Walter G. Meyer, the author of the critically-acclaimed and Amazon best-selling novel, Rounding Third, has contributed a short story to the Real Story Safe Sex Project using the characters from his novel to make a point to teens and twenty somethings about discussing—and practicing safer sex.
“The whole point of the Real Story Safe Sex Project was to make the stories entertaining and accessible,” says the project’s founder, Brent Hartinger. “And one of the ways I figured we could do that was for authors to use existing characters — characters from other books and movies. See your favorite characters in sexual situations! Who wouldn’t want to read that? And if the story gets them thinking about safe sex, well, the mission is accomplished. So I put out the call to my author-friends, and folks like Walter G. Meyer graciously took me up on it.”
“I was happy to help,” Meyer said. “I know too many young people who have HIV or other diseases because these things are not discussed enough. And I actually had already written some scenes in which my main character, Rob, and his new boyfriend talk about these very issues so I just wove them together to make a point.”
The short stories, which include contributions from Hartinger himself using the Russel Middlebrook character from his best-selling Geography Club and its sequels, as well as authors Michael Thomas Ford and Frank Anthony Polito and others. The stories will be given away free for Kindle, Nook and on Smashwords and Meyer also plans to make a pdf of his available on his Website.
Hartinger said, “HIV/AIDS is still a really serious disease, and gay and bi guys are at a very high (and rising) risk of catching it. But a lot of people don’t seem interested in talking about it anymore. This project takes a new, hopefully more entertaining approach: remind people about HIV and safe sex using entertainment and popular culture, especially projects involving your favorite fictional gay and bi characters.”
“Safe at Third takes place several months after the end of ‘Rounding Third,’ so Rob has had time to reflect on his relationship with Josh, to grow up a bit, mature, and be ready to move on with his life by finding someone else to date,” Meyer said. He also cautions that “the story Safe at Third is much more explicit than either Rounding Third or its upcoming sequel Triple Play. If those books are PG, this short story is R, but it is graphic to make a point.”
Safe at Third can be downloaded at no charge beginning June 17.
