Looking for an arsonist
Once he knew the setting for his story, the rest came quickly. "There's this great saying that 'If you have a love interest who is a firefighter, then your main character needs to be an arsonist,'" Fitzsimons said. "It's the idea that things need to be opposite, so there needs to be a real reason why these two can't be together."

Using the firefighter theory, he came up with his first character: Justice, a soccer star struggling with religious trauma. "I really liked the idea of a kid from this conservative family who uses religion as a weapon to try and control others, and then he uses soccer to try and escape from that," he explained.

As Fitzsimons continued to develop Justice's character, he started to think about who the "arsonist" would be in his story. "That's where the idea came in: he has to be Trans. He has to be Queer. He has to be a soccer player."

Although the character of Spencer, a Queer, Trans soccer player, started as the ideal love interest for Justice, it soon became clear The Passing Playbook was his story to tell. The story evolved from Justice's point of view to a dual POV, eventually becoming Spencer's story.

Writing a Trans story
Despite being a Trans man himself, Fitzsimons didn't want his debut novel to be a Trans story. However, the more he thought about Spencer, the more he realized his perspective needed to be shared.

"I knew it was going to be Queer, yes. I didn't know it would be Trans," he recalled. "I wanted to make a Trans book because I am Trans. I didn't think it was going to be my debut. I was scared when I realized it had to be. I couldn't have written the book without Spencer, and Spencer wouldn't be Spencer if he was not Trans. So, I was scared about starting to write this book and putting more of myself on the page than I initially wanted."

The risk paid off. The Passing Playbook's debut delighted readers and critics. Some have even reached out to Fitzsimons to share how much the book meant to them.

"I have heard nice feedback from Trans readers who have said this is the first time they have seen themselves represented, especially if they are people of color," he said. "I've also received messages from parents and grandparents who have said they bought this book for their child who was Trans and loved it."

One note Fitzsimons gets about the book is how happy people are to see a Trans story with supportive parents. One parent of two Trans kids felt particularly represented by Spencer's parents in the book.

"She said she loved how I portrayed the parents, because I didn't make them villains. They're imperfect, but they're trying their best, which is what all parents should aim for," Fitzsimons said. "That's what I want to see for Trans kids. I don't want parents who don't support them, even though that does happen. I think it's important for Trans kids who aren't out yet to see that maybe [they] can come out, and [their] parents will be accepting."

"I didn't expect to see where we are now"
When he decided to write about a high school soccer team, he hadn't even considered the topic would become fodder for political debate. But writing a book can be a slow process — it took Fitzsimons four years to complete The Passing Playbook. During that time, he watched as the rhetoric around Trans participation in sports evolved into yet another thing he hadn't expected.

"What's funny is that when I was writing it, it wasn't that huge of a deal," he remembered. At the time, individual cases were popping up in which Trans kids were benched when wanting to play sports, but the national push to create laws that would bar them from participating had yet to begin.

"I didn't expect to see where we are now," Fitzsimons said. "What I expected was to see more politicians standing up for Trans rights and to protect Trans youth in sports. I didn't expect to see this big push against it, to see us go on the defensive."

Fitzsimons also acknowledges that Trans women are often the most discriminated against in sports. Many of the issues Spencer faces in the story affect Trans women, but his privilege as a boy also sets the story apart from many real political issues.

A contemporary fantasy
While Fitzsimons is delighted to hear from Trans kids and their families about how they connected with the book, he also hopes they understand that it leaves out a lot of the real challenges Trans athletes face today.

"Some people have described it as a fairytale, because it's not realistic," he said. "Things get wrapped up nicely in the end. I wrote that purposefully. I wanted to write this nice world where good things happen for Trans people, because that's not the world we necessarily live in."

He also hopes that readers take to heart messages about coming out. "We don't owe it to anybody to come out, and you should wait until you are safe and supported, both emotionally and physically," he said. "That's an important message for Trans youth. I don't want them to think that if they don't come out they're disappointing anybody. Cis people have to prove to Trans people that they are safe to come out to. The pressure shouldn't be on the Trans people to come out — it should be on cis people to create an environment where Trans people feel safe to come out."

What next?
Fans of Fitzsimons' work will be excited to know he's keeping busy. Following the release of The Passing Playbook, he has published short stories in the anthologies Game On and Cool. Awkward. Black. Fitzsimons is also working on multiple full-length novels, which are expected to hit shelves sometime in 2024.

"I'm working on another Queer YA contemporary, which does have a music setting," he said with a laugh. "Some of the scenes I wrote the beginning of The Passing Playbook, when I thought it might be set at a music academy school, are actually in the next book. It's Gay. I love it. It's a lot of fun."

He's also working on a middle-grade fantasy novel. While this one, written for younger audiences, does not have overt Queer themes, he includes subtle LGBTQ+ representation.

"In all of my books, I make sure to include secondary characters that are Queer and Trans and not make a big deal out of it," he said. "One of the characters uses 'they/them' pronouns. It's a fantasy not set in this world, but it's also not announced. It's just that this character uses they/them pronouns."