I love James Bond movies, and simultaneously roll my eyes at things in them that feel really problematic… So it’s always been a goal to write a Gay Young Adult novel that’s both an homage and a critique, and hopefully, an action adventure/romance/celebration of Queer Joy, too!

It’s thrilling that the novel has found a publishing home with Interlude/Duet, now part of Chicago Review Press. And this week, the novel was announced in Publishers Weekly! Here’s the full text:

Jerome Pohlen at Interlude/Duet Books at Chicago Review Press has bought A Different Kind of Brave by Lee Wind (Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill), a globe-trotting, high stakes YA adventure romance in which two gay teens—Nico who has escaped from a gay reprogramming institute in California, and Sam, a privileged New Yorker who idolizes James Bond—come together to save each other and free the other teens trapped in the institute. Publication is set for March 2024; Marietta B. Zacker at Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency did the deal for world rights.

I can share one more really fun thing about it right now — the comps: A DIFFERENT KIND OF BRAVE is a globe-trotting, high stakes adventure with the heroic courage of the James Bond movies and the ongoing romance (and queer group of friends) of Heartstopper.

Stay tuned for more on this one — It’s going to be an amazing ride, and I hope you’ll fall in love with Nico and Sam, too.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee