If you wondered what happened to David and Christian in the year between Christmas Serendipity and The Next Christmas, you need wonder no more; their story is in this 20,000 word gay romance novella which is out now. 

The lovely review is in this link, and I've copied it below too:

Blurb:
Garage mechanic David and office worker Christian met a few weeks ago, thrown together at Christmas through a mixture of luck and fate. They felt an instant spark for one another, but didn’t want to rush into bed until they were ready. Christian's emotions are all over the place, as he's still hurt from his parents rejecting him last Christmas.

Cathy works with Christian and she's worried about what he's telling their colleagues about his relationship with David; things can't be moving that fast, can they? Are they really planning on moving in together and adopting babies already?

She isn’t the only one worried. David begins to wonder if Christian is loving him too much, too soon. His friend Tony thinks they’re rushing things, and suggests dumping Christian, whose strange behaviour has David on edge. Is it too much for him to cope with? Or will they be able to work things out after all?

In a series with Christmas Serendipity: To buy from Amazon.com To buy from Amazon.co.uk
In a series with The Next Christmas:  To buy on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Review:

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book because I liked office worker Christian and garage mechanic David when I first met them in ‘Christmas Serendipity’ and catching up with them in ‘The Next Christmas’, set a year later, was wonderful. But – there was a whole year of developments “missing” in between those two events. ‘Serendipity Develops’ gave me a better idea of the trials and tribulations Christian and David went through before they ended up spending Christmas with Christian’s parents. And what a year that was!

Christian is the kind of guy who jumps before he looks. He is enthusiastic, has a vivid imagination, and whether it’s a relationship or taking care of David when he is ill, Christian is there 110 percent. In fact he gets so involved in the version of events inside his head that he occasionally leaves reality behind, so to say, and others wonder what happened that they missed. Christian knows he has issues, and talks to a therapist when it gets too bad, but it’s not something he deals with easily. He also means well, and gets hurt when David pushes him back, but he tries.

David loves Christian to bits, there is no doubt about it. But he also enjoys being on his own after his ex left, and wants his freedom to “breathe”. Christian moving in right away, no matter how well they get along, is not on David’s wish list. David has a tendency to let things slide, so by the time he speaks up, he feels more anger than is probably healthy. I was grateful that his friend Tony was there for him – Tony has a great head on his shoulders and provides excellent perspective.

Tony is a brilliant secondary character. He isn’t just a great friend who gives good advice, he is also a great “buffer” when David meets Christian’s parents – that scene where Tony explains “the facts of gay life today” to Christian’s completely prejudiced father is hilarious! Without Tony’s sense of humor that situation could have easily derailed and become quite hurtful and ugly.

If you like stories about real men who deal with everyday issues, if a British setting appeals to you, and if you’re looking for a read that is entertaining, touching, and focuses on a quietly growing love between two very different men, then you will probably like this novella. I hope there will be more stories about Christian and David!

Buy links for Serendipity Develops: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

The running order of this series is: Christmas Serendipity, Serendipity Develops, The Next Christmas. The first and last parts are set at Christmas time, so are festive, and the middle part is non-festive. They can be read alone, or as a series. I do hope you enjoy them, however you choose to read them!

Liam Livings xx

Re-reading the title, I realise, it's an awful lot of 'Writing/Writes' in one place, but it was a day filled with writing by a writers group, so I suppose it makes sense. Anyway, Waltham Abbey Writers held its first all day write-in last weekend in Loughton library.

The group normally meets on the first Monday of the month for 2 hours. We wanted to spend more time together than usual, to try a new space, and fill the day with a combination of writing exercises to get the creative juices flowing, some craft sessions, and general talking and questions about writing.

The day combined these elements and in total 14 people attended during the course of the write-in.
We had four timed writing exercises followed by people sharing what they'd written if they wanted to, and then discussion about the writing. I used my Alphasmart Neo to write on, because my laptop was busy displaying the writing exercises on slides. Today I 'sent' the writing from the Neo to my laptop and am pleased to report I wrote 3100 words during the write in on the various exercisers. They may be used as scenes in novels, starting points for novellas or short stories, or blog posts – I've yet to decide, but – and this is one thing I kept reminding people at the write-in – they are words that didn't exist before, and something that can be edited, moulded to make them better, and that's a good outcome from a day as far as I'm concerned.
Jean Fullerton did a presentation on point of view, the advantages and disadvantages of different points of view, and things to watch like head-hopping.

I did a presentation about how to introduce a character, using the contrasting examples of Middlemarch and Goodbye to Berlin. The former belongs to a more old-fashioned time when characters were introduced over a few pages and almost presented standing still. The latter is a more modern way of introducing a character in the middle of the action, showing the reader about their temperament by what they do, say, wear. I got the content of this presentation from a wonderful book, called The Art Of Fiction by David Lodge.

Throughout the day there were plenty of opportunities for questions and discussion and the programme was deliberately interactive to encourage participants to take part, as well as hearing from published authors about some elements of craft. We built in breaks as writing is a tiring business! And we needed plenty of tea and coffee to keep us going during the day. Loughton Library was brilliant and provided hot water, crockery, tea and sugar, as well as the place to hold the event obviously!

The event included four people who hadn't been to WAW before, who have all been added to our mailing list and we hope to see them at future WAW meetings.

The venue was perfect: plenty of natural light, plenty of space, plenty of plug sockets, tea and coffee, and easy to park. WAW will have another write in at Loughton library in the spring, using a similar format for the day, but with different writing exercises and craft sessions.

If you would like to know more about joining WAW please contact me through this website.
Liam Livings xx

I'm on Clare London's blog as part of her birthday month celebration, talking about why skiing is like writing.

I've copied the text below too:

I recently went on a skiing holiday in Finland. I’d been skiing before – in France, Canada, and on dry ski slopes in the UK – but never on an actual skiing holiday where it’s the main activity of the week.
During the week as I explored new slopes, it occurred to me that skiing is quite like writing a book. It may sound like a pretty random comparison but I’ll try and explain why.
Reaching the top of the mountain is like writing The End on your manuscript. It’s such exhilarating pleasure. But just like skiing, that’s really the start of the journey. You whiz down the mountain and yet there are so many other things to learn, with skiing as with writing. I’ve broken down the different things you learn in skiing into four broad categories, with comparisons to writing.

Equipment or SPAG
Skiing is also about learning how to put on and take off the boots and skis. That’s just the start of learning to ski, and itself takes quite a bit of practice. Not to mention learning how to stand up after falling over. It may sound simple, but trust me, on a slight hill, with heavy boots and skis, it’s harder than it looks. And as you become better at skiing, you can buy better equipment – cross country skis, or skis for speed etc. For me, this is the basic building blocks of writing – spelling, punctuation and grammar – or SPAG as I was taught at school. How can you write a story if you don’t know how to punctuate dialogue, or spell, or break up thoughts into paragraphs etc? As you write more, you learn about dangling modifiers, or the difference between that and which, or when to use a semi colon and a colon…

Lifts or Genre Conventions
Skiing is also about how to use the different types of lift – a button life, a gondola, a chair lift, a T bar lift. Each type of lift has a different way to get on, ride it and get off at the end. All things you have to learn. I think of this as learning to write different genres of story – romance, mystery, thriller, literary fiction. Each genre has its own conventions you should stick with to avoid disappointing your readers. Just like each lift has its own way of getting on and off to avoid…falling flat on your face in the snow!

Difficulties of slopes or Complexity of Plot, Number of Characters
Skiing has 3-4 different difficulties of slopes, from the easiest of green, through blue, to red and finally black which are the hardest most steep type of runs. So once you’ve got comfortable with the easier runs, if you want, you can move onto the next level of difficulty. In writing this could be adding more complex plots, or more characters, or more sub-plots, or simply writing a different length of story – maintaining the suspense over 100k words is harder than over 30k words, or cramming a full story into 1000 words instead of 60k words presents its own set of challenges. I had written stories with 4-6 characters and then tried one with 13 characters, stretching over 90k words. It was much harder to write and keep track of everyone’s character arc and the overall story arc than with fewer characters.

The skiing moves or The Writing Moves
Finally, skiing has a number of different ‘moves’ which increase in difficulty, ranging from snowplough where you point the tips of your skis together forming a snowplough shape. This is the basic way to slow down and stop. Then you learn to turn in this shape, snowplough turns. Then you move onto parallel turns, where your skis are parallel, meaning you go much faster than in a snowplough, and you turn in this form too, faster than using a snowplough. After this you learn to do faster parallel turns or hockey stops, and so on and so forth. Some people were advanced skiers who preferred to remain on the easier slopes, practising their advanced moves. Others were less advanced skiers stretching themselves on a medium difficulty slope. Neither is right or wrong, it’s just down to what you want to learn,  practice and enjoy. In writing I compare the skiing moves to your writing skills as they develop through editors, self teaching, and by simply writing more words. Writing – like skiing – is a practical skill that can only be improved through doing, rather than simply reading about it. The more books you write, just like the more slopes you ski, the better you write. For me, examples of this are removing most of the dialogue tags and adding in some action or internal thoughts because like people, characters do and say things at the same time. I used to have a lot of characters bursting into tears, or with descriptions like ‘she was angry’ and I learned about showing and not telling. Early stories I wrote included long passages where the character told another character what had just happened, or with characters moving from one scene to the next scene, with not much going on. I learned about telling and not showing so I don’t write those linking scenes now – unless something really happens in them of course.

So what does this mean for writers?
These variables – equipment, lift type, ski run difficulty, skiing moves – all combine to give many different types of skiers, experimenting within the sport according to what they enjoy, what they want to stretch themselves with, and where they are skiing. It’s the same with writers too – the contemporary romance writer who changes to crime; the gay romance writer who starts writing straight romance; the multi character saga writer who writes a 2 character novella.
I think that’s one of the many reasons why I love writing – you’re never finished learning about it. You’re never simply done! There’s always a new genre, a new form, a new challenge to master, just like the expert skiers who come back to the same resorts season after season, with new skis, trying different runs, new moves, writers come back to their laptops week after week to face the next challenge writing fiction presents us. And I think that’s beautiful.
In 2016 my writing challenges will include: self-publishing, a historical novella, a straight romance, and maybe a non-fiction idea. What are your writing challenges for 2016?
Liam Livings xx

The programme for the write in is below. It's going to be a full day of talking, writing and learning. And lots of fun too!

Waltham Abbey Writers (WAW) Free Write In – Programme
Open to members of WAW and others interested in writing
10.00 – 16.30, Saturday 23 January, Loughton Library, Traps Hill, Loughton, IG101HD

• 10.00 introduction and welcomes – everyone says who you are; what you write; what do you want to get out of today?
• 10.30 warm up writing exercise – Who's Calling, Please?
• 10.35 read out what you wrote and discuss
• 10.45 writing exercise – Why Do You Write?
• 10.55 read out what you wrote and discuss
• 11.15 Presentation on Introducing a Character – different ways you can introduce your characters in your stories - (Liam Livings), followed by questions and answers
• 12.00 break
• 12.15 writing exercise – Unfinished Sentences or time to write whatever you want
• 12.45 read out what you wrote and discuss
• 13.00 writing exercise – Turn Your Worst Moments Into Money
• 13.30 lunch
• 14.15 discussion about previous writing exercise
• 14.45 Presentation on Point of View – (Jean Fullerton) followed by questions and answers
• 15.30 writing exercise – 250 Words On Something
• 15.35 read out what you wrote and discuss
• 16.00 Open forum for any questions about anything writing-related
• 16.25 wrap up and thanks, details about the next WAW evening meeting, and discussion about whether to repeat the write in day later in 2016
• 4.30 close

I've reviewed my writing productivity spreadsheet for 2015, which includes all writing-related word output and other work by week. So in weeks when I don't write any words, I write in the notes column what else I have been doing – edits and promotion for X novel – for instance.
Here's what I found out:

• My writing productivity, as in simply new words I've written, ranged from 0 words in some weeks when I was on holiday without my laptop or was armpits deep in an edit of a contracted novel – to 27357 words in a week when I wrote 22294 words on the novel, Love U More and 5063 words on blog posts – a combination of Liam Livings blogs about various topics and some promo blog for Escaping From Him. That's a pretty epic word count if I do say so myself. There's no way I'd be able to keep that up week in week out, even if I didn't have a day job, but I seem to work best with bursts of writing, interspersed with periods of no writing.
• My average word count per week altogether was 7545 words per week
• My average fiction word count per week was 5368 words per week
• There was a gap of 12 weeks when I wrote no new fiction words, because I had a series of edits / promo / marketing work contracted to complete by deadlines.
• There was only 1800 words recorded as 'planning' which makes sense because I tend to plot and brainstorm ideas pencil and paper, which I don't count words for
• In addition, I wrote my journal every day which also works out at about 80,000 words, but I've not included these in my total, although technically, they are still writing a story – of my day – even if it's not fiction
• 72193 words of blog writing is quite a lot really. Most of this is promo blogs for contracted books – interviews, the story behind the story etc, and some is my own opinion pieces on my Liam Livings blog.
• 38258 words for 'other' including beta reading, free-writing and reports for the RNA's New Writers Scheme
• There were 5 weeks when I wrote 0 words in total (across all categories). In these weeks I was doing edits, on holiday, doing proof reading of my contracted stories, or doing tax return stuff among other things

People often ask me how I fit all this in among a full time day job and life, but I think that's a topic for another post.
Do you record your writing productivity in a spreadsheet? Or do you just go with the flow?
If you'd like a copy of the spreadsheet I use, you can download it in this link.
Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

PS: because it's dark, cold and January, a selection of pictures I took in 2015.

It's only the second full week of 2016 so I reckon that's a week late, but *shrugs* it is what it is, I'm here, I've set myself some goals, and her goes...

I've divided them into 4 categories:

• Experience – new experiences I'd like to have, these are a bit more wishy washy than the other sections, most are nice to have.
  
• Accomplice – new things I'd like to do. I've kept this pretty flexible as who knows what my workload of MA and life will look like in 2, 4, 6, months plus?
• Quit – things I'd like to stop doing. I generally don't stop doing things, but I've focussed on negative things here.
• Continue – things I'm going to continue doing, just to make sure nothing drops off the end.
  

Experience

• This year I'd like to explore co-authoring a book with someone. So any authors out there who are interested, do get in touch. It seems to be like the new thing with my author friends co-authoring left right and centre.
  
• A new type of conference – maybe Euro Pride Con, maybe GRL, maybe RT – all depending on finances and holiday allowance at the day job
• Self publishing the Kev trilogy
  

Accomplice

• Sort out logo and strap line
  
• Launch marketing support for authors service
• Complete and pass my MA in Creative Writing studies – this year I have 2 more modules in this term, and next term from May, my dissertation
• I have a big first draft backlog, so I plan to self edit, get beta read and submit: Glitzy Gay Saga, Love U More, The Other Man, I Should Be So Lucky
• Write first drafts of, depending on MA and life priorities, 1-4 of: Imploding Marriage (the m/f romance), Tenerife story, Finland skiing story, Christmas Life Swap story.
• Write and submit historical novella
• Read writing books: David Lodge, The Art of Fiction and Janice Radway, Reading The Romance (as well as normal fiction reading too) From what I've read of these so far for my MA, they are both brilliant books, but I want to read them both cover to cover and really immerse myself in them.
  

Quit

• Being drawn into online dramas and meltdowns and losing hours of my life on negativity. NO MORE.
  
• Feeling guilty if I don't write as many words as last year, or don't blog as often as I'd have liked, or don't self edit and submit everything I'd like to do - because, hey, MA, people!
• Feeling guilty when I take a break and do nothing (or read, or watch Gilmore Girls).
  

Continue

• Being a reader for the RNA New Writers Scheme – 3 manuscripts
  
• Beta reading for friends when I can fit it in
• UK Meet organising and attending
• RNA Conference and London chapter meetings – attend (and contribute to an author services panel about marketing for authors in summer
• Waltham Abbey Writers – help run the group and possibly organise a repeat write in session depending on how January's session goes
  
• Attend Queer Company event in November
  
• Blogging regularly
  

This year the only contracted story is Serendipity Develops in January. I have nothing else due to be published this year. And I really am fine with that. I've plenty of works in progress at various stages and I'll hopefully be able to share some of those with you later this year.
What are your 2016 writing goals?
Liam Livings xx

I have either bought myself, or received as a gift, every new studio album Enya has done since her first in the eighties.

Mum first heard Enya on the radio on her way to work one morning. She wrote down the name of the artist as she sang 'Sail Away' (Orinoco Flow). Things being what they are, obviously Mum lost the piece of paper she'd written Ela/Ella/Anya on. She walked up to the music counter at Woolworth's in Salisbury and said, 'I want the album by the woman who sings it all herself, plays all the instruments herself and it's something about sailing.'
Things being what they are, the shop assistant frowned and asked for his supervisor and after a bit of humming along they established who Mum meant and she left clutching her new record.

She played it non-stop in her car's tape player for months. She made her own tape so she could listen to it on journeys. I suppose that's why I'm into Enya too maybe!

I once made my own Now That's What I Very Enya mix tape, before she'd actually done a best of album – carefully taping songs from her various albums. It was perfect driving music.

Enya's music has been with me through other bands passing fads (Atomic Kitten/ A1 / The Vengaboys), through school (when everyone else was listening to Oasis and Blur I was listening to ABBA and Enya), university (deeply un-trendy), at Dad's funeral we played Paint The Sky With Stars – which seem
ed apt since he died in a light aircraft crash, but it was genuinely doing what he'd wanted to do all his life, fly.

I've written my essays and dissertation at uni to Enya. One of her albums is called A Day Without Rain and I used to fill my student house with it while working on my laptop Dad made me. My housemate, Lee once walked into my bedroom and said, 'Can we have a day without Enya, just the one, do you think?'

I said, 'It helps me think, write, be.'

Lee replied, 'It's driving me up f**king the wall, all this whale music new age crap, it's all I ever hear. Bring back The Sound Of Music, all is forgiven!'

I simply smiled and turned the volume down and continued listening to my Enya's albums on repeat during all writing.

I've cried over ex-boyfriends to Enya, but I won't go into more about that here. I've even opened presents one Christmas day morning to Enya.

And now, alongside Chicane, she is my writing music of choice. If I'm writing in public I only have to put my earphones in, click to Enya shuffle and I'm there, with the Celts, or the Orinoco Flow, or storms in Africa, or singing about marble halls and Shepherd Moons.

It. Is. Beautiful.

Enya's music divides opinion, you either love it or hate it, people rarely say it's meh. 'It's all the same!' people cry. 'It's like listening to whales giving birth!' they add. That's as maybe, but for me, the familiarity, the very Enya-ness of listening to a new album is what makes it such a comforting constant in my life since her first album all those years ago. And for that, I'm grateful and will continue buying her music as long as she makes it. Earlier this week, I listened to her new album, Dark Sky Island, in the car and it brought me to tears. Yes, I know I'm a bit of a tart like that, but it wasn't sad tears, it was tears of how beautiful and soothing and also moving the music is. And any music that can do that on a dark and rainy drive to Stevenage is worth my money any day.

Oh, and she lives in a castle next door to Bono, avoids emails and technology, wears velvet dresses and clasps her hands ethereally on her lap while contemplating her response to questions. So all that eccentricity makes me love her even more too. She doesn't tour either, but apparently that may be about to change.

How do you feel about Enya's music?

Because I love it so much I even put Enya in a book! The Guardian Angel, Richard's best friend, Amy is into new age music and is known to put on an all songs Enya shuffle when she's in extremis to give her a helping hand.

Buy links for The Guardian Angel are below:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
All Romance eBooks

Liam Livings xx

I'm so happy about this lovely 4* review from Prism Book Alliance.

I've copied Ulysses' lovely words below.

What if you fell in love with your guardian angel? This is the odd premise of Liam Livings’ new novel, and the answer to the question is surprisingly poignant.  Richard and Amy are two just-out-of-university friends trying to make their way into adulthood in London. Amy is dodging her innate love of science by working in an archaic music store; and Richard is avoiding his yearning for a real relationship with constant meaningless hookups. Significantly, their relationship is one of the few straightforward, affirming things in Richard’s life.

“Guardian Angel” has a sense of great, meandering intimacy about it. It is ultimately a romance, but by a route that is more about its protagonist’s psychological journey than about the romance itself.  The actual guardian angel, Sky, is an elusive presence for most of the book, and yet he looms very large emotionally. By contrast, Amy is nearly as important a character in the story as Richard himself, and yet Livings manages to make her presence feel secondary, however essential she may be. Don’t get me wrong: Amy is wonderful and appealing, but Livings has made her role a supporting one, literally and literarily. She is more than a Greek chorus; she is Richard’s sounding board and wise advisor. Her own uncomplicated neuroses and warm spirit stand in contrast with Richard’s darker aspects. On the other hand, he is as good a friend to her as she to him.

The story is written with a lighthearted tone, combined with an emotional flatness that is calculated and at times puzzling. There are truly harrowing moments in Richard’s life, but Livings presents them through Richard’s eyes almost casually. The very lack of strong emotion in the narration is, I think, representative of Richard’s quiet despair; and the aimlessness of the plot echoes Richard’s emotional detachment from his own life. It is not a story about a psychotic young man, but there is a kind of gentle, anguished madness mingled in with all the offhand humor and mundane details of Richard’s day to day existence.

When the character of Bobby is introduced, I was confused by the lack of emotional affect in the writing; but that turned out to be a clever ploy on the part of the author. There are few significant characters in the book, and they are always referred to only by first names. From Richard’s mother Jean two his two bosses in the course of the book, Charles and then John, these characters’ roles in his life are delineated sparely, but with sharp, decisive strokes that make them oddly vivid for such minor roles in what is not a short book. Livings defines these background players by what they do relative to Richard’s life, and that is enough to make their importance in the drama stand out.

“Guardian Angel” is a surprising novel, its magical aspect carefully balanced by the blunt realism of most of the actual story. Like all of Liam Livings’ novels so far, it seems to tap into a very deep yearning on the part of young people today for a life that is meaningful and emotionally fulfilling. The difficulty in achieving such a life is, I suspect, at the core of Livings’ success as a storyteller.

Links
The Guardian Angel on Goodreads
Love Lane Books
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
All Romance eBooks

I'm honoured to have The Guardian Angel included with December Prism Recommends.
It's a round up of the book review site's to 'recognize those authors whose work sticks with us.  Those who go above and beyond.' Which is pretty amazeballs as far as I'm concerned!

Here's the blurb and beautiful cover.

What happens when a man falls in love with his guardian angel?
Richard Sullivan is plagued by white feathers turning up at the oddest moments. Amy, his best friend, suggests his guardian angel is trying to contact him, but he dismisses the idea out of hand as nonsense.
Until, that is, he meets Sky. Six feet of muscle in a man skirt with white feather wings.
What exactly is a guardian angel? And what happens when your guardian angel takes leave and sends in a temp to cover? Do you wait for a perfect boyfriend on the off chance you may be able to touch him, to be with him, or do you grab happiness with another human? And, why the hell has Richard’s life suddenly become so complicated?

LinksThe Guardian Angel on Goodreads
Love Lane Books
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
All Romance eBooks

I read 37 books in 2015. I know there are some readers who manage 250 plus, but remember I am writing, editing and promoting books too!
This year my reading included:

• autobiographies of: Amanda Holden (very eye opening, what a woman), Lynda Bellingham (heart-breaking, what a woman), Mary Portas (beautiful pen portraits of her challenging childhood and what made her the woman she is today, what a woman), Lisa Maxwell (who knew she'd voiced the female gelfling in The Dark Crystal, a workaholic actor ,what a woman), and Will Young (charming, if slightly too self-satisfied in places but he's such a charmer and it was so beautifully written he got away with it)
  
• Glitzy bonkbusters: Rock Star by Jackie Collins (a brilliant romp with plenty of 'you can't tell me that's based on the truth' moments), Guilty Pleasures by Tasmina Perry (simply a glitzy guilty pleasure with so much going on it was like my very own soap opera, mega rich characters with intrigue and glamour on every page, slick glamorous and bitchy), Perfect Strangers by Tasmina Perry (Car chases, abduction, double bluffs, chasing all over the globe. So. Much. Fun.)
  
• some more literary fiction: We Are All Made Of Glue by Marina Lewycka (moving, amusing, perfectly observed portrait of caring for an elderly person and the bureaucracy and idiocy one is faced with), The Uncommon Reader (Alan Bennett is a genius),
  
• Inspirational autobiographies: Late Fragments by Kate Gross (very sad, but also life-affirming), Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig (life-affirming and vital if you suffer from dark periods, as I do), Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (the best autobiographies I have ever read, so much to learn from it, I rarely make notes from autobiographies, but this one I made pages and pages of her wise words and often cherish them close to my heart. If you haven't read this, do so forthwith. Oh, and there's a film with Julia Roberts, which as far as I'm concerned makes this beyond perfect)
  
• Some popular fiction: The Rector's Wife (my first Joanna Trollope, and I loved it. Such a perfect portrait of a woman's struggle for her own place in her own life, while it's gradually chipped away at. An expert storyteller, so much more than 'a writer of Aga sagas' as I'd been lead to believe), Us by David Nicholls (an expert portrayal of a relationship at its end, and how it started, at the same time. A perfect illustration of how to show the emotions and character traits and not tell them)
• Some older modern fiction: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Sparks is a genius in minimalist use of words, making each word do the work that other writers make 10 words do), The Witches Of Eastwick (John Updike's story is wonderfully magical and gruesome in places), The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (gradual revealing of the full horror, master class in a short story and use of words), Flowers In The Attic by VC Andrews (I couldn't stop reading this. Andrews said in 1986, "I think I tell a whopping good story. And I don't drift away from it a great deal into descriptive material". That was certainly the case with this story. The full horror was what I'd expected, but it was gradually revealed as the narrator found it out too).

My favourites from 2015 were:

Eat Pray Love, The Stepford Wives, The Rector's Wife, Guilty Pleasures, We Are All Made Of Glue. Flowers In The Attic, Mary Portas – Shop Girl.
How was your 2015 of writing? Any must-read books you'd like to recommend?
I'd love to hear from you.
Liam Livings xx