Two years ago, author Jodi Picoult's 17-year-old son, Kyle, told his parents that he was gay.



Now, Kyle is a sophomore at Yale. He studies Egyptology, reads hieroglyphics, is fluent in American Sign Language and the least interesting thing about him is sexual orientation, Picoult told an audience at Dominican University Thursday night.



Kyle's journey was one of the inspirations behind Picoult's latest novel, "Sing You Home," a story about the problems gay couples encounter when trying to start a family.



The story begins with the married couple Max and Zoe. After several failed attempts at trying to have a child, Zoe and Max's marriage falls apart. Max finds comfort in alcohol, but is eventually redeemed with the help of his brother's evangelical church. Zoe, a music therapist, falls in love with Vanessa and eventually remarries.



But when Zoe and Vanessa decide they want to have a child, they must rely on Max's consent to use his and Zoe's frozen embryo to implant into Vanessa.



"Sing You Home" is the novel 18 for Picoult, who is known for writing about hot button issues including euthanasia, the death penalty, teen suicide, violence in schools and medical malpractice. However, "Sing You Home" spurred many letters to the author, and not all of them were supportive.



"People who oppose gay rights the most are the ones who never seem to talk to gay people." If they did, she said, they would realize that gay people are regular people who want the same things.



In order to be fair, Picoult knew she would have to give equal voice to both sides of the story. She had her personal experience with her son, but she needed more to develop the views of the conservative Christians.



"Most of the Christians I know are very accepting people," she said.



So, she spent hours interviewing members from Focus on the Family, a Christian group dedicated to preserving a heterosexual family structure.



Based on these interviews, Picoult learned that Focus on the Family believes God doesn't hate gay people, but he wants marriage to be heterosexual. They also preach celibacy for those who are gay and argue that distant fathers and overbearing mothers are part of what determines sexual orientation.



"Hug your boy, or another man will," was a phrase they repeated Picoult told the audience.



Yearning to personalize the characters in her novel even more, Picoult and friend, Ellen Wilber, wrote songs that accompany each chapter. The songs explore many of the themes in the book, including having children and faith. A compact disc of the songs is included in each copy of the novel.



Despite the occasional angry letter, "Sing You Home" received great reviews and debuted as number one on the book lists for the "New York Times" and "USA Today." Picoult still receives many messages from readers saying "Thank you. This is my story."



"That makes me think me think 20 years from now, maybe the world will be a kinder place," she said.