Christine Whelan FEO, March 14, 2024, VOL. 5 ISSUE 14
Shades of Blue is a captivating coming-of-age novel that follows the journey of Alex, a 14-year-old non-binary individual with vivid blue hair. Born an assigned female at birth, Alex grapples with their identity while navigating the complexities of love, mental health, and family dynamics.
William Porter, the 23-year-old author of this new novel, says the book is meant to be an inspiration to others, giving the message that there are others out there who will accept them.
“I had finally figured out that I was a non-binary individual.” He stated this was a motivation for his writing the book, knowing that there were others out there not knowing who they are. “And if they are being accepted or not.”
Shades of Blue is also for others who are not non-binary. William believes that if people were to understand what being non-binary is they would accept it more.
The Book
“I wrote Shade of Blue last year, starting in August,” the author shared. “Each chapter is only three or four pages for those who have ADHD and have a hard time making it through longer chapters.” William shared that he’s dealt with attention deficit, as well as being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is on the autism spectrum.
He has chosen the self-publishing route, using the company, IngramSpark, which prints and distributes his book.
Shades of Blue is the first book of a five-book series that will show the protagonist growing up, going through high school, and then into adulthood.
“The second book is almost finished.” The author is planning to release it on July 15th, on National Non-Binary People’s Day.
The Release Party
The book was released March 6th at midnight with a party following the same day.
Currently living in Hamilton, William is originally from Fort Erie and Port Colborne, spending his time growing up between the two towns. He has family who still live in the Fort Erie area.
“My aunt has been with the Royal Canadian Legion in Ridgeway for almost 30 years now.” This connection opened the door for William to be able to hold his book release party at the Legion.
The party was to promote the book but also to support the Ridgeway Legion and Quest Niagara, according to Porter.
Quest Community Health Centre (Quest CHC) is a non-profit registered charitable organization providing primary health care, health promotion, and community capacity building to residents of the St. Catharines area and Niagara Region.
The release party was hosted by Canada’s Got Talent audience producer Kyle Miller. Fort Erie’s Justin Preston spoke about his journey. He was also presented with the inaugural Shades of Blue Award.
This award is named after the book and the plan is to give it to someone in recognition for all that they do, contributing significantly to the awareness and support of the LGBTQ+ community.
“We had eight people selected internationally. We thought that Justin was the best selection for the inaugural award because he’s local and for what he’s done for this local community.”
Former Canada’s Got Talent finalist, Meave, performed at the release party.
Writing for William
William says writing, for him, is very healing.
“Writing for me started during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, I absolutely hated to write.” But during lockdown, he said he had nothing else to do. “I started writing down my thoughts because I was in a very bad depression. I bought two journals. I was writing all the good things that were happening in one journal and the bad things in the other one to help me get through it.
“Then I moved on to working on film and television script, then moved to the book.”
William talked about his upbringing in this area. “I dealt with a lot of bullying. It was very difficult for me.” He described how it really started when he decided he wanted to dress up as Snow White for Halloween the year he was eight years old.
He talked about his own personal journey of coming out with his family, and how it went surprisingly better than expected — eventually.
The author shared that he has just made arrangements for the book to also be available as an ebook and an audiobook. “This should be available by the end of the year.”
Shades of Blue is now available on Amazon and Indigo. To purchase it directly from the author, you can find him on Facebook by searching William Taylor (Porter).
