I'm on the RNA's blog talking about this. Here's the full interview copied below, enjoy!

Tell us something about the plot of your novel.

Kieran, 18, comes out to himself then his family by going to a youth group. There he meets Kev, a cross dressing gay man with awful taste in boyfriends and Jo, a grade A drama student, at college and in his real life. Kieran navigates his way through the maze that is being a gay man in the late nineties, with help from his two new best friends, and his two old best friends; Hannah, just coming out too and trying to work out if Steps are Abba for the nineties; Grace a one woman charity shop bargain hunter with encyclopedic pop knowledge. 

How do you fit your writing around your home life?

I am a morning person. I like to get up at 7 o’clock and write before the activities of the day take over. I get up quite early on the weekend to write for a few hours before baking/hosting/watching TV and lolling about. 

If you were to record a soundtrack to your book which three songs (or pieces of music) would you choose and why?

All the characters are into music so can I pick one to represent each of the main characters? Kieran - One For Sorrow by Steps; Jo – Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music; Hannah - No More I Love You’s by Annie Lennox; Grace - Vienna by Ultravox; Kev – Love’s Unkind by Donna Summer.

How good are you at planning your work? Do you prefer to wing it?

I always plan my writing. Sometimes I use bullet points on a Word document, but recently I’ve got into Post It notes. It means I can have them laid out one side of my laptop, and my hand written character bios on the other side of the laptop and then the story on the screen. It saves moving from one document to another on screen, I can just glance to the side at the Post It notes to see the next scene to write. This technique means I write first drafts as fast as possible, averaging 2000 words an hour.

What did you enjoy most about writing you novel?

I love getting to know the new characters and travelling with them on their journeys. I always want my characters to have grown, changed by the end of the story, and I like taking them to some interesting places to help with that.

Best Friends Perfect  Book One will be published on 4 June 2014 by Wilde City Press.

Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

I'm on Charlie Cochrane's blog talking about what it's like as my first full length novel, Best Friends Perfect Book One is about to be published.

I've copied the interview below.

CC: So, old bean, when you were last here we chatted about watching your first book fledge. What does it feel like with the second?

LL: Although Best Friends Perfect Book One is my second book to be published, after Christmas Serendipity (CS), my novella published in December 2013, it is the first full length book to be published. Because the Best Friends Perfect series was the first manuscript I wrote, with a view to getting it published, I am much more nervous than I was with CS. Also, Best Friends Perfect has been split into a series of three books, which has meant some serious content edits to ensure each of the books is self contained. This has been hard work, but fun. I am nervous about whether people will like the stories I’ve written. Writers always/often/usually take from their own life experience to write their stories. When Jarvis Cocker, from Pulp, was asked about how much of Disco 2000 was true, he said ‘the only bit that isn’t true is the woodchip wallpaper.’ I think Best Friends Perfect is my Disco 2000 ;-)

CC: What do you think you've learned since you were first published?

LL: How much work and of a learning opportunity editing is with a good editor. CS had a light edit, and I learned some useful things from that, but it was only 18,000 words. Best Friends Perfect Book One is approx 65,000 words, and I’ve already started on edits on Book Two, which is about the same length. Val Hughes, my editor at Wilde City Press has helped me grow as a writer and I’m using what I’ve learned with her, in the new things I’m writing – they will still need a good edit though!

CC: What do you wish you'd known when you were first published?

LL: The difference between line and content edits, and how time consuming they are. How tempting to write a shiny new story is, while you’re up to your knees in content edits of a story you wrote a few years before.

CC: What inspired the latest book?

LL: My latest novella is called, I Love It – I Don’t Care, about a man who leaves an unhealthy relationship to start all over again. It was inspired by the Icona Pop song, I Love It, which became an earworm over Christmas 2013; the more I listened to its lyrics the more I saw the opening scene of a story. I had to write it in January 2014, and so I did.

CC: What inspired the Best Friends Perfect series?

LL: A desire to write a story that had been rolling around my head for years. A desire to see if people would want to join me in an imaginary world I created for my characters.

CC: Did you know where Best Friends Perfect Book One was going from the start or did it take an unexpected turn?

LL: I’m afraid I did. I knew where the whole Best Friends Perfect series was going from start to finish, as I’d planned each chapter with some bullet points of what happened before I wrote it. At drafting and editing stages, and after beta readers had read it, I did add some extra bits in, some more stuff happens in Book Two now. And there’s more interaction with Kev, by popular demand, all the beta readers loved Kieran’s other gay male best friend, so I added more of him. I am firmly a plotter when it comes to stories. I may use bullet points on a Word doc. I may use Post It notes, I may just scribble some ideas on a bit of paper, but I do, always plan what I’m writing – along with my trust character biogs I write too. That seems to be what works for me, so I’m sticking to it.

CC: Have you ever been writing and discovered something totally unexpected about one of your characters?

LL: Sort of: in Best Friends Perfect, Kev likes to dress up, shall we say. Beta readers loved this aspect of him, and quite a few asked why, where had it come from, what was the origin? I hadn’t thought about that, so I added a chapter when he explains it to Kieran, and writing that helped make him a more rounded, realistic character in later chapters I added with Kev as a main focus.

CC: Which book do you wish you'd written and why?

LL: I’ve just finished Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, and it’s so fresh and modern feeling. The characters he tells you about just jump off the page. I wish I’d written something with characters like that from a significant time period during my life.

CC: Have you got a secret you'd be willing to share?

LL: You know what they say about a secret don’t you? Once you tell someone a secret it’s no longer a secret!

Best Friends Perfect Book One is out 4 June 2014.

Kieran, 18, comes out and meets Kev and Jo. Now Kieran has his four best friends, it’s all set to be perfect. Will Kieran find his perfect Prince Charming boyfriend? Will Jo get on with Hannah and Grace, Kieran’s old best friends? Will Kev spend less on outfits and vodka and more sensible things?

We were like Thelma and Louise—Kieran and Jo. His real name was Jonathan, but he didn’t like anyone calling him that, and would only answer to ‘Jo’, specifically spelt that way. Jonathan Davis. We did everything together, we were best friends. We weren’t boyfriends, more like girlfriends, or maybe brothers, if we were feeling a bit less camp.
It’s amazing what you can get over: death, betrayal, loneliness. No matter what life throws at you to change your plans, to stop you as you try to make your perfect life, somehow you pick yourself up and continue. I survived all those things, because I’m here, happy in my life now.
Only it isn’t what I thought my life would be; when I was eighteen, taking my first steps into the whole new world of being gay, my idea of perfect wasn’t anything like what I have now.
Back then, I thought I had it all worked out. I’d find my perfect Boyfriend––capital B; my perfect new gay friends Jo and Kev would join my two other best friends, Hannah and Grace, to complete my perfect life. How wrong was I?
Instead, life came along, and it wasn’t nearly that simple. Only now, that part of my life is an ancient memory, along with the music, combat trousers and sleeveless tops. Now I’m ready to tell you my story.

This is my first novel, and it will be published on 4 June 2014 by Wilde City Press.

Kieran, 18, comes out to himself then his family by going to a youth group. There he meets Kev, a cross dressing gay man with awful taste in boyfriends and Jo, a grade A drama student, at college and in his real life. Kieran navigates his way through the maze that is being a gay man in the late nineties, with help from his two new best friends, and his two old best friends; Hannah, just coming out too and trying to work out if Steps are Abba for the nineties; Grace a one woman charity shop bargain hunter with encyclopedic pop knowledge.

I have a loose blog tour planned during May and June and will be doing other things like character interviews, song lists from the book and *other things*. But in the meantime, let's just take a moment to appreciate the cover.

Last night we watched the film, GBF (Gay Best Friend). The BF said, ‘It’s got Liam written all over it. It’s definitely a Liam film.’ When I read the synopsis on the internet I thought it would be *awful* not just bad, but properly, as bad as Another Gay Movie-awful. Yeah, that bad.

The synopsis: What happens after Tanner is outed by his classmates and becomes the title ‘gay best friend’ for three high school queen bees?

I was wrong.

There have been some comparisons with Clueless. I think only time will tell if it’s as timeless as that film. It has nods to Carrie, Mean Girls, and feels like a modern John Hughes film, like Sixteen Candles or Pretty In Pink.

It sasses along, chock full of teen speak – just like Clueless. There are more ‘whatevs’ and ‘totes’ ‘obvi’  ‘amazeballs’ per scene than ever before. Soon you get used to this, and it adds to the film’s charm.

Tanner has a friend, Brent Van Camp, who's trying to work out how/if to come out at high school. This storyline about their platonic friendship is very touching and funny. It's made even funnier by Brent's mum being played by Megan *Karen from Will & Grace* Mullally, including a scene where they watch Brokeback Mountain together. 

I loved the scenes when the queen bees each asked Tanner stereotypical gay best friend questions: ‘Does this dress suit me?’ or ‘Can you give me sex tips for my boyfriend?’ or ‘Say fierce in that special way’ and ‘Gays don’t eat carbs’.

What makes this work, and prevents it descending into patronising stereotype is that Tanner, isn’t really *that* gay – based on the stereotypical questions he’s asked. One of the queen bees says, ‘You’re the secret gay – but you’re not even that fabulous.’ Yes stereotypes are based, in part, on truth. Yes there are gay men who are into those things. But it’s not the only way to be gay.

Tanner isn’t into musicals, doesn’t want to do a play at high school, isn’t into fashion or clothing, hasn’t slept with another man yet. He’s just a quiet 17 year old man who’s into comic books, and just happens to be attracted to men, not women.

Tanner takes a male date to the prom, and as he poses for a photo next to his ‘boy toy’ and the queen bee says ‘aah’ Tanner replies that’s the noise girls make when they see cute animals dressed in human clothes, so it feels a bit odd having girls saying it to him and another man. ‘Ew. Gross, barf’ is the girls' joking response, which Tanner and his prom date are happier with. I’ve had similar situations where people have tried to show how totally OK they are with me being gay so it actually tips over into being a bit *pats head and treats you like a kitten* which is almost as bad as mild homophobia.

Tanner says he doesn’t want to be a fashion accessory to the queen bees. He doesn’t want to be a gay best friend, to go to a gay prom, he just wants to be a friend, a best friend, go to a prom, and for the ‘gay’ part to be silent. Tanner wants to be a person first, then the gay, rather than a gay first then the person. And I think that’s all most of us really want.

Have you seen this film? Does it sound like your cup of tea? Have you seen the other films it references? If you like the sound of its sassy, campy high school teen, friendship themes, my first novel, Best Friends Perfect Book One which is out 4 June. Kieran and Jo are the British Tanner & Brent of the nineties.

Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

I’m often asked why I write, so I thought I’d share the reasons. In no particular order here they are...

1. I can’t sing, paint or do anything else creative. Unless you count baking. Does that count as creative? I suppose my brain must need *some* creative outlet. I’m often told gardening is a wonderfully creative pursuit. I’m afraid it leaves me cold. I literally couldn’t give a monkey’s about gardening. As long as there’s dappled shade and a chair for me to read, I’m happy with a garden.
2. I enjoy it – I absolutely love the feeling when I have a new idea and start writing the story, as I can’t wait to get to know the new characters and their motivations.
3. I’m always observing life, slightly from the sidelines, always thinking, ‘That’s an interesting turn of phrase,’ or ‘I wonder what could happen now,’ or ‘I must remember how awful/great this feels and use it in my writing.’ These thoughts were always buzzing around my head, only now I can use them in my writing. I have a pile of notebooks from 11 years old upwards, containing writing about this. These were my early writing note books, only I didn’t know at the time. Most people might keep a journal when travelling during their GAP year. I did, but I also wrote little stories, accounts of people I’d met on the travels. Things we talked about, amusing stories they told me, things we’d done together. I also used to write about break ups I’d been through.
4. I find writing can be a cathartic process to help with difficult periods of my life. A few years ago I had a very difficult period – the usual SAD combined with stress and hearing some upsetting news about a close friend.  I wasn’t writing at the time – I was 'between projects'. I realise this was a mistake. Even if I’m having a dark period, writing helps, even if it’s a few hand written lines in my notebook. When I’m experiencing SAD, stress, and it all feels like too much, and I have no time for writing, that’s when I know I must make time to write.
5. I’ve kept a journal since 1998 and have always enjoyed the taking stock, reflection element of that. Now I get to adapt those parts, and make up some fun bits in my fiction. It’s great!
6. I have read books and thought, that would be easy to write. It’s not. Easily read books are very hard to write.
7. I want to touch people with my imagination and characters in the same way as I have been with my favourite writers.

Writers, why do you write? Readers, do any of these surprise you? Do any readers have creative outlets which are similar to some of my reasons? I'd love to hear from you,
Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

*new book klaxon*

KC Wells is one of the authors I met for the first time at UK Meet 2014, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again in Bristol this June. If you like a bit of BDSM and some men in angsty pain, this will be for you. I've heard many great things about the Collars & Cuffs series, and KC showed me the real club in Manchester's gay village that inspired Collars & Cuffs.

KC Wells has book four of the Collars and Cuffs series out 23 May, from Dreamspinner Press.

Collars and Cuffs: Book Four

Recently returned to the UK after living in the States since he was eleven, Andrew Barrett is determined to keep busy and make a new life for himself. He works full time as a copywriter and strips at a club on Canal Street on weekends. But it still leaves him too much time to think. Then he finds the BDSM club, Collars & Cuffs, where at twenty-nine, he is their youngest Dom. Young doesn’t mean inexperienced, however. All this activity keeps him focused with no time to dwell on the past. But the past has a way of intruding on the present.

It’s been four long years since Gareth Michaels last set foot inside Collars & Cuffs. But when he finally summons his courage and steps back into his former world, he finds the man who drove him away is still a member, and what's more, he wants Gareth back. Two men in pain need the freedom they find in each other, but it takes another man’s horrific plans to make them see it.

Here's some more about the book, and the buy link on the Dreamspinner website.
If you want to read Chapter 1, it's just below.

*shamless plug for my book klaxon*

PS: variety is, most definitely, the spice of life. If you like a bit of swishy, coming out teenaged angst, best friends jostling for position, gay pride marches, set in the nineties, in your fiction, Best Friends Perfect book 1 is out 6 June from Wilde City Press.

Until next time,

Liam Livings xx