Teddy Bears (novel)

Teddy Bears is an upcoming novel and the debut novel of Matthew Little.

Plot
The novel focuses on Mark Lopes, a twenty year old that lives with his alcoholic father; he meets Gerry Da Silva while hanging out with a group of friends and instantly they form a bond as the two are severely unhappy with their home-lives, as Gerry lives unhappily with his sister and her fiance in a cramped two roomed home. As his father's drinking gets worse, Mark wishes he could just escape, and one night after a bad fight with his sister's fiance, Gerry wants the same, and they decide to head out on the road. But things take a turn as they run out of money for motels, and Gerry decides to begin robbing gas stations...

Background
Ever since Little began trying to write a novel he had wanted to write one with LGBT main characters. As a gay man himself, he wanted to write one and be as authentic as possible, not one riddled with the usual cliches found in most LGBT-related literature.

One thing he sees as a major occurrence in most gay books is that the main characters are always portrayed to be skinny, good-looking feminine men, never anything else, as well as their themes always being about the same thing. On his Facebook like page dated back to March 4, 2014, he voiced his annoyance about the subject, "I’m sick of the same generic story told over and over again. Gay guy, usually skinny with model-boyish looks, deals with his sexuality in one way or another, which could be coming out to himself, his parents, evading homophobic people, while in high school, finding his first true love, prom scene, etc., etc., etc... It seems like every story pertaining to gay men (and other people on the LGBT line) is the same thing just wrapped differently, and it’s almost always set in the same timezone, set during developing years, in their teen or newly adult years. I want there to be something different, something set after puberty, about someone who’s already loved and lost, who isn’t a shy closeted soul, who isn’t sparkling with good looks and who has a belly packing under their shirt. A story that takes a wrong turn, with suspense, hard images…" In the same post he mention the story he was describing would be the one he would write, and followed it with the hashtag "#teddybears", the first time he ever mentioned the title of the novel anywhere.

Writing
Little began writing the novel in March 2014, presumably around the 4th as that's the date given in the Facebook post where he mentioned the title for the first time. For the novel's aesthetic Little incorporates a stream of consciousness for its flow; the novel is told from Mark's perspective, which he tells it with both seriousness and with a light-hearted whatever attitude, depending on what he's talking about. The prologue was uploaded onto Little's Goodreads page on March 24, 2014. Little has also put up quotes and blurbs from the novel on his personal Tumblr blog, doing it as a way of promoting it to his followers before it's even finished.

Title
The title Teddy Bears originates back to Little's days in middle school. Originally it was to be the title of a horror film he started to write a script for in the 7th grade, one about two serial killer teens who torment a group of religious teens, the title was somehow supposed to imply their innocence. He liked the title for the novel in two ways: one being a mention of the gay subculture of "bears", which are bigger, hairy men, because both Mark and Gerry are stocky in build; the other being that both characters are soft and worn out like teddy bears are after years of abuse.

Inspiration
As with a majority of Little's work, Teddy Bears incorporates elements from his own life.

Mark's father in the novel is partially inspired by Little's mother, whom Little has written extensively about her being an alcoholic. He based his personality on her and his appearance on his own father. How he describes his drunkenness comes from real instances he remember seeing from his mother, such as in the prologue when Mark's father gets badly drunk as they're moving out of their family home. Mark's home being sold after his grandmother's death was inspired by Little's grandfather's passing in 2009, which lead to his family having to put their home up for sale as no one could afford it.

The way in which Mark wants to escape living with his father comes from Little wanting to get away from his mother and her alcoholic drama. Little writes Mark's thoughts about his dad being a drunk in an unapologetic tone, having little to no sympathy for it, although he does take care of his father as Little had to do with his mother. Little considers the novel as "written revenge" for the emotional trauma he had been put through; although he could never go through with what Mark and Gerry do in the novel, Little often imagined being rescued by a man and finally be able to put everything he had put up with behind him when things in his life got very stressful.