In profile: Scott Heim.

Scott Heim is freaking out. Despite his cool demeanor, the 30-year-old writer admits he's worried that his just-published second novel, In Awe, won't receive the attention of his first. "It's too early to tell what will happen," he admits, "but I'm already thinking things like, By this point the first book had received more coverage; maybe no one likes this one. It's hard not to get high expectations."

Since the start of his career, Heim has been the wunderkind of the gay publishing world: His first novel, 1994's Mysterious Skin, received high praise and became an immediate best-seller. The book's first notice, in Kirkus Reviews, asked, "How will Heim ever top this?" A few weeks later the author was chosen by The New York Times as one of 30 artists "among the most likely to change the culture for the next 30 years."

That was an intimidating title to live up to, Heim says: "That sort of attention sets you up for disappointment--you come to believe that nothing you do later will measure up." While negative notices can have an adverse effect on a writer's career, Heim says, "Outrageously good reviews can be even more dangerous because you can be so intimidated by others' expectations that you'll never want to write again. I'm still learning to get past my reviews and just treat each book as a whole new project."

If the advance notices are any indication, Heim can count on another best-seller. In Awe is a psychological horror tale that follows three oddballs through a tangle of obsessive violence and murder in a sleepy Kansas town. Heim is from rural Kansas himself and admits that the novel's main characters--the mother of an AIDS victim, a middle-aged female convenience-store clerk, and a gay teen--are all based on parts of his own personality.

"Writers who tell you they don't write about themselves aren't telling the truth," Heim says. "I always fracture my own experience, but most of the things that happen in my books are things I've fantasized about if not something I've experienced."

And homosexuality has been integral in Heim's writing, although he doesn't necessarily want to be tagged as a gay writer. "Being gay is not the focal point of what I write," he says. "There's a new attitude among writers where there doesn't have to be an apology for gayness in literature. You used to have to explain what being gay was before you introduced it in your writing. That's not the case anymore, and I hope my writing reflects that. I also hope my audience will let me go on to other things besides my sexuality."

Heim also hopes his distinctive stories may soon make it to the big screen: A film company has optioned Mysterious Skin, and Heim has written the screenplay. When his script was chosen as a workshop project by the Sundance Institute's screenwriters lab, Heim says, "I started thinking about doing more movie stuff."

But first he's got a third novel to produce and the In Awe book tour to contend with, not to mention dealing with the ups and downs of a long-distance relationship. "My boyfriend lives in Boston, but I probably see him more than I would if we lived together," he says. "I'm always either on the road or locked up alone writing something. In some respects my life is very unreal."