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Escaping From Him - blog tour - Prism Book Alliance author interview

5/2/2015

I've been mercilessly grilled by the Prism Book Alliance, talking about my sweet tooth, the main character, Darryl and what I'm proud of about Escaping From HIm. Comment on their website for a chance to win an ebook.

Interview:

1. We are here today to talk about Escaping from Him. What can you tell us about it?

It’s about Darryl who’s been in a claustrophobic relationship with Chris for some time, and he reflects on something his best friend, Lena said to him that makes him realise he has to leave, to escape from him. He can’t be the person he currently is, so he must leave and rebuild himself as a different person, in a different city, with a new circle of friends. Of course, there’s a happy ever after, and a romance story too, but there’s (hopefully) plenty of laughs and ups and downs on the way.

2. Tell us more about Darryl?

He is a naturally sociable person, but isn’t allowed to express that side of him when he’s with Chris. He grew up with not much in the way of family, so is keen to make his own version of family, when he can. He’s creative, interested in photography more than having the newest car on the street. And for any more you’ll have to read the story to find out!

3. What about Escaping from Him makes you the most proud?

Can I say the whole thing? It’s a bit of a cop out, but I’ll explain: I wrote it for myself really, in response to a song that became an ear worm in late 2013, early 2014, and now, it’s a whole story, which has been published. Who’d have thunk it eh? That’s why I’m proud of it. The song was I Love It by Icona Pop, it’s earworm-tastic.

4. If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Write, don’t just talk about writing, actually write. Get to the end of what you’re writing, don’t keep starting a new idea, that’s the easy bit, it’s slogging on right to the end that’s hard. Find some friendly published authors, they’ll help you in whatever ways they can, we’re nice like that. When you have time to write, do that first, and then go on the internet – NEVER the other way round.

5. What is the nicest thing a reader has said to you in a review, email, in person, or on social media?

One reader on facebook said she’d read And Then That Happened, loved it, then gone and bought everything else I had published. Reader, I cried.

A review website said ‘Best Friends Perfect Book Two is campy and colourful all topped off with plenty of fun. I really enjoyed book one and book two didn’t disappoint me.’

It’s been lovely to hear people commenting on the humour I (without really thinking about it) put in my stories.

6. How do you choose names? If you decide to change a name, do you feel that it alters your perception of the character?

I try to keep track of names I’ve used so I don’t use the same name for two different characters in different books. I sometimes use place names by looking at maps, or I look around the book shelves in my study and use names of authors, characters names in other books, mixed up slightly, or sometimes if I can’t think of a name, I put MC (main character) and know the name will come to me as I write the story. Some authors do feel changing names alters the character, me, not so much. The new name has to still *fit* but for me the character is much more than the name, and changing just that doesn’t alter much of the character’s personality to me.

7. What are you reading right now and what is next on your to-be-read list?

Here’s the list of what I’ve recently read to give you a taste:

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – loved the film with Julia Roberts (obvs) and the book was a wonderful journey of self-discovery with so many great pieces of advice.

Guilty Pleasures by Tasmina Perry – this is exactly the opposite to the girl meets boy and lives happily ever after stories. It’s about glamour, ambition and betrayal and it was a fabulously glitzy guilty pleasure of nearly 700 pages I devoured in a few weeks.

Tiggy by Miss Read – Charlie Cochrane gave this to me, and it was wonderful to read about a woman finding a litter of kittens and looking after them. Miss Read writes fiction Aga saga typed stories too, which I tend to love, so I may investigate her more.

There’s Something I’ve Been Dying to Tell You by Lynda Bellingham – she was a British actor, best known for doing the Oxo adverts on TV for years. She died of colon cancer in 2014 and this is her final, life affirming, moving, wonderfully her, autobiography. I love a good (and a bad) autobiography, and this is fabulous.

Next on the list to read is We Are All Made Of Glue by Marina Lewycka – the BF read it on holiday and he bought me a paperback for my birthday as he knows I prefer to read paper books than ebooks. He said I’d enjoy it as it has a storyline about a character looking after an elderly person. Since I lost my Great Auntie in summer 2014 http://www.liamlivings.com/blog/grief-is-the-price-we-pay-for-love-2-of-2 there’s been a bit of a gap in my life, so I think this book will be interesting.

8. Rapid Fire Time

Love Story or Thriller?

Love story, every time. I’m a romantic at heart and always default to love story in books or films.

Vanilla or Chocolate?

Chocolate. I have a chocolate crate in the under stairs cupboard, always well-stocked with chocolate treats.

Underwear and socks: folded in the drawer or tossed?

Not folded, but in the drawer yes. I don’t like mess and things tossed on the floor irritate me.

Music or TV/Movies?

I can’t choose. I love both for different purposes. Music is great when driving (I think the police take a dim view if you watch TV while driving) but I also enjoy a film or TV. I try not to watch endless reality TV shows (except Celebrity Big Brother which I’m loving at the moment) and prefer to disappear into a drama box set like Breaking Bad, or The Good Wife, or Brothers and Sisters.

Electronica or Jazz?

Electronica, I can’t stand the ‘out of tune’ sound of jazz. Give me a squelchy electronic chorus from Kylie, (The One) or a plinky plonky beat from The Human League (One Man In My Heart) or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Souvenir), any day over jazz.

Coke or Pepsi?

Neither. I rarely have fizzy drinks – see chocolate crate above – instead preferring tea or hot chocolate, but if I do have a fizzy drink it’s either cream soda, or Doctor Pepper – full sugar, no sweeteners as I can’t bear the metallic taste of sweeteners.

Fire or Ice?

Fire, I dislike the cold of winter. We have an open log fire in the living room and it’s the perfect antidote to a cold winter evening. We often have a no TV night and read books with the crackling of the fire in the background. Wonderful.

Salty or Sugary? Sugary, see chocolate crate above. I rarely eat crisps (chips) or chips (fries) and as a rule Livings Towers is a savoury carb free zone – no potatoes, bread, rice or pasta. Instead I prefer to have my sugar intake as sugary things.

9. What are you working on? What is next?

I’m currently doing a first draft of The Other Man, which is a spin off from The Guardian Angel (to be published by Love Lane Books in summer 2015). It has some of the same characters, but focuses on different ones. It’s about a man cheating on his husband and the implications that brings. I’m hoping to finish the first draft of that during February.

Next, I have some self editing of my Kev Friends Perfect series, which is a spinoff from the Best Friends Perfect series, from the perspective of Kev, the cross-dressing cabaret singing gay friend. Kev was just intended to be one of the friends in Best Friends Perfect, but he was such fun to write, and got so much great feedback from beta readers, I’ve decided to tell his story, and let me tell you, there’s plenty of it to tell. He’s such fun to write, and having written his trilogy there’s still more to tell so he gets his happy ever after…

Buy Links for Escaping From Him :
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
iTunes / iBooks
All Romance eBooks

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Escaping From Him blog tour - Clare London

5/2/2015

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Another stop on the blog tour. This time I've over at Clare London's blog talking about whether I like it long or short, sharing a little extract of the story, and giving away an ebook to a commenter. Comment on Clare's blog if you'd like a chance for a free ebook.

Short vs long. Which do you prefer as a reader? As a writer, which do you prefer to write?

As a reader I prefer a good long thick book. I like a good multi character story told from different perspectives, and showing how they all link together. Or I like a first person narrative with a circle of friends around that person, again a long narrative. I don’t tend to like collections of short stories as I just get into one story and the characters and then it’s over and onto the next one. It’s like the characters had a drink with me, then were whisked off away from me, never to be heard from again. I suppose that’s why I love a good long running TV drama, so you can follow the characters over six or seven series, hundreds of episodes. In my mind a long 800 page novel is just that, a sweeping following of the characters, so when it ends I’m sad as I have to leave the characters, and I feel I’ve been living with them while I’ve read the novel.

As a writer I prefer to write longer than a novella, because by having quite a few characters it’s hard to fit that all into a 20,000 word story. So having the extra wordage gives you more time to explore the different sub characters’ relationships with the main protagonist. It’s a broader canvas and you can also have more fun as you’re not constantly trying to squeeze it all into a set number of pages. Maybe I write long naturally, I think I do actually. I tend to talk long, so that’s probably why I write long too!

EXTRACT – Darryl is in the photography studio with Callum, a ginger haired model. They’ve just been left alone

This was normally my cue to turn the lights off, remove the coloured gels, pack away the backing, and set it up for the next client, after checking the schedule on the computer. But this time I didn't do any of that. This time I just stood behind the light, staring at the beautiful man in front of me, sat on a white wooden box, leaning backwards on his arms, his legs open and stretched out in front of the box. His white T-shirt riding up slightly to reveal a tiny wisp of ginger hair and his belly button.

"Had a good look eh?" he said, leaning back further, revealing a bit more of his stomach.

"Don't know what you're talking about." My eyes darted between his stomach and his bright green eyes.

"You gonna come over, or do I have to actually ask you?"

I walked to him and stood up against the white wooden block. Now I had a much better view.

"I've seen you."

"I know, I'm standing in front of you." I smiled, and worried he was a cute, clever psychopath. That's what I was getting into now. A psychopath. I allowed that to wash around my mind for a moment.

"Not now, at the club. I've seen you at Truvy Jones."

"You go there?"

He nodded. "Why the surprise? Just because a man doesn't put glitter in his hair and make-up on his face, doesn't mean, well it doesn't mean what you thought it meant."

Buy Links for Escaping From Him:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon US ~ All Romance Ebooks

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Escaping From Him Blog Tour - Elin Gregory

3/2/2015

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Next stop is the lovely Elin Gregory's blog, fellow UK Meet organiser, and one of my great beta readers, who tells it like it was, with her wonderful historical novels. I've copied the text below:

Who was your favourite character to write in Escaping From Him?
I enjoyed writing all the characters, that’s like asking to pick a favourite child or pet! Oh well, if I must, I must…

Darryl was good fun to write as he finally got the courage and gumption to escape from his life with Chris. I enjoyed writing about how he literally rebuilds himself when he gets to Scotland, a new group of friends, a new job, a new place to stay, and a boyfriend too. Writing about how he integrates himself into the new world of the clubs and pubs in Scotland was fun, how he gradually gets more confidence as he’s away from Chris for longer.

Lena was enjoyable to write too, I liked how she’s so matter of fact, and doesn’t pull any punches when she gives people her opinions. She’s also a very confident and driver person. In my mind she was a cross between Robyn and P!nk, a sort of no nonsense go getter in bondage gear with a savage creative streak, and a wonderful sense of fun. I enjoyed writing her friendship and love and support for Darryl, how she really cares for him and his happiness. I suppose that’s all anyone wants from a friend really.

*hiding behind his hands* I feel bad, but Chris was actually quite fun to write. There was something quite fun about writing how vile opinions and things he had said to Darryl, I quite enjoyed. I think it’s because it’s so not me in any way at all. He epitomises the sort of person who doesn’t *get* creativity at all. Why would you take pictures for a living and own cheap car when you could work doing something much higher paid and afford the latest Mini Cooper or BMW? He’s the sort of person who’d pick up a painting and question its price, while happily spending almost that much money on a meal to celebrate his latest sales target. Before everyone comes down on me like a tonne of bricks, I’m not anti estate agents or sales targets or people working for money because that’s what makes them happy, what I’m anti is people who think that’s the *only* way to be. People who can’t understand how someone else won’t be happy by buying the latest new electronic gadget, and would prefer to paint a picture or go for a walk in the forest instead.

EXTRACT – Darryl and Lena talk about Chris and how Sweden has one of the highest rates of suicide in Europe

Lena slapped my shoulder. “All these Swedish people throwing their lives away, but at least they make a decision to actually throw it away. Some people live their life, by half living it, and they are not happy. So which is the worst, ending it, or carry on live it and not live it right”

I smiled at her slightly broken English, but I got her point. Her carefully enunciated words put my West Country burr to shame.

“Darryl, I love you. You know this. But every time it is the same thing. Chris this, Chris that. And every time I ask you why you do stay with this man? And you tell me you love him. But me, I do not think you do.”

Buy Links:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon US ~ All Romance Ebooks

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Liam's Australian Adventure part 2/3

3/2/2015

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Hello everyone,

welcome to the next part of my Australian Adventure. If you missed the first part it's here for you to enjoy.

Sydney

The drive from Canberra to Sydney was lovely (more Taylor Swift, a satnav, air con, quite green countryside) until I hit the edge of Sydney and into one of the tunnels that whisks you from the outer suburbs to the city centre (without satnav as it's in a tunnel, we realised too late). This meant I got off the tunnel and we spent a wonderful twenty minutes in a suburb with a used car garage, rows of houses and a big supermarket. We didn’t stay long. We’d arranged to drop the car off at 4pm, and, due to the tunnel/satnav occurrence, arrived at 4.30 to a man closing the gates of the returns yard for the hire car. ‘We close at four. You’ll have to take it to the airport.’

The airport was half an hour back the way we’d come, and our hotel was in the city centre round the corner from where we were at that moment. The BF tried to reason with the man. I almost ran him over (in slow motion) by putting the car in Drive and accelerating (slowly) into the yard. I sat in the car, preparing to cry, and the BF ran round the corner to ask the reception desk if we could drop the car off since we were outside the yard. BF returned / reception man radios yard man to let us in / I drive car into drive, smile on my face / satnav adaptor plug remains stuck in car / we both give up and get a taxi to the hotel.

We stayed in the Grace Hotel, which was trying to be glitzy, but actually ending up being shabby but still expensive, hotel in the city centre. We asked them to remove the mini bar contents from our fridge (who wants to pay $10 for a small bottle of water, or $5 for a small chocolate bar) so we could use it to store our food for when we didn’t want to eat out all the time.

We saw my friend, D and his boyfriend who’d just started a year in Sydney, having sorted their working visas. Their flat was in Woolomoloo, an inner suburb overlooking the park. As we sat drinking champagne and eating pizza on their balcony, overlooking Hyde Park, D pointed to the birds and said they were bats. During the day, surely not? When I looked closer I saw they were flapping their wings in an odd not very bird-like way, and the silhouette wasn’t very feathery either. Eventually I realised they were bats. Pretty magical.

Bondi beach – full of very good looking people, who seemed a bit too knowing of their beauty, which was, I thought, a bit of a shame. The novelty of being able to get a bus from the city centre to an amazing sandy beach like that was great.

Erskinville and Newtown – inner suburbs that are quite independent, grungy and not corporate. There was an exhibition of Newtown shop keepers in the library, showing the wide variety of people/things/cultures in an area of 2 km squared. BF took a picture of the hotel used at the start of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, where they start their trip.

Manly beach – caught a 30minute ferry (return only $6 each, which is cheap I think) to the beach. One side of the harbour has high waves for riding on surf boards, the other has no waves for swimming and paddling (inside the shark net, or outside you take your chances). I didn’t swim. For me, the water would have to be as warm as a bath, and that’s not going to happen anywhere but a swimming pool or the Bahamas. I prefer to people watch and read on the sand.

We met the BF’s friend, G (an old friend from Essex who used to live in London, then moved to Sydney with his wife and boy). We all went for a walk around Darling Harbour (a complex of restaurants and shops by the harbour) found nowhere to eat that didn’t have an hour’s wait, so ended up in Chinatown. After a few drinks I declared I was out (I very seldom drink) and left them in a cocktail bar near the hotel. The BF finally rolled in at 3am.

There were a few wild goose chases for restaurants to eat, as we jumped from one closed place to the next. We’d not even considered this, thinking the city centre of a big city like Sydney would be open *all the time* like London. But no.

North Sydney – walked over Sydney Harbour bridge to get here. An amazing view back to the city. We went to Balmoral beach with G, his wife and boy, and mum who was over from Essex for her annual summer holiday. I discovered prawn cutlets (battered prawns bought from a fish and chip place) and they are delicious, eaten on the beach, with ‘hot chips’ as they call them (chips = crisps) and a bottle of water. We caught a $6 each ferry back from Greenwich (next to Putney, and Woolwich – you can see where they got their name ideas from) to Circular Quay in the middle of Sydney. It was a wonderful ride under the harbour bridge.

I partook of the enormous Uniqlo in the enormous Westfield shopping centre. You’re probably thinking why buy from a brand you get in the UK. Well, they had T shirts with koalas on, I’d not seen in London. They were cheaper than in the UK, and I like to buy clothes on my travels so when I wear them I’m reminded of the holiday.

I bought the latest jazzy jacket from a department story – sort of an Australian John Lewis I reckon.

Their H&M was enormous, in an old Post Office over about six floors. I bought some red trousers for $10. Red is my favourite colour and they were winking at me from the shelves.

Oxford Street is the gay bit of Sydney. We went into the bookshop and their classification of books confused me. Under gay fiction were gay authors who’d written what I think are mainstream romantic fiction: all Jonathan Harvey’s books, Matt Cain’s book. There weren’t any gay romance authors whose names I recognised. And the books were very expensive – a £7 book was $25. I really wanted to buy something so I could say, ‘I bought this from Oxford Street,’ but no.

We were in Sydney for New Year’s Eve, and saw the fireworks over the bridge in one of the viewing areas. Sydney takes NYE very seriously: they had 1.6million people there. I hate crowds, I actually get a bit panicky. My ideal NYE would have been watching it in the hotel with the BF, some Fererro Rocher, a glass of champagne (I’d make an exception to not drinking for NYE). Some of the viewing areas had people queuing from 7am. In the sun. With bags of wine. However, Himself found some app that showed when the viewing areas closed, as they reached capacity, and he’d identified one near our hotel which was likely to close quite late. After talking to relatives, and one bottle of champagne, smoked salmon and cream cheese later – the room’s fridge came in handy – we headed out for this special viewing spot. As we were leaving the room at 11pm, we bumped into an American family from Louisiana who didn’t know what to do since they’d got back from Circular Quay and it was packed with people. They were thinking of seeing the fireworks from the hotel’s roof. Our secret, uncrowded, still open that late place was Observatory Hill. We swept in, through the barriers as they counted us in to check thtey’d not exceeded the allowed number of people, took our spot over-looking the harbour and waited for the fireworks. There were enough facilities, drinks, toilets, plenty of space to walk about and after taking advantage of the facilities, I easily found my way back to the others – that’s one of the biggest fears I have about crowds. It was wonderful. The American family were so grateful we’d ‘saved’ their NYE for them, they took us to the Irish bar in the ground floor of our hotel and bought us drinks as a thank you.

The Outback – Alice Springs and Yulara

We flew to Alice Springs, which has an airport about the size of my back garden. There we picked up another hire car. The second one, as the one we’d booked, which was meant to be Holden Barina or similar, was actually the size of a liquorice all sort. It only just squeezed in our luggage and us, and that was it. We were meeting another friend, K who lives in Tennant Creek (300 miles from Alice Springs) so we needed the space for the road trip from ‘the Alice’ as they call it, to Ayer’s rock. So, after bracing myself to drive the biggest car I’d ever driven, we got a Mitsubish SUV roughly the size of a semi-detached house in London. Since we weren’t doing any city driving, we felt it would be ok.

It was wonderful having K, a resident of the Northern Territory, as our guide to the outback part of our holiday. We couldn’t have done it without her. She knew when was safe to drive in the outback (not at night or sunrise or sunset due to more wildlife likely to be on the road, and the risk of hitting it) where to eat in the Alice, other outback spots to visit near Yulara.

After a night in Alice Springs when we went to Lassiter’s Casino for dinner – where they filmed part of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. As you can imagine, this made me very happy. I even asked the hotel receptionist if this was the hotel and she nodded in a way that said ‘I’ve been asked this every day I’ve worked here since the film was made in 1994’ but I didn’t care. Lassiter’s Casino did an amazing burger and ‘hot chips’ which we ate on the patio with a fan blowing cool air and water spray.

The next morning we drove the 300 miles to Yulara, which is Ayer’s Rock resort. They stopped hotels and camping near the rock in the eighties as it was damaging the wildlife and rock, so they built a new town 10miles or so from the rock. It’s got accommodation and eating options from youth hostel to glitzy five star hotel all in one place. It’s a very sensible idea I thought.

This drive was driving properly through The Outback. Every 100 miles or so there would be a little place to fill up with petrol, buy a drink and sometimes pitch a tent. I say place, because they weren’t really towns, or villages, or even service stations, but a few buildings with water, and some facilities. When you’ve driven for three hours, only seeing road killed kangaroos by the roadside and miles and miles of desert oak trees, seeing one of these ‘places’ was really the genuine meaning of an oasis in the desert. You don’t muck about in the outback, you don’t walk about in the 42 C heat for long. You don’t think, I’ll fill up with petrol at the next stop. Because the next stop may be 150miles away. You stop at these places, fill up with petrol, water, coffee/tea/ chocolate, and you make the most of the rest. The drive, although very beautiful, red sand, desert oaks, blue sky, was also slightly mesmerising as the roads were pretty straight. It was easy to sort of descend into a sort of hypnotic state, so we swapped drivers every hour or so, cranked up the music and kept the conversation flowing. One of the stops had some emus which reminded me of dinosaurs.

The Yulara resort had an outdoor salt water pool which was exactly what we needed after sitting in the car for six hours.

We saw black wallabies who climb and live in the rocks high up from the ground. Their fur was almost exactly the same colour as the rocks, so we had to stand very still very quietly until one moved and we saw it.

We drove to Ayer’s Rock to watch the sunset reflecting against it. And, although I’d been a bit cynical about this, it really did change colour as the sun went down.

We had dinner in the one step down from the glitziest restaurant, and I foolishly ordered fish. In a place that’s probably 1000 miles from the sea. Just let that sink in for a moment.

I had food poisoning, so couldn’t walk around Ayer’s Rock the following morning with the BF and K.

They came back from Ayer’s Rock and we drove to The Olgas (42C which felt like breathing sand and with so many flies crawling on my face I ran back to the car very quickly having taken a picture). We drove to the base of The Olgas and walked among the rocks. It looked like a giant had been playing with clay, holes in the boulders and large broken off parts scattered on the floor. There was a sudden rainstorm (normal for that time of year) which caught all of us out. This was the first time it had rained since arriving in Australia, and it was in the arid, 42C outback! After a change of clothes in the car, we left for Alice, another five hours’ drive. The last bit was taken very slowly as it was dusk, and we were all on ‘roo watch’ in case any wildlife jumped out in front of the car.

The next day we said goodbye to K, who was keen to get home as the storms were predicted, and if it had rained hard, she’d have been stuck in Alice, as her car wasn’t much more than a liquorice all sort and wouldn’t have been able to pass the flooded roads. She texted us that evening, the rain had started, and she’d got home just in time.

We flew to Adelaide, and I wrote to distract myself from the usual stress of flying, which worked well.

Next time, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and some overall reflections.

Until then,
Liam Livings xx

This was the hire car we didn't use in the outback. I'm not *against* small cars - I have a little VW myself - but for 3 people, their luggage and a 800mile round trip in the outback, we felt this wasn't quite up to the job.

This is the car we actually used for the outback trip. It. Was. Enormous. It had a fancy satnav built into the dashboard and the air con controls were through the fancy screen too - which I felt was going a step too far, but more about that's not for now, as this isn't a car review website.

Alice Springs city centre. I also 'discovered' a shop I grew to love - Target. It's like Matalan for those UK people who've not been. I bought cotton shirts in 3 different colours for $12 in the sale, and some T shirts for my brother and sister in law.

Emus at a stop in the outback. They seemed quite dinosaur-ish to me. I couldn't help but think of Rod Hull.

Uluru / Ayers Rock selfie

Iced chocolate - my new favourite drink. Never did get to the bottom of the difference between an iced chocolate and a chocolate milkshake, anyone?

Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga. Not a perfect shot, but it was 42C and there were swams of flies, so I snapped and jumped back into the car.

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Escaping From Him - blog tour

2/2/2015

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Hi,

I've been blogging all over the place answering questions, adding extracts, giving away ebooks, about Escaping From Him, my new release.

I was on UK Gay Romance with Julie Bozza celebrating the release day on 1 February.

I'm on The Novel Approach, here's the full text copied: To enter into the ebook giveaway, please comment on The Novel Approach website.

What inspired this book?

During the start of 2014 I discovered a song called I Love It by Icona Pop, which had been quite high in the charts over the previous months. It’s a sort of synth pop song with quite anthemic chanty lyrics, exactly the sort of song I usually love. And love it I did. In fact, I became slightly obsessed with it, watching the mesmerising video again and again.

The lyrics really got into my head and at the line, I threw your sh*t into a bag and pushed it down the stairs, I had a vision of a man doing exactly that to his boyfriend’s things and that was the starting point of the germ of an idea for the story.

I got this feeling on a summer’s day when you were gone. This gave me the idea for when to start the story, when Darryl would realise, from a small thing Chris had done he noticed in the hot flat, and he realised he couldn’t continue to be in that situation any longer.

One of the verses in the song gave me the contrast between Darryl and Chris: You’re on a different road, I’m in the Milky Way / you want me down on earth, but I am up in space. This was how differently they viewed their jobs. How Darryl is a dreamer, and Chris is very much into practicalities of things.

You’re so damn hard to please, we gotta kill this switch. This was about Chris’s controlling ways, and how everything in the flat had to be just so, or else.

You’re from the seventies, but I’m a nineties b**ch. Darryl is much younger than Chris, which again played into the dynamics of the relationship, and Darryl’s expectations at the start, and Chris’s behaviour.

Q: Can you tell us about different genres you like to write in, does this book fit into one, or are you branching out?

So far I’ve written gay fiction with romance, with the Best Friends Perfect series, gay romance with my other stories, including And Then That Happened and Christmas Serendipity. They have all been contemporary stories so far. I try to write what I believe is an authentic version of gay men’s lives, based on what I’ve experienced, and what I’ve seen my friends experience. I also tend to stick to the lives of ordinary gay men, with normal jobs in hospitals, offices, shops, hairdressers etc. I believe in the beauty and interest in the every day. The simple pleasures in life are just as important as the big grand events too.

I like to use humour in my stories. Is comedy and camp a genre? I hadn’t noticed I did this until I read some reviews of my stories commenting on the sense of humour. I think it’s because my general default about how to cope with anything in life is humour. I tend to make a joke of things, when others dare to go there. I’ve also noticed with a bit of humour, and a touch of camp, I can get away with pretty much anything. I think somehow gay men are a bit ashamed of camp, like it’s *too gay* like now to be a good gay man you’ve got to be all ‘straight acting’ which is one of the most homophobic phrases I’ve heard. Be gay however you want, camp or not, but don’t be ashamed of however you are gay, and don’t judge others for being gay in their way. I didn’t get a choice, camp came to me, so that’s how I am and that’s evidently how I write, so be it.

Escaping From Him is contemporary gay romance, as the romance between Darryl and the other man is key to the story, but I’ve tried to twist it a bit, and included the unhappy starting point, when he’s with Chris. I wanted to show the contrast between what he’s coming from to what he ends up with. I’m not spoiling anything here by saying it has a happy ever after. But there’s some humour there too, and a good dose of camp throughout.

I may venture into science fiction / fantasy as I dreamed about a story which is set in the near future, in a slightly different reality from the one we live in now. This may well be my first science fiction story. Obviously it has a romance at its heart, I love a romance, I really do, but the backdrop will be more unusual than some of my other stories.

Excerpt: Darryl goes to a cabaret club in Scotland

It was like the Eurovision Song Contest for drag queens. They came from all countries and in all colours, shapes, sizes and costumes. Some looked like a big butch builder had put on a dress, heels and wig. Others looked exactly like a woman, until I noticed the Adam’s apple, strategically covered by a neckerchief. Some came on and sang, others lip synched – there was a nice mix of modern pop music, Lily Allen, Lady Gaga, some classics, Abba of course, Donna Summer and an awful lot of Mariah Carey. An awful lot. Much more than I’d have expected. Some did stand up, acid-tongued quips about modern life, as a gay person, or just in general, about living in the UK. Others entertained us by telling their life stories, suitably tragic and dark, which left the audience with only one option: to laugh along. I kept expecting it to end, but on came the next drag queen, a little bit different from the last one.

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Liam's Australian Adventure part 1/3

2/2/2015

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I meant to post this in January, but I've been blogging all over the place about my latest release, Escaping From Him which is out now. But without further ado, here's what we did in Oz.

The plan

It was the BF’s big birthday in January and he wanted to be somewhere warm for it, so we went to Australia. I’d gone in the late nineties with my parents (when I was a very little boy, obviously), and thought it’d be fun to go again without my family.

The BF loves to plan and research holidays – his job is research – but after deciding on Australia, and the flights, and driving parts, he felt like Mrs Doyle from the comedy Father Ted, when she finds out three Bishops are visiting her house. He felt like his whole holiday researching life had lead up to this one holiday, as it wasn’t just one holiday, it was effectively six different parts to the holiday to research and book.

The numbers

Number of flights: 6 (two there and back plus Sydney to Alice Springs, then Alice Springs to Adelaide)
Number of boats involved: 2 (ferries, strictly speaking)
Number of different groups of friends / family we saw: 5
Number of hire cars: 3 + one we didn’t hire as it was too small
Number of books: 6 taken, 3 read, 3 bought in Australia and 2 more bought online while away. Yes, I have a problem with buying books.
Number of different places we stayed in: 7
Distance driven: approx 1700 miles
Number of nights away from home: 24
Number of different cat sitters: 2 (including Mum who we rang while Domino was on her lap purring after she’d fed him)
The money: Australian $2 = £1

The flight

I dislike flying for a variety of reasons, one is as Dad died in a light air craft crash, but flying is a necessary evil if I want to holiday anywhere other than the UK, so i grit my teeth and bear it. I heard a thought for the day about using the time on a flight to enjoy being without phones beeping, internet notifications pinging at you. So I made the most of the time and I wrote, long hand. I had started a story before leaving, so i had my normal hand written plan and character notes, and on the flight I continued with the story, long hand in a note book. On the flight I managed 34 A5 pages. I continued writing on the internal flights, in quiet moments here and there in the holiday. I enjoyed the quickness of being able to just pick up the notebook and start writing, no waiting for things to turn on, or relying on having the internet. I wrote *one of those scenes* in the Dubai airport departure lounge because that’s what the story needed at the time – which was fun.

And then, on the last four hours of the second leg of the flight – the 14hr bit from Dubai to Melbourne – I reached a wall. I just couldn’t be that person any longer. Only, when you’re on a plane you have to be that person, there’s no one else you can be. I had a minor panic attack and started to feel sick. I just couldn’t sit in that seat any longer. After a few trips to the toilet, the cabin crew were wonderful, got me water, and I stood at the back of the plane stretching and calming.

Melbourne

Melbourne is a massive city, with suburbs stretching 40plus miles from the city centre. The city covers an area almost ten times that of Greater London, with a population of 4.4million. When I say Greater London, I mean right out to the suburbs of London, Orpington (London borough of Bromley) to Uxbridge (London borough of Hillingdon), not just the bit of London most people think is London.

We self-catered in a ground floor apartment in St Kilda for 5 nights about ten minutes walk from the beach. It was wonderful. St Kilda is sort of alternative, non commercial, with a bit of a Brighton vibe about it.
We ate Italian food at 3am in a restaurant over-looking the sea.
Went to an amazing diner where I discovered a breakfast called the jolly sailor: brown toast, spinach, poached egg, smoked salmon, chives with mascarpone cheese, served with the best pot of tea since Liam Livings’ records began. Loose leaf tea, perfectly hot water, a large pot with plenty of space for the tea to circulate, enough for 4 cups.
Went up the Skydeck, which is the highest building in the southern hemisphere – great view of Melbourne spoiled slightly be the *very* reflective glass which made the night time return trip a bit pointless.
Madame Brussells – a roof top bar accessed by a service lift round the side of an office block, where everyone sits on garden furniture (inside) is served cocktails strong enough to run a car. It had a Mrs Madrigal from Tales of the City air to it, and obviously gave me *loads* of ideas for stories.
Bought cakes from the many shops in Acland street which also had the building used in one of my favourite Australian dramas – The Secret Life Of Us. I could practically hear Gab and Kelly’s voices floating in the street. I took a picture while the BF waited for me to indulge my TV geekery.
Victoria state library including pictures of when the non-indigenous people first settled Melbourne (and it was literally a tent and some shacks)
Ate my body weight in dim sum in Chinatown – only fail was the whitebait soup, which was ‘basically pepper soup’ according to the BF. The waiter explained that’s a traditional Chinese recipe, and that’s how it’s meant to taste. He stuck to sweet corn or wonton soup from then on.
Went up the tallest building in Melbourne
Rode the trams. I like trying public transport in other countries; you get to see the real country, the people who use it every day.
We discovered a book shop called The Book Grocer - $10 per book, or 6 got $50. The BF got some enormous hardback history books and, I bought ‘The Yugo, The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History’ by Jason Vuic as well as a couple of Joanna Trollop Aga sagas I’d heard good things about. I seem to love a good Aga saga, so thought I’d best go to the mother ship of them.
We picked up a hire car after a few days and once I’d got used to doing *absolutely nothing at all* with my left leg as it was automatic, we went on a TV geekery odyssey, because that’s what we’re like. We saw Pin Oak Court in Vermont South – where they film Neighbours. Went to Lagoon Court in Patterson Lakes another suburb of Melbourne, and saw the house used in Kath and Kim, where Kath and her husband Kel live. While there we saw four other cars of people taking pictures. The owners of the house are very welcoming. Went to the enormous Westfield shopping centre nearby called Fountain Gate, which is also featured in the Kath and Kim series.
Christmas day in the sun, with just me and the BF was an interesting experience. We’d bought some nice picnic food from the Queen Victoria market the day before. I felt a bit melancholic, remembering Christmas 2013 when i visited Great Auntie, and I realised, although I don’t like the dark and cold of winter in the UK, it is *right* for Christmas, and how important family (in whatever sense) is at Christmas.

Canberra

We drove to Canberra through the sort of outback (not officially as it had plenty of towns along the way, and wasn’t that far inland. See The Outback section for what it’s really like.) Even 50mins drive from St Kilda there were lots of land for sale proclaiming people to discover their new way of living in *insert name of suburb*. We had a mini road trip of 7hours between Melbourne and Canberra and with my new Taylor Swift album on the car stereo, the air con on, and the satnav telling us where to go, it was great.

Canberra is often described as ‘a waste of a good sheep shearing station’ as that’s what was originally there before they decided to make it their capital in the 1920s. I thought it was a well-planned, nicely spaced out city, with very friendly Canberrans who were all proud of their home city. It is one of the few cities in Australia that gets four proper seasons. You can be skiing in the mountains just over an hour from the city centre, and it’s all built around a beautiful lake. From the top of the Telstra tower it looked so green it was hard to see where the actual *city* was. Apparently they based the city on the British garden cities movement, and it showed. I love a planned city. I enjoy the order of a boulevard. I like to know there will be a little sub city centre just round the corner with parking, trees and a civic centre. I know I’m a minority in this, but I loved Canberra.

The National Library of Australia is in Canberra and had a wonderful ‘treasures’ collection which reminded me of the similar artefacts exhibition in the British Library.

BF is well into his politics, so we did the tour of their houses of parliament, The Capitol, which is a wonderful building built into a hill. You can walk on the grass on the roof to see the war memorial in the far distance.

This was between Christmas day and the new year, and as this is their main summer holiday, when the children are off school, many businesses close during this period. We rang a lot of restaurants asking if they were open, and eventually jumped in the car to the centre and had a great Chinese meal. The city centre *did* I’ll admit, have more than a whiff of the Milton Keynes about it, but really, is that so bad? It was clean, tidy, well laid out, plenty to do and see, I mean, what more is there? (Except some history I suppose).

Their war memorial was less like a British war memorial (a memorial with names on in the middle of a town), and more like the Imperial War Museum, full of artefacts, war scenes, accounts, pictures, letters from the great war and WW 2 and other wars afterwards. In WW1 half of all men who could have fought, did fight, which, considering most of them didn’t’ return, had a massive impact on the communities they’d left.

Next time, Sydney and the outback.

Liam Livings xx

Christmas in the sun. Seeing fake snow on the trees while wearing T shirt and shorts was an odd but fun experience. This is the tree they had in Melbourne CBD (central business district) which is 'city centre' for Brits, or 'downtown' for Americans.

The block of flats used in The Secret Life Of Us. When I discovered how near we were, as you can imagine, I was very pleased.

street art in St Kilda, Melbourne

St Kilda beach - about 10 mins walk from where we stayed. This, I believe, was Christmas day.

The Cadbury assortment box was very different from the UK version. I arranged them in order of preference, top is favourite, bottom is least favourite. Explanations of what the 'unusual' ones are: Moro - like a Mars bar Cadbury Dream - white chocolate Cherry Ripe - chocolate, cherry with dried coconut. VILE. What a way to waste cherry and chocolate!

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