I've decided to do NanoWrimo this year. This may turn out to be madness. But I have a few story ideas I've been knocking about for a while, and I'm hoping this will give me the *kick* I need to get a first draft done by the end of 2013.

This is my first Nano, but I've only heard good things about it from Becky Black, Anna Martin, Sue Brown and Blane Arden, so who am I to argue with all that?

If you want to look at my Nano profile, you can cheer me on.

I've just checked my weekends in November and they're pretty much all full: the BF's parents are staying; Festival of Romance; Classic Car Show; holiday, which I wasn't planning on taking my laptop to. Well, I guess plans can change...

Wish me luck everyone. More later...

I've also written about one of my favourite British gay films, Bedrooms and Hallways. Kevin McKidd and James Purefoy in bed together - have I got your attention now?

Liam xx

The Blurb: One boy’s struggle to escape from a secret world.

This is also another book which made me cry, like buckets this time. You'll understand why as I explain the book.

This is written under a pseudo name – he used one of the characters from The Goonies film. Much of the book is about the ways which gypsies live their lives. Now that we live in a post ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ age this may come as less of a shock to some reading it.

Much is familiar territory to those who’ve seen MBFGW, courting practices, living practices, how gypsies regard gorgias (non gypsies).

The really interesting part of this story is when Mikey realises he is gay. Being gay in gypsy culture is a massive no no. It’s seen as un-manly, and just isn’t accepted. Mikey tries very hard to fit in and his father despairs of him not doing the correct and proper gypsy man things, so he beats him harder and harder.

SPOILER ALERT

In addition to the physical abuse Mikey suffers, he also suffers other abuse over a number of years. This was, unsurprisingly, the hardest part of the book to read. I actually had to re-read some phrases to absorb the full gravity of what Mikey was saying. I won’t quote any here as it is very upsetting. The writing style is very conversational and in the first person, so you feel exactly as if Mikey is telling you what happened. Even the abuse, is told in a quite matter of fact way. This isn’t to minimise its significance, it is told like that, because it was a matter of fact. Those things happened to Mikey and he continued to live his life.

He starts a secret relationship with someone which would be frowned on for two reasons: it is a man, and it’s a gorgia man. Even friendships with gorgia men aren’t well received by his gypsy family.

END OF SPOILER ALERT

When it all becomes too much Mikey leaves his family which is a huge wrench as he misses his mum and sister so much. I’m not giving much away here - the second book is called ‘Gypsy Boy On The Run’

The honesty and openness with which this story is told, is breathtaking. The simplicity of the writing beautiful. If you read one autobiographical story this year, make it this one. I listened to him interviewed on Radio 2 and he speaks exactly as he writes, with chatty openness and an unassuming air. I hope he writes more as I would read more from this author.

Have you read this book? Would its subject matter be difficult for you? I’d love to hear.

Until next time

Liam Livings xx

 

• In shops/restaurants people ask how you are, and when we asked how they were in return, it was met with a surprised response, like ‘why would you ask me that?’
• They have Uniqlo in NYC and it’s not much cheaper than the UK but some of the shops are *enormous*. H&M seems to be a bit more expensive than in the UK. Levis, however, in Macy’s – with no sales tax for clothes – was much cheaper than in the UK.
• Fererro Rocher ice cream and Oreo ice cream were possibly the nicest ice cream flavours I’ve ever had.
• Cold pizza for breakfast after having the majority the night before at midnight was a perfect New York moment.
• The free Staten Island ferry was great fun, and gave a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty, as a bonus, since access to the statue was closed due to the government shutdown. In my head I was also reliving both the episode of Sex and The City when they go to Staten Island to judge the Fireman’s calendar, and the start of the film, Working Girl.

• The Staten Island September 11th memorial was very moving, and it faced directly to downtown Manhattan where the World Trade Centre was.
• Walking around Wall Street again, brought back memories of the film. We didn’t find any Gordon Gekkos though – red braces denied.
• Walking across Brooklyn Bridge at sunset to re-inact the Miranda and Steve moment from the first SATC film was pretty magical.

• Having pizza at a recommended restaurant in Brooklyn, accompanied by an eighties soundtrack including Nothing’s gonna stop us now, by Starship; Take on me by Aha; Take my breath away, by Berlin, was magic.
• We went to Jackson Heights in Queens to see the house used for Ugly Betty. It is a very diverse borough with lots of suburban houses and the Manhatten skyline in the distance. It was like the film locations scout just got off the subway and fell into the next street.
• I accidently had bubble tea, during our trip to Queens. This is neither tea, nor does it have bubbles. It is like cold watery chocolate milkshake, with ‘bubbles’ of tapioca in the bottom, drunk through a large straw. I won’t be rushing back to have it again.

• I found myself quite addicted to black cherry soda, tasting of fizzy glace cherries.

• Visiting the Top of the Rock, at the Rockefeller centre was a better view than the Empire State Building, because you got to see the ESB. The Rockefeller Centre also gave me a chance to remember that scene from Serendipity where they go ice-skating on their date. This is one of my favourite Christmas films, and I've used the title for my novella, Christmas Serendipity, out in December.
• Sampling some cocktails in a 1920s style cocktail bar in the Flatiron district. Much stronger than London cocktails, especially for someone who doesn’t drink often, like me.

• Sampling some cocktails in a 1920s style cocktail bar in the Flatiron district. Much stronger than London cocktails, especially for someone who doesn’t drink often, like me.
• In SoHo at lunch, we sat on a table next to a woman wearing immaculately clean Hunter wellies which I’m sure had never been anywhere near mud, who averaged 15 mentions of ‘like’ in a minute. This means in the hour she sat next to us, she said ‘like’ about 900 times. She ate a lentil soup and half a grapefruit.
  
• We stumbled across a John Lennon exhibition of his drawings, put on by Yoko Ono. Very moving, walking around the drawings, accompanied by Beatles and Lennon’s music. ‘Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted time.’ Lennon quote which I’d heard before, but somehow in that context, was more powerful.

I hope you've enjoyed my random ramblings about my visit to NYC. As you can probably see, I'm a *massive* fan of American films and TV series, so going to NYC did feel like walking in a huge film set, which I loved. Years ago, when I went to LA, I specifically went to the stairs featured in Clueless, when Cher - Alicia Silverstone - walks, lloaded up with shopping as she's trying to think about what to do with her friend/love life situation. I wept, I was so excited. It was like coming back to the mothership, or something...*coughs*

Have you ever visited places from your favourite films/books/TV series? I'd love to hear from you.

Until next time,
Liam Livings xxx

This is a random selection of observations, moments, things I noticed during our time in NYC. It’s not intended to be judgemental, just reporting what I observed as a British person who’s lived in London for over ten years.

• A woman in large purple harem pants with a gold necklace reading ‘RICH’, talking to her skinny and *very* tall gay friend who had minuscule tiny denim shorts on, barely covering his very long legs. They were waiting for Ms Harem pants’ boyfriend to buy a drink in a cafe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
• A guy telling his friend on the subway, very loudly, how his girlfriend dumped him by saying ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’ out of nowhere. He explained he wasn’t used to rejection as it was the first time he’s ever been dumped. His friend said nothing the whole time he told this story.  
• $31 (about £20) for an all zones subway ticket for a week is very cheap.
• After some Wikipedia action, I worked out that Greater London and NYC have the same population, of just over 8million. But NYC has half the area, which explains why it feels much more high rise than London’s 600 square miles.
• Using the same turnstiles for entry and exit on the subway is a bit different from the London Tube.
• Subway trains have USA flags on them. For those who don’t live in London, Tube trains, do not have union flags on them.

• There were quite a few homeless people using the subway as somewhere to sleep during the day.
• A $1500 (about £1000) Miele vacuum cleaner in a very high end kitchen shop at the Lincoln Centre.
• Times Square was just as frenetic and light bulbey as I’d expected it. I loved the McDonalds with a lit entrance, for added glamour with your Big Mac.

• Watching a huge crowd of people take pictures of Strawberry Fields, the memorial to peace and John Lennon, Yoko Ono has put in Central Park, next to her apartment on Park Avenue West.
• Seeing people taking photos outside the apartment building where Yoko Ono still lives, and where Lennon was shot dead. This was both fascinating, and a bit macabre.
• The amazing variety of cheap and good quality food from all over the world. We hired an apartment in the belief we’d cook while there. We didn’t. We ate out all the time, which is a first for us, as we *always* cook on holiday. We ate Chinese, Mexican street food, burgers, enough pulled pork to start a piggery of our own, Italian, and lots more.
• The hire of rowing boats at $12 (£8) for the lake in the middle of Central Park was much cheaper than the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
• The Barnes and Nobel book store was a bit baffled when I asked for the gay fiction section and was directed to the ‘issues based’ section, including African Studies, Gay studies etc. No gay fiction there. I went to the romance section, and there was nothing gay there either L

• I became a bit obsessed with the taxis/police cars/towncars/limos. Chances are if you’ve seen a taxi/police car/ limo on American TV/film from the past 15 years, it’s one of these. And there was something about actually seeing them in real life I got a bit over-excited about. Once I realised all three of these were all a variation on one car, just with different dresses on, my obsession grew. I told you I was a car geek. I ended up buying models of the police car, limo and taxi from a shop in Queens as a memento of the trip! For those of you who are as into cars as me, here’s more on the Ford Crown Victoria. I'm not expecting many to look at *that* link, so I'll get my coat...

Are there any Brits out there who've been to NYC? Anything particularly special moments you'd like to share? Or are there any Americans out there who think my observations are laughable? I'd love to hear from you.
Until next time,

Liam Livings xx

I’m just back from the USA, where I saw this board outside a flea market in Brooklyn, which made me smile, which is why I’m posting it here. I’ve also been watching an *awful lot* of Nashville too, where everyone is greeted by ‘y’all’ which is definitely growing on me.

I wanted to tell y’all where I’m going to be this season in case you’d like to meet me, talk to me, hear me reading some of my work...

Story reading and question & answer session 30 October - London
I will be at the Feminist Library, at 5 Westminster Bridge Road SE1 7XW from 7pm on Wednesday 30 October. I will be reading some of my current WIP, And Then That Happened – not a part which is on my website, it’s going to be a bit from further into the story. I will be joined by Eleanor Keane who will also read from one of her stories.

I would love to see you if you can come along. I hope you enjoy the extract I’m going to read *shuffles through word doc* which is still to be decided!

Festival of Romance – Bedford 9-10 November
I will be joined with my fellow m/m authors, Jay Rookwood, Patrick Darcy and Charlie Cochrane, as well as many other romance authors I’ve yet to met. I will be there from mid morning on Saturday 9 November and would love to meet other authors, and readers.

Any questions, if you’d like to arrange a time to meet, or anything else, just give me a shout.

Until next time

Liam Livings xx

Somehow I persuaded the BF to come with me to the MX5 National Rally. It’s an event where all the members of the MX5 Club come together to show off their cars, talk cars, compete in various categories, buy bits for their cars, and show off their driving skills in a car gymkhana. There's *a lot* of car things going on.

I have no idea how the BF agreed to come with me, I’ve previously gone to these on my own, and had a great time, much like going to the NEC Classic Car Show. It allows me to indulge my not so inner car geek.

This year’s National Rally was at Sandringham, one of The Queen’s private residences. The car club had negotiated  a discount, and since neither of us had been to either Sandringham, or Norfolk together, we booked it.

Although Norfolk is *technically* part of East Anglia, just like Essex, it is a world away: there’s no motorway, the largest place is Norwich at approximately 200,000 people, it’s very flat – Essex, is actually quite hilly – and the burr in the accent is nothing like Essex’s estuarine twang either.

The guide at Sandrigham’s museum, explained that although Norfolk is rural, like lots of other rural places in the UK, it’s different, because ‘you don’t need to drive through Norfolk to get anywhere. If you’re in Norfolk, it’s because you want to be in Norfolk.’ He also explained that normally museum entrances were on the left, and exits on the right, but ‘Because it’s Norfolk, it’s entrance right, exit left. That’s how we are around here.’

The weather was gorgeous, Muriel had her roof down all day, and most of the way home on Sunday. We bought some very good eau de toilette - at a car show, I was surprised too. Sandringham was brilliant value, the house was beautiful, grounds so well kept, and museum very informative and filled with lots of cars the Royal Family had owned. 

After our fill of cars, tea, cake and Royalty, we left for the Norfolk coast, which was beautiful. And the added bonus was it gave me an idea for a story. I’m funny like that, I can see a house, beach, or over hear a conversation and that gives me the start of a story. And then I’m off...

Have you been to Norfolk? Would you be able to persuade your other half to do something as out of his/her areas of interest as I did? How do ideas come to you for stories? I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,

Liam Livings xx

Here's another story I read on holiday. It is in an anthology called Don’t Read in the Closet – an MM Romance Collection vol 1

SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT

• I enjoyed the awkwardness the main character felt as he got used to the ‘nekkid’ holiday
• I thought it was very touching how the best friend continued to influence the main character’s decisions
• It had an interesting contrast between what happened to the main character's friend and his wish for the main character to experience a gay holiday where everyone is nude
• I enjoyed the awkward first conversation between Hal and Mikki – it was just the right balance of flirting and awkwardnes. I love that part of a relationship, lots of opportunity for misunderstanding, humour, and awkwardness. it was handled well here
  
• I loved the happy ending, and the clever twist made it perfect

Have you read this story, or any others in the