It is for these individuals, and his self, that he writes.A Better Place is the story of two boys from two completely different worlds struggling to find themselves amongst a whirlwind of confusion. He has received a lot of letters from young and not so young gays telling him how much his books have touched them.

There are always new characters and situations to explore.

Mark is a full-time writer and plans to keep on writing novels until he is no longer able to do so. Just about every single character has a touch of Mark in him. Most of what He is and believes can be found in his novels. He thinks every author puts much of himself in his characters. When you read the thoughts and feelings of these two boys, you are reading about Mark. He ended up splitting his personality between them, giving Mark his more confident and determined side and Taylor his more thoughtful and sensitive side. Both Mark and Taylor were very much based upon himself, so much so that in early drafts they were far too much alike. In many ways they are, especially those found in ' Ancient Prejudice'. He gets a lot of questions about whether or not his characters are based upon himself. A few years ago he returned to his hometown in southern Indiana. It is a town that could be located just about anywhere in the U.S., not just in Indiana. Verona is a composite of all these towns. He lived for a while in a small town in northern Indiana that is little different from the towns near where he grew up. Being 'outed' in his high school would have meant both being exposed, and being excluded, even exiled if you will. All of Indiana tends to be fairly conservative and anyone who does not fit in the narrow mold of normalcy is largely considered an outcast. He has no doubt that many of the fictional scenes in my book could well have happened in his old high school. Being called 'gay' or 'fag' was about the worst insult that could be hurled at anyone. There were no openly gay boys in his school, but there was much prejudice and hate against homosexuals.

The high school he attended was very much like Verona High School. He grew up in the country in southern Indiana, near small towns that were much like the fictional Verona that appears in his books. To know Mark, all you really need to do is read his books. Set primarily in the fictional town of Verona, Indiana and spanning a twenty-year period, these novels explore the lives of a group of interrelated characters as they deal with issues of prejudice, hatred, violence and teen suicide. His work includes The Gay Youth Chronicles, a series of novels about growing up, discovering yourself, coming out, and falling in love.

A Better Place by Mark A. Roeder