Unsolicited Press, coming in Fall 2027
Taking Seconds is an LGBTQ+ coming of age novel about a queer teenager recognizing who he is after years of not wanting to see it—through nearly all his time in high school. It is also about toughing it out through lots of oppressive situations and coping with fear.
The story is queer teen fiction told from the perspective of a teen boy, Griff, who is trying to convince himself that he could be someone else. Fooling himself along the way, with lots of pretending and hiding. Finding who he is what he’s most afraid of.
It’ll appeal to readers who like offbeat types, characters that can be their own worst enemies. These are kids who can’t seem to figure out how to get out of their own way. LGBTQ+ readers will appreciate Griff’s searching for a way to stop hiding, his painful ambivalence about this, and his sarcasm at life’s cruel moments. Any reader who’s curious about adolescence could enjoy this story.
“…Taking Seconds is a novel for all of us who have been so haunted by who we might really be that we have hidden it, even from ourselves. In writing that is both lyrical and finely honed, Tyminski takes the reader on a young man’s journey through high school, through the corrosive effects of bullying, and through the friendships and connections that gradually coax him out of hiding.
—LeeAnn Pickrell
Tyminski brings not only his gifts as a writer to Taking Seconds but also his extraordinary depth of experience working with young men like Griff. Ultimately this is a story about discovering, as Whitman writes, ‘the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.’”
author of Tsunami and Gathering the Pieces of Days
By the second month of high school, I became an expert at hiding. I found the craziest spots. Closets a janitor forgot to lock. The nurse’s office when she went on break. A shop classroom when the class was outside working on a car. Outdoors behind a maple tree in back of the school’s main building. Under a staircase on the first floor. In a nook beside a water fountain. Under the bleachers in the gym. Between stacks in the library. An empty classroom when the teacher was at lunch. Beneath a bench in a science lab. Crouched between cars in the parking lot. Beneath a large desk the maintenance man left in a hall for weeks. Against a wall where the gym mats were stacked. Any empty bathroom, though it was always risky, when any one of fifteen hundred boys could walk in on you.
Best was the library because there were many stacks of books that I could slink between. I’d pretend to be browsing, but you’d have thought I was a speed reader to be in there that often. The librarian was a shy, older man with round black glasses. I thought he knew what I was up to, but he tolerated it. Once, he winked at me, which made me uncomfortable. I didn’t think about it. That was something I was very good at.
I was hiding to avoid Jack Durban. I’d given up on bringing lunch money, because he’d take it every day, and I’d end up hungry. At first, my mother thought it was weird when I started taking a brown bag to school. Later, she told me she appreciated I was trying to save money for the family. I nodded like she was a master sleuth.
Jack was surprised when he discovered I’d been hiding from him. One day, I hadn’t planned well. I’d spotted him in the hall and guessed he was looking for me. I ducked into a bathroom. No one was there, and I thought I’d escaped him.
Suddenly, I heard the door slowly creak open. I was already in a stall and realized I was trapped. I stood on top of the toilet seat, which was dumb, because there were absolutely no doors on any of the stalls. I heard footsteps from squeaky sneakers. Then, I heard raspy breathing, almost a growl. It was him. Squeak, squeak, as the steps came closer. I was in the stall farthest from the door.
He stopped at the stall right next to the one I was in.