Query:

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Dear Agent McAgentson:

 

College freshman Ian Taylor has been in love before, but never with another guy. 

 

High school labeled Ian as part of the in-crowd, the jocks, the popular kids. College was supposed to be a fresh start, but being roommates with his boorish high school BFF Jase brings high school demons to their dorm suite. Intent on a fresh start, Ian befriends their suitemate, the snarky smart-ass Dakota. There's a significant side-effect to being in awe of Dakota; Ian picks apart the prescribed labels he's always had and questions what truly makes him happy.

 

Friendships with antithetical Jase and Dakota shift rapidly, corroding with Jase and tempering with Dakota. Finding out Dakota is bisexual pushes Ian into questioning how deep their friendship—and his affection—go. Ian has to decide whether to push Dakota away in favor of the safe labeled life he's always lived, or follow the compass of his heart to find his true north.

 

College is protection from the harsh realities of the world off-campus, but not the insidious things inside people. Ian must face the hatred and damnation inside friends and family, and clandestine cancer inside Dakota. With a brain tumor as the third wheel of their relationship, Dakota wants Ian gone, and Ian wants to stay. Facing these new wars, Ian hopes to god he's not fighting losing battles.

 

TRUE NORTH tastes the flavors of Rafe and Ben's budding relationship from Bill Konigsberg's Openly Straight, and flavors of self-discovery and second-half plot bomb drop from Nicholas Spark's A Walk to Remember. TRUE NORTH clocks in at 70,000 words and is a YA/NA contemporary LGBTQ+ work. 

 

TRUE NORTH began as my thesis for completing my Master's degree in English - Creative Writing, spending months jerking tears and plucking heartstrings in myself and my classmates. I wanted to tell a story about love and human relationships that wasn't zeroed in on the coming out queer narrative. It's not about being bisexual; it's about being human.

 

I am currently a college English instructor in the midwestern cornfields who loves fiction writing more than grading freshman comp essays. My favorite shoes are my black chucks, just like Dakota's.