Crystal Springs Uplands School teacher authors queer novel

One student consistently returned to Diggs’ office hours, even after he moved on to the next grade, and would discuss with his teacher the books that were keeping him engaged. 

“Every time he would read a new book, and I realized he was reading the LGBTQ canon,” Diggs said. “And then one day he didn’t have any more to read.” 

Diggs quickly came face-to-face with the fact that there were only so many books providing strong representation of the queer community, let alone books appropriate for 13 year olds. While he recommended as many titles as he could, he knew the list would eventually run out. 

“There just weren’t enough books for these kids who were looking for themselves,” Diggs said. “It was a representation issue.” 

Inspired by the student who always was looking for more, Diggs felt called to do what he could to contribute his own work to the too-short list of LGBTQIA+ novels. 

The novel, titled Rom-Com for Dummies, follows a work-obsessed soap-opera writer trying to keep the industry alive when his mother dies and he must return to his hometown. There, he falls in love with the one person he wasn’t supposed to — a married man in an open relationship. 

There’s a happy ending, which may be described by some as cliche or inevitable of a rom-com, but Diggs doesn’t care. The fact that people know what the ending will likely be, and still read the genre, is indicative of how much people want happy stories about love, he said. 

“They’re so formulaic, yes, water’s wet,” Diggs said. “But the belief that in the end we can find love, I think that’s a good thing to give the world.” 

Even as an English teacher, Diggs sees the everlasting desire for happy ending.

“I teach [A] Midsummer’s Night Dream every year,” Diggs said. “Four-hundred years later we still enjoy it. We’re rooting for love.” 

The work on the novel was largely conducted for National Novel Writing Month, which is a commitment from writers nationwide to write 1,500 words a day in work toward a novel. It’s the third time Diggs has completed a book after participating in the month’s pledge, but the first that he has published. 

Released Aug. 26, from publisher Ninestar Press, the novel’s reception so far has been great, Diggs said. He’s working on writing two more romance and comedy novels about writers. 

The goal of Rom-Com for Dummies was not just to add a novel to the LGBTQIA canon, but to add a novel that is light, fun and where no one has to have a burdening coming-out story, Diggs said. 

“Everybody’s out, nobody has to apologize for anything, everybody has crazy families,” Diggs said. “It’s important that that representation happens, especially here in Northern California where we don’t have to apologize,” 

Beyond the student who inspired Diggs to start the novel, his role as an English teacher working with middle schoolers every day is integral to his success as a writer, he said. 

“It keeps me honest,” Diggs said. “The realization that oh, you really do learn a lot from your students. They teach you so much about the world and where we are.” 

Although the novel is rated for new adults, an older demographic than the student he was inspired by, Diggs is proud of his work and contribution. 

“That kid is now in college, and the book is a new adult book,” Diggs said. “It’s ironic because it’s not quite for the kids I teach, but it was for the kid I taught.”