WHEN AWARD-WINNING author Alex Sanchez finished his debut novel, “Rainbow Boys,” he had no intention of taking it to a publisher.

“It was too scary to think about being published,” he says. “I just wanted to finish it.”

It wasn’t until one of his writing instructors showed the manuscript to her agent that Sanchez began to think he could market the story to gay readers.

After it was published in 2001, “Rainbow Boys” was named the Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

The sequel “Rainbow High,” and now “Rainbow Road” released in October, follow three gay friends during their journey from early adolescence through high school and finally to a fateful pre-college summer.

Sanchez reads from the book at two Atlanta appearances on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9.

The final book in the trilogy, the friends set out to drive from Washington, D.C., to a speaking engagement at a queer high school in Los Angeles. Along the way, they get involved in a series of adventures and meet Radical Faeries, transgendered Britney Spears impersonators and mature loving gay couples.

MUCH OF THE conflict in “Rain-bow Road” swirls around the complicated relationships among the three protagonists. At the start of the story, nelly Nelson and hyper-butch Jason don’t connect, and Kyle feels forced to play mediator.

The boys spend a night at a Radical Faerie sanctuary in Tennessee where the campers dress in chiffon and glitter. Nelson immediately feels at home, and Jason thinks the men are freaks.

Sanchez says he views the interactions between Nelson and Jason as being as much about masculinity as about gay issues.

“In the straight and gay worlds, we still have an archetypal image of what it means to be male,” the author says. “Even though Nelson has such incredible strength, we don’t associate him with that. That’s not who we idolize in terms of masculinity.”

The challenge hangs in the air throughout the novel, and it may inform the author’s future works.

Sanchez is on contract with the publishing house Simon and Schuster to write a book per year. His upcoming novel is about the relationship between a gay boy and his straight best friend.

“I discovered in writing these books that I thought I was writing about being young and gay and male in America,” he says. “A lot of it was about being young and male in America and how challenging it is for boys regardless of being gay or straight.”

SANCHEZ’S WRITING HAS reached a wide array of readers, the largest percentage being adult gay men.

“The e-mails I get from gay men who are reading the books are that they’re going through what I went through when writing them‑—‑they’re remembering what their high school experiences were and what they might have been,” says Sanchez, who politely declines to give his age.

But the trilogy also builds bridges between different groups of people, according to Sanchez. The biggest surprise in his readership is the large number of straight teenage girls who love the books, he says.

“They’re our straight allies,” Sanchez asserts. “They’re the ones who are really going to change things for the gay community.”

Staying true to oneself is the most important message the author can offer to his readers, whether they are gay or straight, male or female, Sanchez says.

“No matter how good an experience is, it has some cost attached to it,” he says. “A good point from which to make decisions is, ‘Am I being true to myself?’”