Over the last decade, LGBTQ+ readers have rejoiced as new authors have emerged from the shadows and enriched the genre of Queer literature with fresh ideas, perspectives, and experiences. For the first time, there's now a plethora of options when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation across genres.
But of course, none of this progress would have been possible if it weren't for writers who laid the groundwork for the modern LGBTQ+ literary canon — writers like Emily Danforth.
From the woman who brought you The Miseducation of Cameron Post
In 2012, Danforth published her first novel, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which soon became a commercial success. Post follows the life and experiences of a 12-year-old Montana girl discovering her sexuality. The novel got people talking and received mostly positive reviews. Considered a revolutionary work at the time, the novel was even banned from a small-town school district in Delaware.
In 2018 it was adapted into a film starring Chloë Grace Moretz, which earned the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
The novel and film have been credited by many as important representations of conversion therapy, ones that show the nuances of pain and trauma while also including experiences of Queer joy.
In the decade since her first novel came out, Danforth had been pretty silent, at least as far as publishing schedules go. Then, eight years after her debut novel, she reappeared, this time with a very different story.
A new story to tell
Plain Bad Heroines, Danforth's sophomore novel, released in 2020, shifts gears. The gothic fantasy follows the story of two teen girls, Flo and Clara, obsessed with a mysterious author and her scandalous memoir.
Despite making a name for herself in the contemporary genre, Danforth said writing a fantasy novel was something she had always wanted to do. "I'm a fan, I love it. I think maybe readers who read Cam Post won't expect that. We writers are multifaceted about that."
Danforth's latest novel came from Her love of horror media. "I've been a fan of horror novels and horror films. Plain Bad Heroines is both. It's a celebration of horror films and maybe even an indictment," she joked. "A lot of us, as writers, write the books we want to read, and that was the case with me."
Danforth drew from some of her favorite authors when crafting Plain Bad Heroines. "I love gothic literature and have since [my] early reading days. Certainly some of the classic gothic novels — from Frankenstein to American Gothic works by people like Shirley Jackson to the brilliant Sarah Waters — [inspired me]... It certainly is a novel by someone who is a fan of horror novels, and there is a kind of celebration and love of the genre there that is on display in the book, a real examination of the horror landscape."
She first got the idea for her novel after exploring the idea of "Queering gothic novels."
"Part of it was wanting to get to play in the space of a gothic novel, but Plain Bad Heroines is a very meta book," she said.
Another inspirational tug Danforth felt came from the author Mary McClane, whom her characters hold a powerful fascination with. "I got to celebrate Mary McClane, a fairly unknown Bisexual writer and memoirist," Danforth explained. "The Story of Mary McClane, which she wanted to be published as I Await the Devil's Coming, received a lot of scorn and sent her on her way as a celebrity author of her day. She died not too many years later. I can't recommend the story enough if you want a Queer time capsule from that period. It's explicitly sapphic.
"Throughout the portrayal, she called it My Portrayal, she's beseeching the devil to come and rescue her from her boring teenage life in Butte Montana. The devil encompasses this fantasy night figure. He's an embodiment of a bunch of different things."
Good novels take time
To tell the story right, Danforth needed time to research Mary McClane and to work out the details of her plot. "I am a slow novelist, and Plain Bad Heroines is a long book and fairly intricately plotted, so that was part of the gap," Danforth explained, referring to the time since Cameron Post. "Also, it took me a while to figure out the shape I wanted my second novel to take, and there were several false starts along the way."
"It feels like there are more voices in the room after you've written a novel, big or small," she added. "I'm somebody who wants to write something different. I didn't want to write Cam Post Two. I wanted to make sure that I knew what I wanted that second novel to be, and I'm glad I had the time to do it. I think Plain Bad Heroines needed that much time."
Writing a second novel, especially after having so much success early on, can be difficult for anyone, but for Danforth, it was especially tricky, as she was taking her writing style into a whole new genre. "I think the sophomore slump can be real. When you publish your first novel, nobody knows who you are. Certainly, there are some expectations from readers after you've written the first novel, and I had different expectations for myself as a writer," she said.
While some authors stick to strict schedules and processes when crafting their work, Danforth said her process is just as alive and evolving as her novels seem to be. "It depends on where I am in the novel. ...A book like Plain Bad Heroines has a dual timeline: half is historical and half is contemporary. There was more outline and planning, and in some cases research, than I had done with Cam Post."
Her process shifted a lot between her novels. While writing Plain Bad Heroines, Danforth realized that the things that worked when writing Post would only make things harder on her new book. "It was a different writing process for sure, just figuring out the world of the novel and the beats it would hit. Because there were two time periods, I was able to move more fluidly throughout the book and not write it in such a linear way."
Now, she's working on another novel and says her process is still evolving. "I'm working on a suspense thriller now. It is probably my most heavily plotted novel yet, and I know there are some spaces I need to hit. It is also the slimmest novel I've written. I don't have one process; it changes per novel. I can tell you: I do not write every day, but when I am deep in the composition part, fingers on the keyboard, I will sometimes write eight or ten hours a day. I can only maintain that three or four weeks at a time with that sustained attention to composition."
What can fans see from Danforth next?
Fans of Danforth's writing can expect to see more horror-inspired works, and sooner than later. "Well, I don't think it will take me eight years [to release my next book]," Danforth said, laughing. "I have a bigger start on this one, but I will never be a book-a-year author, but I don't think it will be an eight-year gap."
As mentioned above, her next novel is a thriller, inspired by some of her all-time favorite reads. "I have been a fan of The Price of Salad and the Ripley novels, and I wanted to write my own suspenseful, hopefully page-turning thriller. I've wanted to do that for a long time, and it's been really fun. It will be a different novel than the two I've done before, but you can count on the fact that it will be very sapphic and feature a wide cast of LGBTQ characters."
There is also a chance fans of Plain Bad Heroines could see some of their favorite characters on screen soon. "Plain Bad Heroines was optioned before I finished writing it," Danforth said. "Once the book was out, I partnered with the Big Bald Head Productions and AMC Studios and created a pitch, and attached a fantastic director. I have taken it out to some studios. It's a pitch for a television series, not as a film."
If Plain Bad Heroines is picked up as a series, Danforth said she hopes to be more involved with the writing process than she was with the movie adaptation of Cameron Post.
Danforth's take on LGBTQ+ representation
Danforth also said her future productions will "always" center LGBTQ+ characters. "I've known that I was a Queer person from a very young age. I've been out and proud about being Queer since the end of high school and the beginning of college — which was the '90s for me — and I will not write books without LGBTQ characters. Those are the people I know best, and that's the world I inhabit. All my books will be Queer."
With this being the 2020s, and LGBTQ+ literature taking on a new form, Danforth hopes the focus of this novel is less about the sexualities of the characters, and more about the adventure they go on.
"I hope that readers have a rollicking and fun reading experience, that they immerse themselves in the world, and that it becomes one of those novels that swallows you up and you feel like you're living with the characters and you lose time turning pages," she said. "I love when novels do that for me, but all the better, when [they] feature Queer characters. I hope [readers] forget the clock on the wall and are sucked into the story, and... get a little bit scared in the process."
Plain Bad Heroines is a "gateway" to the horror genre and hopefully won't leave readers sleeping with the lights on. "I promise: it's approachable horror," Danforth reassured me, "but there may be a moment or two of being creeped out. That's all part of the fun."
Horror recs from a horror writer
For Danforth, autumn is packed full of fun Halloween activities she is looking forward to. "It has been several years, for various [reasons], since I carved a jack-o-lantern, which seems like such a dweeby thing, but I love it," she gushed. "I love the smell of the pumpkin and roasting seeds, and I am going to do it this year."
As an avid horror fan, she also has a wide list of movie recommendations. "There are several movies I rewatch starting this time of year. We just moved, my wife and I, to a little cottage on the water in Massachusetts. I haven't rewatched Jaws in a while, but I'll probably watch The Haunting. It's also been a while since I read Michael McDowell's novel The Elementals, and that is, by far, my favorite horror novel. It's southern gothic and so unsettling, and the characters are so sharply drawn. That's at the top of my list."
Other must-sees for Danforth include the 1960s The Haunting, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and the '90s Scream trilogy.
For readers looking for a spooky scare, fantasy gothic aesthetic, and page-turning mystery, Plain Bad Heroines is a must-read this October and a great way to get into the Halloween spirit.