Creating worlds was easy for James L. Sutter. The author started as a writer for the popular Pathfinder role-playing games. His role with the company led Sutter to set his first two novels in the environment he had helped create. "I did two adult fantasy novels tied into the Pathfinder game world," he said. "They were just straight-up fantasy game novels. I think people who didn't know the games also read them."
Sutter loves everything to do with the fantasy genre, so the decision to step away from it and write Darkhearts, a contemporary YA romance, may have seemed out of character.
"I've spent almost 20 years working in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, often in games but also fiction and comics," Sutter explained. "This is my first creative thing, and certainly my first foray into young adult contemporary. I've just gone all the way to a new genre."
The inspiration for the story came to Sutter at the start of the pandemic. "I was working on this big, dystopian science fiction thing and losing steam because everything was bleak. Everyone was trapped in their houses. I just needed some release," he said.
He indulged in a fun genre to distract himself from the unfortunate reality of the world. "I started reading a lot more young adult romance, and it was just so fun," Sutter explained. "There's so much voice and spark and character in YA romance. I just wanted to see, could I do it?
"A thing about me is [that] every time I find a new genre or art form that I love, I'm always, like, 'I wonder if I can do that?'" he said with a laugh.
"So, I just started writing and drawing on my past as an underage musician in Seattle. Also, all the Queer elements were very similar to my story. Pulling my voice and history into the story was so much fun, and it was faster than any book I've ever written."
What if Seattle was a fantasy location?
Sutter also got the chance to explore some of his favorite places during lockdown as he wrote Darkhearts. "I wrote this during the pandemic. A lot of it was kind of just a love letter to a bunch of my favorite local spots that I couldn't go to because of the pandemic," he said.
Readers may recognize a few locations, "places like the now sadly departed Stellar Pizza down in Georgetown ...and Bend Burger over in Seward Park. Also, the Seattle skyline, which has always spoken to me. I love being on top of Beacon Hill, looking out at the city. There's a scene with that, because it always felt meaningful to me." He even included the addresses of some of his friends' homes.
Sutter said he approached the city of Seattle as if he were creating a fantasy world. "The main thing ...from game writing that I took into this was how I think about the setting," he said. "When I'm writing about a fantasy city and trying to introduce people to the most interesting parts of a made-up location, I think about the most interesting location I can find. When I was doing Seattle, I tried to approach it as if it were a fantasy city, like: which locations capture people, [and] what are the little fun, funky Seattle things?"
Writing his own Bisexual journey
Not only did Sutter write about his hometown, but he also used a lot of his own coming-of-age experiences. "You'll often hear people say that every character is like the author, and that's true. I've never been an international pop star — that was not my experience — but really what I was pulling a lot of for the main character, David, is that he's got this feeling of being left behind," he said.
Darkhearts follows the story of David, a musically gifted kid who leaves his friends' garage band right before they get big. "So much of that came from me," Sutter said. "I started a punk band when I was 15, and we never got huge, but we got on the radio a couple of times and played shows. I remember that feeling of being 18, 19 and watching bands younger than me starting to blow up and get signed and thinking, 'Well I'm already too old. I'm already washed up.'"
As Sutter continued to write about the feeling of failing to become someone great, he realized just how relatable his struggles were for young adult readers today. "There are a lot of kids — whether it's for music, sports, or theater — that are walking around with that feeling of if they didn't hit it by the end of high school, then they've just missed their shot. That was what I was [drawing] on. I didn't become the rock star I was supposed to be — now what?"
The book also touches on the general theme of self-discovery, something most young adults struggle with. "[It's about] figuring out how to define yourself when the labels you used to use no longer apply. When you're no longer the rock star you thought you were — or when you're no longer the straight guy you thought you were," he said.
Like the Beatles, but Queer
The story only became juicier as Sutter added romantic elements. He realized he needed to write the book after he read about Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bass player for the Beatles, who left the band right before they became famous.
"I was just thinking, 'God, what would it be like to be the guy who left and then watch the rest of the band members get immortal?'" Sutter remembered. "Because I had been reading so much YA romance, I was like, 'That would be so weird. And then what if you fell in love with one of the band members?!' It was one of those leaps-out-of-bed-and-starts-writing-the-first-chapter sort of moments," he said.
David's Bisexual journey and struggles with biphobia reflect experiences Sutter had. "David does not realize he is Queer until this relationship starts — actually until he's well into it," Sutter said. "That was my experience as well. It took me until I was 20 or 21 to process that I was Bisexual, so I wanted to show a Queer story where I have some of those conversations about labels and knowing yourself."
One challenge Sutter faced, and included in the novel, was the struggle to call himself "Bisexual." "It did not take me long to be okay with being Bisexual. It took me a lot longer to be okay with calling myself Bisexual," he explained. "I felt a lot of impostor syndrome, especially because I had a lot of Gay friends who had to fight and suffer for their sexuality, and I never did. Being like, 'Oh, I'm Queer too' felt like being a poser. It felt like stolen valor. It took me a long time to get comfortable with the idea that bisexuality is valid and I can claim that label, but I also questioned whether I even needed a label. Bisexual doesn't need to be a strict 50-50," he said.
Writing YA was a new experience for Sutter, but writing Queer stories was not. "I've been writing Queer stuff for a while. I've had several published short stories in the fantasy realm that were all kinds of Queer romance. I hadn't even realized I had this trend of [writing] Queer romance. My military fantasy novel is about the Secret Band of Thieves, an all-Gay military unit where everyone's in a relationship. So, this is just something I've been doing over and over. It was nice to draw from that part of my past. It's a Queer romance, but specifically a Bisexual romance."
"Dreams are allowed to change"
Sutter hopes readers can connect with the message about self-acceptance. "I hope they realize they are not alone, both in terms of their sexuality — if they're confused about it or figuring it out — but also if they're wrestling with not being an immediate success in some fame-related pursuit," he said.
"Chasing your dreams is great, but your dreams are allowed to change. You're allowed to be a different person than you thought you'd be. Also, you don't have to be famous to be happy. We put these professions on a pedestal — acting, music. There are different ways to be happy. That's fundamentally where the book comes down, helping people realize there are different ways to be happy."
Darkhearts will be available after June 6. Fans of Sutter's sci-fi won't have to wait much longer for his next comic — the first issue of the Starfire series will be available at the end of June. His next YA novel, which will follow the life of a teen ghost hunter, is expected to come out sometime in 2024.