His debut novel, Pierce, is a thematically and emotionally rich mystery/thriller about grief, conflict and secrets within the family. We caught up with Ferrari to find out more.

You've written a lot in the way of academic articles. When did you start writing fiction?
I began writing fiction long before I ever thought I would be doing work in art history and librarianship. I published my first short story when I was 15 in my high school literary journal, and I wrote my first novel when I was 16 on a brand new electric typewriter my uncle had given me for Christmas.

I wrote voraciously for weeks and finished the novel about a month or so later. Needless to say, it was never published, but I saved the manuscript. When I look at it now, I realize how bad it was and how much I needed to learn, but I keep it because it reminds me of how determined I was to be a writer.

Are there any specific gay writers who have influenced your style?
I don't think ‘gay’ best defines the writers who have influenced me. I would have to say ‘queer’ instead, because my favourite writers - gay, bisexual, and straight - first all have the uncanny ability to tell great stories and create incredible characters. But what makes them queer is their conscious (or unconscious) acknowledgment of the complex sexual dynamics that take place between people of different genders and sexualities.

That said, the queer authors who have influenced me include E.M. Forster, Anne Rice, Oscar Wilde, Toni Morrison, Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell), among others.

Tell us about Pierce.
Pierce is part mystery, part romance, and part coming of age, but at the heart of it, the novel is about love and truth and the complicated levels of reality that each of these conveys.

Is it autobiographical in any way?
No, although everyone I know suspects it is. That said, every artist - whether they write, paint, design, compose, photograph, whatever - brings to their work their experiences in life. That doesn't make their art autobiographical. It makes it real.

What was it that inspired you to write the book?
I don't think it was any one event, but a culmination of experiences. Some of it wasn't even conscious. I think a good example has to do with grief.

My mother had been suffering from early onset Alzheimer's Disease and when she was still cognizant she knew I was writing the novel, but the disease took over and she never knew it had been accepted for publication. She died before ever seeing it come out.

Reading Pierce again after it was published, I realized part of it was for me a way to deal with her impending death, but I didn't realize it at the time.

"I love the cover too - he's a hottie all right!. People have asked if that's me on the cover, to which I jokingly reply, "Yes, that's me - on the back cover!"

I've heard that mysteries are notoriously difficult to write. How did you find it?
Notoriously difficult, as you say. I'm an Agatha Christie fan and I'm still amazed at how she did it. It's not easy, but I like the challenge.

Some writers claim that their characters come to them fully formed and complete; others discover their characters over the process of writing a book. How did you go about creating such vivid characters as Leo and Millie?
It took me over three years to write the novel and over that time storylines and characters changed along the way. My characters do come to me early on in the writing process, but they are not fully fleshed out. In fact, I've been frequently surprised to see how they take on a life of their own as the story flows. Sometimes they do things I want them to, other times they do their own thing and it's not what I was expecting. But that's what makes people, and characters, so real - they change and thus they live.

Is there a particular scene in the book that resonates with you in a special way?
I'd like to say there is, and I admit I do have certain scenes I appreciate for very different reasons, but to be honest, I think the story is so interwoven that to extract one particular scene is to diminish the impact of that scene's relationship to other scenes and the overall storyline.

We love the cover of the book. Was it a conscious decision to have a naked male torso on it?
Yeah, he's a hottie all right! I love the cover too. People have asked if that's me on the cover, to which I jokingly reply, "Yes, that's me - on the back cover!"

I had initially suggested to the publisher about using St. Sebastian imagery for the cover, perhaps a Guido Reni painting for instance, because there are visual and metaphorical references to the saint in the novel. But they came back with their own version of a much sexier, contemporary St. Sebastian-like figure and contrasted with the sharp black-white-red scheme, I think it works beautifully. I have to give credit to Jennifer Gaska at the publisher who came up with the design. She did a great job.

David Leavitt has suggested that gay books and bookshops are a relic of the past and no longer relevant or needed by the gay community. Would you agree?
I respect David Leavitt, but I disagree. The interesting thing to me about this idea is that if we removed ‘gay’ from it, the question would be, ‘Do we still need books and bookshops?’. I would like to think that the obvious answer is yes. So why does ‘gay’ make it so different? Or, for that matter ‘Asian’, ‘women's,’ ‘mystery’, or some other personal adjective?

Specialized books and stores have existed to cater to the needs of specialized audiences. The issue here is not whether gay books and bookshops are relevant or needed. The issue is that large-scale corporate publishers and bookshops are monopolizing the market and eliminating these things because they perceive that they are no longer relevant or needed.

Their decision is based on commercial sale value, not the needs or desires of the people. My publisher has fallen victim to this, although I don't want to suggest they personally did anything wrong. After all, they were willing to publish and market gay fiction and non-fiction. However, they were bought out by a large publisher and as a result they will no longer be publishing new gay fiction. It's a tragedy for the market, for readers, and for writers, because mainstream presses are not willing to take financial risks on gay subject matter and it's the gay community who suffers for it.

In addition, environments like gay bookshops are still necessary because they provide a community in which like-minded people can come together and share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. But the sense of competition is swallowing them whole, and they are going to have to reassess their contribution to the market. I admit it - I buy most of my books from Amazon. I do it to save money. But when I want to browse for gay books or buy gay fiction, I want to go to a store. If the gay bookshops can figure out a way to provide something that online corporations like Amazon cannot, that is the way to go.

People thought libraries were going to become extinct when the Internet came out. On the contrary, libraries have become some of the busiest public institutions in the world, because they remoulded themselves.

Contrary to what some people would like to think, while the GLBTQ community has made tremendous headway in terms of social acceptance, there is still a serious backlash against the gay community in most of the world. We are not ‘post-gay’ or ‘post-queer’ in the real world yet, despite what some academic idealists would like to think. And so we still need gay writers and artists to produce work that appeal to a gay sensibility. It doesn't have to be just for the GLBTQ audience, but their needs must still be met.

"I don't think ‘gay’ best defines the writers who have influenced me. I would have to say ‘queer’ instead, because my favourite writers - gay, bisexual, and straight - first all have the uncanny ability to tell great stories and create incredible characters."

What books would you recommend to readers who liked your novel?
Hm...this is a tough one, mostly because I don't feel comfortable making connections between my work and another author's work. So, I'm going to modify the question to ‘What gay or queer books would you recommend to readers?’

In answer to that question, I can whole-heartedly recommend a few books like James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room (incredible gay angst), Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet (emotionally erotic lesbianism to turn on even a gay man), Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's (even better than the movie), Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (probably the queerest, un-gay book ever written), and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (nope, not kidding - you just got to read it).

What's next for you?
Unfortunately, my fiction is more or less on hold these days. I'm in school working on my PhD in art history (specializing in 19th-century British art), which takes up an enormous amount of time and energy, so that is my primary focus right now. Still, I am working on short stories, and I have at least two new novels churning in my head, so be on the lookout for more fiction.

What else would you like to say?
Hmm...I think I've said enough! Thanks to GaydarNation for this interview opportunity. Let's see - buy my book! Visit my website and tell me what you think. Most importantly though, read, and if you know someone who cannot read, maybe because they're too young or too old, then read to them.

A book really is an amazing thing.

Find out more at www.robertocferrari.com and read our review of Pierce.

Pierce, by Roberto C Ferrari
Published by: Harrington Park Press
Released: 30 August 2007
ISBN: 1560236574

Buy Pierce, by Roberto C Ferrari, online now and make your own mind up.