❤️ What 15-Love Means to Me, and Why I Had to Write It

​Hey friends,

I started 15-Love when the world hit pause in early 2020. I was freelancing as a wardrobe/prop stylist, and photo shoots were canceled. I needed something to do with my hands and head. I opened a blank doc and wrote tiny stories, just enough to feel creative when everything else felt stuck.

When production came back with “COVID protocols,” the writing slipped to the sidelines. Work needed me, and I needed the work. 

I picked up writing again in July 2023. A close family member got very sick after surgery, and I traveled to be with them. What should’ve been a quick visit turned into nearly three months of hospital days. I went daily. Asking questions, offering comfort, and acting as a medical proxy. I couldn’t be on set, so I wrote. On my phone in parking garages. In waiting rooms. Early mornings before visiting hours. Writing was the one thing I could control, and it steadied me.
Those small stories I was writing for myself grew into a book.

15-Love isn’t my memoir, but pieces of my teen years are woven into Rion’s story. I did fall for tennis, later than he did, but what hooked me was the rhythm of a match and how a single point can change everything. That’s the title for me: fifteen-love is the first point. Not a trophy, just proof you showed up. A tiny lead that says, keep going.

Sitting in those hospital halls made the “small wins” feel urgent. I wanted to honor them: a returned call, a laugh you didn’t expect, a page written on a hard day. I wanted a hero who’s not flawless, just persistent. And I wanted that hero to be a queer kid at the center of a sports story.

When I was growing up, I didn’t see many LGBTQ+ books on the shelves, especially ones that felt warm and everyday. The shelves are fuller now (thank goodness), but I still wanted to add my voice. For the kid I was and for readers now: you can be ambitious and messy, athletic and soft, scared and still brave. You can love the game and also love yourself.

Rion’s world is second chances, awkward moments, found family, and the buzz of a crush that makes life both terrifying and electric. There’s sweat and grit, and also tenderness and humor. That’s what adolescence felt like to me.

What does 15-Love mean to me? The courage to begin again. A reminder that one point can change the feel of the whole set. Love of the sport, of yourself, of the people around you.

If you pick up the book, I hope you find a familiar corner of your own story. And if not, I hope you leave feeling a little less alone. That was my hope on those hospital days, and it still is.

More soon,
Vincent
#VincentRussoWrites