By Bo Starsky
Living in a small town like I do, it’s rather special when you end up in the paper. It’s something of a sign that you’ve made it, and though the fame, if you could even call it that, is fleeting, it still feels pretty fucking good to be complimented on your work when you go to the shops on a shameful trip to buy more chocolate or chips and dip.
So far in my adult life I’ve been in the papers twice, once by accident, and once on purpose. I have popped up one other time but then it wasn’t about me, I’d just attended the first Pride parade held near my little town. I happened to look smoking hot that day, and apparently the reporters present agreed.
The first time I had an article written about me it was because I stumbled across a reporter while I was out with Noodle. It’s not everyday you encounter a gay with a parrot in this town, or even the country. And thus Noodle officially achieved his local celebrity status while his dad proudly posed at his side.
The second time was much more recent and this time it was because I’d written a book – In Full Uniform. I don't think I’ve ever felt more accomplished when I manage to put my shit together and look absolutely smashing for the arrival of a reporter at my house. There’s just something about it when they come to you that gives it that little something. Finally at nearly twenty five I’d made something of myself. Me, a high school dropout who is too neurodivergent to work, wrote a whole ass book that was published by none other than Improbable Press.
Of course I can’t take all the credit, if it hadn’t been for our dear overlord Atlin I never would have thought to send my writing to a publisher. I just got lucky enough to be asked if I wanted to publish my work.
Noodle was also present at this interview and his sole mission was eating the reporter’s pens; being a patient human being, she let him. He killed two pens and a button. Also present was the rest of my magical menagerie, Minestrone and Cannoli. Altogether the terrible three make up my very own miniature mafia. The reporter was thoroughly charmed by them all.
I’m not a person that brags by nature, but on my second outing in the local news I wasn’t shy about how proud I am of my book. Neither did I hold back my thoughts about Norway's view on LGBTQ+ people, especially their view on non binary people, which I am. This book has given me a voice no matter how small, and by Odin I'm going to use it to shout until I'm heard.
Bo Starsky, here accompanied by his faithful familiars Minestrone the bearded dragon and Cannoli the ball python in front of artwork he painted himself, Bo is the author of In Full Uniform, his first book. Bo has also written a tiny ode to Norwegian Hulders for Improbable's pending anthology Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging.