Lev is the author of Jack of Hearts, Camp and other books for all ages. Varying in genre, Rosen has been in the forefront of presenting queer stories post-coming out. When he’s not writing, he teaches creative writing at Gotham Writers Workshop. He kindly took the time to answer my questions about his work, inspiration, favorite musicals and upcoming books. Enjoy.

1. With the increase of book banning, how did you navigate your sex-positive book, Jack of Hearts involving consent, safety and education? It’s so realistic in acknowledging that teens have hookups and talk about sex, was there censorship or blowback?

So Jack of Hearts was released in 2018, and was written in 2017, ages before this new wave of book banning picked up. In fact, though Jack is, according to CBS, one of the top 50 most banned books in the country, no one even challenged it for the first few years it was out. It wasn’t until these dark money funded conservative groups decided books were the next place to try to abuse queer people – and queer kids in particular – that they were even aware of my book. So while I did expect some pushback, I didn’t really get any until recently. Since it started it’s been a bit bigger than I thought it would be originally. But again, that’s because of these conservative groups pushing their homophobic and puritan agenda. 

2. You’ve talked about you want to write stories beyond the coming-out staple. What other stories are you planning to explore?

I think that coming out stories are important, and valuable to people, as what coming out is keeps changing, and especially when there are coming out stories from particular groups we haven’t seen yet, but as for writing them, I personally don’t have a big interest in them, at least not right now. I’m more interested in telling post-coming out stories that deal with the way queerness is treated when you are out. I don’t like the idea of coming out being an ending, so I focus on what queerness is afterwards.

As for stories I want to tell next, I have two more YA books coming out next year: Lion’s Legacy, and Emmett, and they’re both post-coming out stories, the first dealing with how queer history is erased and overlooked, and also how to deal with a parent who was great about your queerness, but maybe not great about other things. And Emmett is a modern queer retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, with an emphasis on the messiness of how when you’re queer your best friends, casual hook-ups and significant others all come from the same pool, and often overlap, and how to manage all that. So they both absolutely still explore queerness. 

3. What inspired you to tackle the issue of toxic masculinity within the gay community?

The original idea for Camp was that I wanted to do a modern spin on the 1960s Doris Day/Rock Hudson “battle of the sexes” sex comedies. But queer! And in that case, the battle of the sexes wouldn’t work – but battle of masc/femme would. That idea was interesting to me, because we do see so much toxic masculinity within the queer community – masc4masc etc. So that felt like a fun thing to explore. And I often write for my teen self, and I definitely had some of that toxic mentality as a teen – femme bad, masc good – that it took me a while to grow out of. If I had had Camp to read when I was a teen, I think it would have really helped me love myself more, so I hope it can do that for some teenagers now.

4. On a lighter note, a big part of Camp was Randy’s love for musical theatre and how it feels like home and a triumphant freedom of expression for him. So, what’s your favorite musical?

My favorite?! You want me to choose my favorite musical ever?! No, I cannot do that. I love so many of them for different reasons and depending on what mood I’m in. In college, I directed A Little Night Music, Anyone Can Whistle, and City of Angels, so those three do have a special place in my heart. But I love so so many musicals. 

5. Any details about the upcoming adaptation of Camp into a movie?

I’m not allowed to talk about it, sorry! When there’s news, I’ll post it on my social media, don’t you worry. 

6. With so many parts of queer history to explore, how did you settle on the 1950s Lavender Scare for Lavender House?
Y’know, it wasn’t really the Lavender Scare specifically that drew me to 1952. Obviously that was a big part of the world then – most people think about The Red Scare then, but the Lavender Scare was just as prevalent in the early 50s, if not more so – but what actually made me choose 52 was that there was a major civil rights moment for queer people: the Black Cat.

The Black Cat was a gay bar in San Francisco that was constantly raided and shut down. Back then, if gay people gathered in one spot, it was considered a “house of ill repute” like a brothel, and they couldn’t serve liquor. Police were constantly raiding and shutting down gay bars. But the owner of the Black Cat – a straight man – sued them for it. And he won. The California Supreme Court ruled that gay people hanging out in one bar didn’t make it a house of ill repute – it was only if they kissed, danced, or acted gay that there was a problem. I know it seems small, but this was huge at the time – gay bars effectively went from illegal to legal in the state of California. They were still raided, but shutting them down completely was much harder. S

o that tension, of this new freedom but also the heightened scrutiny that came from it, that was interesting to me, which is why I set it in 1952 San Francisco, just a little after the court case had been won. I really wanted to write a book that had all the noir fear and paranoia of living during the lavender scare, but also the hope of finding your people and winning small victories. That was what really drew me to it. 

7. You’ve written noir-style fiction before but set in the future. Did you feel a different vibe writing the more historical Lavender House or is the process of building a mystery similar despite differing genres?

I’m a big believer that every book writes itself differently, and just because you’ve finished a book once doesn’t mean you now know the formula and can write a second easier. You might learn about your own way of working, which helps a lot, but every new book is a new journey, and previous books don’t really guide the way. So yeah, Lavender House was different than Depth, and writing a mystery again was essentially a new challenge, but I did absolutely draw from similar influences – specifically my love of old noir film. Using the vibes of those old films I think I managed to make both Depth and Lavender House feel noir and vintage, even if one takes place in the far future. So they’re similar but not at all the same.  

8. What were some of your video game influences for The Memory Wall if you had any?

Elder Scrolls, Skyrim especially. I mean, I made up my own open world fantasy game inspired by norse mythology, but being able to fluidly portray how that game might unfold came from playing many an open world fantasy game, and most recently before writing it, that was Skyrim. 

9. Which book, if any changed the most from conception to final?

What a great questions! Which I have no answer to. Part of that is because my concepts are vague – queer summer camp rom-com where the femme theater kid pretends to be masc! 1950s noir but Christie style household united around a lavender marriage with a queer detective! So they mostly stay true to that one sentence idea. But in terms of things that got edited a lot, and shifted a lot, it would probably be my first book, All Men of Genius. It was a very long book – and still is – but a lot was left on the cutting room floor by the end. 

10. How do you think the landscape has improved when it comes to queer books? What do you hope will progress?

It’s like the lavender scare; more progress means more attention means more pushback. Things go in cycles. We’re in the more pushback stage now, because a lot of progress was made, especially in books for kids, but I have faith that after this, we will have taken more steps forward than back. We absolutely have, and the fact that queer books are still being publishing amidst this pushback is a great sign. What I’d love to see more of, actually, is queer adult genre stuff. There’s plenty of queer sci-fi, and queer literary stuff, but queer adult romance is only now starting to be seen as commercial, which is great, but I want to see more of it. Mystery, obviously, can absolutely do more queer commercial stories, and I’d love to see more historical stuff, too, more 

11. Can you spill any details about your upcoming book?

I have three books out next year! I talked a little about two of them already, but in order we have:

In the spring, there’s Lion’s Legacy, a YA about Tennessee Russo, a queer teen archeologist who was on his famous archeologist father’s reality show until they had a falling out two years ago. But now his dad is back and wants him back on the show as they search for the wedding rings of The Sacred Band of Thebes – an ancient Greek army made up entirely of queer couples.

Then, in the fall we have The Bell in the Fog, the sequel in Lavender House, in which Andy, having set up his own detective agency, is having trouble making the queer community trust him, because of his past as a cop. But then an old figure from his past shows up in his office with a case, and despite their complicated history, Andy takes it. It’ll take him into the heart of the Lavender Scare as he investigates his military blackmailing scheme, and also to the various gay bars around San Francisco. 

And also in the fall, right after that, we have Emmett, the contemporary queer YA take on Jane Austen’s Emma, in which Emmett Woodhouse decides to play matchmaker… for his friend-with-benefits.

And then in spring 2024, we have a sequel to Lion’s Legacy, but I’m not saying much about that yet. 

You can learn more about Rosen and his books on his website, https://www.levacrosen.com/ and on all pertinent socia l media: @LevACRosen