official “face” of the story. They are criminals, actually. My novel, Todd Sweeney, is a contemporary YA version of Sweeney Todd. We know there will be blood. So, I decided the lead couple had to be straight and cis—white, too—so it would not appear that their criminal behavior was due to their “difference.” I knew the stereotype of the evil, skulking gay couple (as in Hitchcock’s film Rope), and I couldn’t write about that, or about any stereotype linking race, religion or sexuality to criminality.

Here, the criminals are allies, working to save their gay friend Toby, his boyfriend, Anthony, and other vulnerable students from very bad people at Fleet High. (I’m making fun of privileged, liberal overachievers, but also showing just what fun it is to be young and working passionately on a project with someone you love.) At the same time, to acknowledge the fluidity of sexual identity we have today, Todd has an “androphilic” side, as he says. He enjoys bonding sexually with male friends, even though he and Nellie are a couple. And when all four characters go on the lam, they pick up a fifth, Jac, a young transgender man. So maybe Todd Sweeney is about an attempt to build a world where there are no conservative bullies, like Fleet High’s guidance counselor, where individuals and couples of any orientation or persuasion are allowed to grow and thrive and live the lives they want. It’s just that, in trying to bring about that world, Todd and Nellie are a little overzealous. Eventually—spoiler alert—they flee to parts unknown, leaving Toby, Anthony and Jac to build that new world. But a little “adult” help is needed, and so a beloved, if minor, character steps forward to bring the story home.

With Todd Sweeney, I wanted to bring back the rollicking world of nineteenth-century “penny dreadfuls,” those serially published horror-crime tales, the most famous of which is, of course, the one that immortalized Sweeney Todd. (That was The Strong of Pearls, published in 1846-47, which has pretty much served as a general template for all the Sweeney Todds that followed. It remains available today, for those interested.)

I hope that, above all, I have written a book that makes you laugh but also makes you feel deeply the plights of the oppressed and marginalized. I don’t want to make you angry enough to kill, but I do hope that, with Todd Sweeney, in addition to having a great time, you see how devastated young people can be by those who misuse their power. And that bravery and vigilance, not necessarily baking the villains into pies, is the answer!

Thank you, David Pratt for helping us out as a guest blogger. 

As always - Breaking Rules Publishing continues to accept submissions in all genres from writers around the world. Please email us at info@breakingrulespublishing.com.