The novel is about many things. The main focus is hate crimes. Groups, such as the “God Hates Queers” group in the novel, are very open in their hate. Others, such as some television evangelists, disguise their messages of hate by claiming to be protecting family values. Both are equally dangerous and incite violence against gays, particularly gay youth.

Someone Is Killing (SIK) is also about Sean, how he sees himself, and his quest for a boyfriend. In my first two novels, the main characters were well-built, athletic, good looking boys. Sean is a work in progress. He’s a bit pudgy around the middle and more ordinary looking than handsome. Like many of us, he has a lower opinion of his personal appearance than he should. He’s comfortable being gay, but doesn’t really think he has much of a chance of finding love. I wanted Sean to be a character that those of us who aren’t models (which is practically everyone) can identify with.

SIK is also a ghost story. I’ve always wanted to write a haunted house book and this is it. I love the atmosphere of haunted houses with creaking doors, disembodied voices, and footsteps heard when no one is there. The novel is meant to be spooky, but not frightening.

The novel centers around Sean’s attempt to discover the identity of a murderer, but it isn’t really a murder mystery. Sean’s search is mainly a vehicle to explore the supernatural world of Graymoor Mansion.

I understand that this is the third book in a series of stories set in the fictional town of Verona, Indiana. How do the three books relate to each other?

When I wrote my first novel, Ancient Prejudice Break To New Mutiny (AP), I had no plans for a series. When I started my second, Someone Is Watching (SIW), I came up with the idea of playing out the story against the background of the previous book. SIW takes place at exactly the same time as AP and the characters react to some of the main events in my first novel. I felt that placing the story of Ethan and Nathan against the background of the story of Mark and Taylor gave it
depth.

By the time I began my third novel, Someone Is Killing The Gay Boys Of Verona, I had a cast of characters that I wanted to explore more. I tend to get attached to my characters and like the idea of getting a closer look at their lives. In each novel, I introduce new characters, but also reveal a bit more about those from previous novels. Each novel stands alone, but they do interconnect to some extent. For example, Graymoor Mansion is a place where Mark and Taylor go to be alone in AP. In SIW, the old house is mentioned in just one scene when Ethan and some other boys are daring each other to go in. In SIK, Graymoor becomes the main stage.

I like working in little references to my other books when I’m writing. It’s something I put there for those who read them all. Sometimes, it’s a small touch, such as Graymoor Mansion appearing in SIW. At other times, it’s much more involved, such as Ethan and Nathan observing what’s happening to Mark and Taylor in SIW.

Did you base any of the characters on yourself?

There is something of myself in just about every one of my main characters. In some, there is considerable likeness, while in others it’s merely some small trait, experience, or way of thinking. The characters that most resemble me are Mark and Taylor from Ancient Prejudice and Ralph from Do You Know That I Love You.

Mark is very much like me, although he is an improved version of myself. We are similar in physical appearance, but he is a good deal better looking. Our main similarity is in the way we think and see the world. Mark’s longing for Taylor is very much my own.

I had originally intend for Mark to have another name. I used my own name in early drafts as a temporary replacement for whatever name I would eventually chose. It was natural to do so, as Mark was very much me. After a few drafts, the name became so identified with the character that I just couldn’t change it.

In many ways, there is more of me in Taylor than there is in Mark. We are vastly different in physical appearance, but very similar in temperament. Taylor has my sensitivity. He’s easily hurt at times and feels the pain of the world too intently. He is also quiet and easygoing on the outside, but a bit wild on the inside. That is very much like me. Even so, Taylor is mainly based on my dream boy, a boy I’ve been waiting to meet since I was fifteen years old.

There’s an entire story behind this, but I don’t have the room to tell it here.

Ralph, from Do You Know That I Love You, is very much like me in many ways. One of the key scenes in the novel is actually cut and pasted from my journal, although the names were changed. Like Ralph, I have a great fondness for boy bands, and one in particular. His sense of excitement when getting to meet someone he admires is very much my own.

Was your high school experience similar to or different from the experiences Sean went through? And do you have any advice for gay teenagers today?

My high school experience was quite a bit different from that of Sean. There were no openly gay boys at my school. In rural southern Indiana, being gay was not accepted. It was something that had to be hidden. Terms such as “fag”, “homo”, and “fairy” were some of the major put-downs, but there wasn’t a single person that could be labeled as gay with certainty.

My advice to teenagers today is to be themselves and not let others dictate their lives. In many places, it still isn’t safe to be out, so that may not be an option, but all gay youth need to have a positive view of themselves. There are plenty of people out there, Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, and Pat Robertson to name a few, that do their best to destroy the self-esteem of all gays, but these individuals are dinosaurs. Their day is done and they will become extinct. Despite the desperate attempts of hate groups masquerading under such catch phrases as “family values”, acceptance is spreading, especially among youth. There is still a lot of name calling and bashing out there, but times are changing. When I was in high school, no boy would have dared to be out. Today, it’s not uncommon. The tide has turned and things will get better. The general population, and youth in particular, have become too intelligent to fall for the lies of the past. They know that gays aren’t against families, but desperately want to be a part of a family. They are realizing that gays haven’t sought to destroy the family, but rather that the family has failed gays. That is rapidly changing as more and more parents, siblings, and relatives are excepting gay youth as the valuable, loving people they are.

"Someone Is Killing" is set in a fictional town in Indiana. I've heard someone mention that it was based around Plymouth--is this true, or can you tell us what town, if any, Verona was based around?

I intentionally used a fictional town in my novels for two main reasons. Foremost, so that I would have the freedom to place whatever each story needed in that town. If I need a lake, a river, a cave, a spooky graveyard, or even a haunted house, I can write it in without any worry that someone will point out that it doesn’t actually exist. The lesser reason for a fictional town is that I didn’t want anyone getting upset over their town being depicted as a place where bad things happen. Some of the events in my novels aren’t exactly the kind of thing that promote tourism.

Verona is actually a composite of two different towns, with a lot of fiction thrown in. Even when I base a location in a novel on a real place, it’s highly fictionalized. Verona is a composite of Culver, in northern Indiana, and Winslow, in southern Indiana. I grew up near Winslow, later moved to Culver for a few years, then moved back near Winslow again. These are places I know, so they show up in my books.

I’ll give you an idea of how Verona is put together. Fictional Verona is largely Culver, but there is no military academy and there is no lake (which are the two main features of the town). The high school in Verona is actually based on Pike Central High School, which I attended, some two hundred and more miles to the south of Culver. The soccer fields, which appear in most of my novels, are actually located where the baseball fields are near Pike Central. Ethan and Nathan’s farm, which is just outside Verona in my novels, is actually based on my grandmother’s farm near Winslow in southern Indiana. Graymoor Mansion, which is the main setting in SIK, doesn’t exist at all in either Culver or Winslow. If you go to Culver or the Winslow area, you’ll see bits and pieces of places in Verona, but it will be vastly different because Verona was tailored specifically as a setting for my novels.

There are a lot of supernatural occurrences in this book--do you believe in ghosts or supernatural forces?

Absolutely. I find it no more remarkable to think of ghosts walking around than I do of the living. Think about it for a moment. Isn’t it pretty miraculous that we can walk, talk, move objects, and do all the other things that we do? For me, it’s a small step from here to a belief in ghosts. I love to read “true” ghost stories, especially around Halloween. I don’t take them all at face value, but I have no doubt some of them are quite true. I think the nature of reality is so far beyond our comprehension that it’s not wise to reject any possibility.

I think some readers find the scenes of Mark and Taylor’s life after death a bit far out there. They should remember that SIK is a work of fiction, however. I’ve taken a possibility and treated as a reality within the book. I think most of us like comforting visions of life after death. We want to be assured that everything will be okay when those we love, and we ourselves, pass on. That’s what I’ve done for Mark and Taylor. (For those who don’t know, Mark and Taylor are the main characters of my first novel, Ancient Prejudice.) The ending of Ancient Prejudice caused me a great deal of pain and sadness. The life after death scenes in SIK is a way for me to make everything okay with two of my favorite characters.

I have my own theories about ghosts and life after death, but they are only theories. As I stated above, I think the nature of reality is so far beyond comprehension that all any of use can do is construct the best theory possible and work from there. The supernatural is just the natural that we don’t yet understand.

Several murders take place in the book and as the title suggests it seems to be only the gay boys who are targeted. How do the murders in Someone Is Killing relate to the hate crimes that happen in real life, and what do you think we need to do to stop hate crimes from happening?

Only gay boys are targeted in SIK. The murders in the novel are premeditated, part of a plan to eventually kill every gay boy in Verona. Actual hate crimes depend more on chance meetings. They aren’t so well planned out. I believe that most are spur of the moment actions.

Hate crimes occur because there are those who teach that it’s okay to verbally and physically abuse gays. Recently, Jerry Falwell partially blamed gays, and others, for terrorist attacks in the U.S. He later apologized for his remarks, but the damage has been done. He has sent out the message that gays are at least partially the cause of our current troubles. Such statements incite violence against gays, intentionally, or not. Statements such as those made by Falwell are far more damaging than any terrorist attack, and yet they go unpunished. The only real way to combat hate crimes is education. The message must be sent out that it is not okay to verbally or physically abuse those who are considered different. There will always be those in our society looking for scapegoats, but education can take away their power. The outcry over Falwell’s statement is evidence that the public is already beginning to get the message. Abuse directed against anyone is not acceptable.

As I read Someone Is Killing I was surprised by the lack of police presence in following through on the murders. It almost seems that Sean was the only one really trying to find the killer. Was this a conscious decision?

Most novels of this type focus almost entirely on the police investigation. I wanted to get away from that and explore a new angle. I leave the police work in the background. There is just enough mention of it that it’s apparent it is going on, but I don’t discuss that aspect of it. Instead, I focus on Sean, his feelings, and his unusual efforts to solve the murders. I think there are enough “police story” books out there. SIK isn’t a true murder mystery either. There are other things going on in the book that are just as important. I didn’t set out to be Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie, when I wrote this novel. The world has already had one of each and doesn’t need another.

If there's one message you want people to get from this book what would it be?

The message I’d like to get across is that words can kill. The murderer sets out to kill gay boys in SIK because he’s been taught that what he is doing is right. Too often, violence is preached by the religious and “family values” groups and we all need to recognize when this is happening. I do not want to stereotype, however, most religious groups and some “family values” groups wouldn’t think of promoting violence of any kind. What we have to do is learn to spot those who are promoting violence under the guise of something else.

You've written some other books since Someone Is Killing, can you tell us what they are about? And are you currently working on anything else?

My fourth novel, A Better Place, takes place some twenty years before SIK, and just a little after my first two novels. It’s about a high school football jock and a small, frail boy who don’t seem to have much in common. The two become friends, however, and set out on a journey that changes their lives. Ethan and Nathan, who appear in SIK, are seen in this novel as teenagers.

My fifth novel, Do You Know That I Love You, is somewhat of a departure from my other novels. It is lighter in tone and has less drama. It’s a fun story that follows Ralph, an Indiana farm boy, and Jordan, the most famous rock star in the entire world. It’s a play of opposites in many ways and a romantic love story in others. It paints a realistic picture of what it’s like to date someone famous. I can’t tell who the novel is really about, but let’s just say that there really are gay boys in boy bands.

I’m currently working on three separate novels. One is a revised edition of my first novel, Ancient Prejudice…. I’m going back and correcting a lot of grammatical and typographical errors. Unfortunately, there are several of these in my first books, including SIK. I’m also adding a lot of new material. Taylor is my favorite character, so I’m adding in a lot of things from his view point. The revised edition will be fifty to one-hundred percent longer than the original. My current plan is to publish it under a new title, but I may withdraw the original
version and replace it with the revised one.

Another novel I’m working on is currently titled, The Vampire’s Heart, although the title may change again before publication. This novel isn’t a traditional vampire book. Anne Rice does such a wonderful job with those that there is no need for anyone else to write one. Instead, the story follows a very lonely boy who befriends another boy who is just as lonely. I can’t go into details without giving away the plot, but one interesting feature of the novel is a fifteen year old boy, who isn’t really fifteen. Just imagine what it would be like to be a boy forever…

The third novel I’m currently writing is called, Keeper of Secrets. Much of this novel takes place in the same setting as SIK. Graymoor Mansion is prominently featured, as is Ethan and Nathan’s farm. The main character of this novel is Avery. He’s quite different from all my other main characters in that he is a gay basher. Avery is a boy with a lot to learn and the novel is the story of how that happens. Sean and Nick have a big role in his novel and Ethan and Nathan are found here and there too. Quite a bit more is revealed about the Graymoor boys through the pages of a lost journal. The scenes in Graymoor have the same spooky feel as SIK, but the scenes with Avery are another story. Keeper of Secrets is currently next in line for publication and I hope to have it finished by Christmas. It should be out in print in late winter, or early spring.

The best place to find information on upcoming books is at markroeder.com It’s a website maintained by Ken Clark, who goes to a tremendous amount of trouble creating and maintaining the site.

Do you have any plans for another Verona, IN novel?

My first four novels all take place in Verona. My fifth, Do You Know That I Love You, is the first to be set in southern Indiana and this is a trend that I’m likely to continue since I now live there. Even this novel, however, finds its way to Verona for some scenes. A sequel that I’m beginning to plan for DYK, will also have some parts that take place in Verona. Most of Keeper of Secrets, the “sequel” to SIK takes place in Verona as well. My vampire novel, The Vampires Heart, takes place in an unnamed Indiana town. Although I plan to set most of my future novels in southern Indiana, it’s very likely that Verona will appear in at least parts of some of them.

I understand that you'll be visiting the Gay & Lesbian Reading Group later this month to talk about your book. How far of a drive is it for you to come to Mishawaka?

It is nearly a 300 mile trip from where I live in southern Indiana to Mishawaka and it will take me about six hours to drive there. It’s generally a five hour trip to Culver from my home and Mishawaka is about an hour from there.