first, i want to say thanks for checking my work out, and sharing your thoughts. i'm glad that y'all were feeling the book.

you talked about tony being insightful, and that was definitely one of my aims. the book doesn't read like the typical novel (at least not to me) cuz i really wanted to get inside this brother's head to bring out what was going on in there.

re: the title, i had my reservations. then when they showed me the potential cover, w/ the shirtless dude sprawled out on the bed, d'angelo style, i was like, "brothers ain't gonna be checking for this." but i liked the title a lot. the homosexual thing never clicked for me 'til someone mentioned it after i was deep into the writing. to me, the title represented how guys want to keep their "space" (and never really have a good reason). so when a female gets close, we're pushing them away. it was never about pushing ALL women away.

unfulfilled potential...yeah...in some spots i see that. i wrote an article about this on my site. the book deals w/ one slice of tony's life, so not everything was closed or resolved, but looking back on it, i would make some changes, or touch on a few things a bit differently. the writing experience is real, especially the first time out, but i learned a lot to put into the next book.

kappas and deltas...really just picked the ones i knew would probably be everywhere so people could relate. (turns out, when i started the book, at penn kappas, alphas, deltas, and akas were all pretty deep. now, 0 deltas and 0 kappas...go figure...the greek life on the whole seems to be losing numbers though, at least that's what i'm seeing). tony did talk about why he didn't join (kim, hoops, lost interest, already down w/ the "in crowd"). B didn't talk about why he didn't join, but if you wanna know, it was just never his thing.

gina taking time off...i put that out there b/c you're right, it's a real issue. mad cats came through penn for a year or two then disappeared. i think one of the biggest issues is SUPPORT. like the tv show said, "it's a different world." many of us don't find out until year two, and we've got a 1.7 GPA, about to get the bizoot. a lot of freshmen are too immature, and don't have a mentality for success. put them in this hostile, crazy competive environment, and we've got trouble. but this is a whole other activist post (one that i'll be making soon, believe that!).

hope that sheds some light. there's more info about the book on my website, so peep it when you get a chance.

peace-
B

Move Over, Girl: A Novel - in stores NOW
Random House
www.chance22.com