A few summers back, when my daughter, Lily, and I got sucked into the Stranger Things universe, it was fascinating for me to see her reactions to some of the more mundane oddities of the ’80s, which I remember so well. The hair, the clothes, the rotary phones—every episode was a little bit like time travel for me.

I went to a religious boarding school in upstate New York in those years and I borrowed some of the campus to use here. The students in this book are all fictional creations and the situations are too, but there are glimmers of my time at school: My principal, though definitely an inspiration for Luis’s, was more of a hero to me (and he never played the villain role in my life). My school was even more conservative than Luis’s: there was no prom, only a dinner called “reception.” The dorms and the sidewalks alike were segregated by gender. There were definitely a few guys in my school who seemingly had my number and did occasionally torment me; I have stolen some of their lines for Gordo.

Even so, the other kids made the place magical. My high school besties (Becky, Dave, Lance, Debbie, Jennie, Lisa, Deanna) were such bright lights in my life. They didn’t know I was gay at the time, and I wouldn’t have dared tell them (seeing how the only kid who was outed got kicked out on the spot). But all of my crew were unwavering in their love when (years later, on my own terms) I came out myself.

I didn’t have a Ms. Silverthorn of my own until college, when I had several: Mary Norcliffe, who felt like a friend, and Karen Guthrie, who helped me appreciate how members of the gay community were watching out for each other during the AIDS crisis (literally the first positive thing I ever heard anyone in a school setting say about gay people).

At college, just as in high school, being outed meant an end to belonging. Delmis, Mary, Joe, and Lynn were windows into self-acceptance for me and none of them made it to graduation. I wish that was fiction. (Note to the universe: Wherever Lynn McGee is, call me.)

Happily, those experiences have led to this one, the creation of Spin Me Right Round. Writing this book was a joyful kind of work, and I am grateful to my “coworkers” who made sure it got to readers, especially Annie Bomke, my agent, who took the tale from first draft to submission and sale in a matter of months, and Allison Moore, who read and reread it, bringing a sharp and enthusiastic editorial eye to the manuscript.