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Getting My Poetry Mojo Back

29/10/2014

picture from wikihow to make a knickerbocker glory

At my local writers group a few weeks ago, we had the lovely Victoria Robertson running a session on poetry. One of the exercises was to look at three photos on the screen and spend ten minutes writing a poem.
I used to write poetry years ago, and then in the nineties I got more into short pen portraits of people I’d met on my travels in Oz, and wrote poetry less. Writing a poem at the group reminded me how much I enjoy this form of expression, so I may be using it to help with unblock if I’m stuck with a story idea. Or just as a complete change from whichever novel I’m writing/editing at the time.

I picked the picture of food, obvs, which included a knickerbocker glory reminding me of a birthday treat when I was somewhere between eight and ten years old. It's rough, and all I did is type up what I wrote at the writers group.

The Feast

A cherry on top of the knickerbocker glory,
Stood like a flat atop a mountain.
The boy had asked for it as a treat.
A birthday feast.

The day arrived, and with his mum
and dad, they made the journey.
At their destination the boy demanded
his feast.
His parents watched him climb the
Knickerbocker glory, until he reached its summit.

All that remained was a shiny red
Cherry.
And his parents’ smiling faces either
Side of the table.
He’d conquered the feast.

Have any of you written poetry? Is it something you'd like to get back into?
I'd love to hear from you,

Liam Livings xx

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My Writing Process Blog Tour

24/10/2014

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I've been tagged by Charlie Cochrane, fellow UK Meet organiser, writer of Cambridge Fellows mysteries, in this blog tour. Charlie's post about these questions is here.

My Writing Process Blog Tour

What are you working on?
At the moment, a few things, it’s like juggling cats, or herding plates, or something... I’ve just sent back content edits to my editor at Love Lane Books on And Then That Happened. Just after that I sent Love Lane Books a revised manuscript for Guardian Angel after I’d given it a good self-edit. I’m over half way through the first draft of book 2 in the new Kev Friends Perfect series, which is a spin off from the Best Friends Perfect series, from Kev’s point of view. He’s a cross dressing teenager growing up in a small village outside Salisbury in the late nineties, so there’s plenty of things for him to work through.

How does your work differ from others of its genre?
I’m writing gay romance *as a gay man* - and I think I tend to inadvertently put more of an emphasis on the *gay* element, as in trying to show realistic, well rounded gay men characters, and their friends, based on knowing quite a few gay men in real life. Don’t get me wrong, I love a happily ever after as much as the next reader and author, and my stories are all romances, about men meeting men, keeping men, or being in a long term relationship. I also like a bit of camp and humour and I like to put that in my writing too, as that reflects my personality. I also don’t write explicit sex in my stories, as I don’t like to read it, and believe you can show love and romance in a romance story, in many other ways than only lots of bonking. I don’t quite fade to black, there’s more on this on this blog.

Why do you write what you do?
I write what I do because I write what I know in terms of showing real gay men, their loves, their lives and their friends. I write what comes to me.

How does your writing process work?
It has been a bit of a work in progress, but since doing Nanowrimo in November 2013 and writing more stories in 2014 I think I’ve finessed it.

Assuming I have an idea – and they’re never backward at coming forward. Talking about where I get my ideas is a whole post in itself.
I will write (pencil and paper) some character biogs: age, physical appearance, job, where they live, what they like, they don’t like, any possessions that will tell me about that character, any back story that shows me why they’re like they are.
Then I use post it notes to plan scene by scene 12 post it scenes to a piece of A4, what will happen. Sometimes the post it notes can have lines of dialogue I know the characters will say, other times it may only have a summary of what happens.
I plot the novel from start to finish. If I have more than 4-5 characters I will do a separate character arc for each one, and check back with that as I’m post it note plotting. I’ve only had to do that for one story so far as it had 14 characters.
I normally run out of steam approaching the end, so sometimes leave the complete ending a bit open, and will plot that again/in more detail once I’ve written up to that point.
Then I turn on my laptop, have the character biogs on the left, have the post it notes to the right, and I write. Some post it note scenes end up as a few lines of dialogue, others are 400-1000 words on the typed page, it all depends on what’s on the post it note.
I write from start to finish, without going back to tinker and edit. If I get stuck I write [this bit is rubbish/ they need to have an argument about x and y needs to win and do z] and I’ll come back and fill that in later in self-edits.
I like to stay with the story while I’m writing, so I try to write every day, when real life permits, and write right through to the end.
Once I have a first draft I’ll leave that untouched for at least a month.
I then go through the document and using the comment boxes feature in Word, write notes to myself [this bit is rubbish/ x needs to be really happy here, not holding back/ this bit needs to be cut] whatever.
I go through all these comments, and hand write an overall list of: themes broad issues I need to fix, and work through the manuscript fixing them one at a time.
Then I send it to beta readers.
Back from beta readers I make another load of amends, using the crowd sourcing method of beta readers’ comments.
Then one read through for consistency issues that come up with other minor tinkering, and then it’s submitted to a publisher.

So that's my quite processey writing process!

How was that for you? Authors, does this differ wildly from what you do? Readers, are you surprised at the process part?

I’d love to hear from you.

Liam Livings xx

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Attitude Magazine's Top 20 Camp Classic Films

23/10/2014

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For those of you who don’t subscribe to Attitude (and why not the annual subscription is 40% off the cover price?) here’s their list, with some of my thoughts if I’ve seen them. *drum roll* in reverse order:

20 Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
I can’t believe it’s twenty years since this film came out. Mum had gone to Australia on her own and I was left in charge of the washing machine and the cooking since my younger brother and dad weren’t too great in that department. Mum saw it, back to back in Oz with Priscilla in a cinema in Surfers Paradise.

19 Carrie (1976)
I’ve seen this and a phrase I use a lot, not really knowing it was from this film is: [insert name of awful thing] ‘let’s burn it together and pray for forgiveness’

18 The Towering Inferno (1974)
We watched a while ago. It’s not what I’d call camp. I mean, the seventies decor is pretty kitsch. There’s a few moments with people jumping from the building, and a lot of bla de bla architecuture talk about how the building was built and if it was safe etc. A good film, but it wouldn’t even get a 5/10 in my camp rating I’m afraid.

17 Strictly Ballroom (1992)
In my list so I won't blather on again about it.

16 Death Becomes Her (1992)
I think you all know my thoughts on this film.

15 Spice World (1997)
This is one of those films that’s so awful it’s good. I watched it one year in that lull between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. It was a great pick me up tonic of a film.

14 Rocky III (1982)
Haven’t seen this, but it’s in Attitude’s list.

13 Batman Returns (1992)
Pretty much everything Michelle Pfeiffer says is very very camp.

12 Barbarella (1968)
Lots of camp Carry On style slapstick and there’s a character called Durand Durand – which is where the camp eighties pop group got its name from. Yes, really.

11 Glitter (2001)
This looks truly awful. Not so awful it’s good, just truly awful. I will watch it obviously. Mariah Carey’s semi-autobiographical film about her life.

10 54 (1998)
Ryan Phillipe gets a job as a bus boy at the Studio 54 club. Lots of debauchery. Haven’t seen it myself, but will resolve this forthwith.

9 Theatre of Blood (1973)
A washed up Shakespearan actor wreaks his revenge on critics by killing them. We started watching this and it was like a comedy sketch that should last 20mins and not two hours. I don’t think I’ll return to finish it.

8 Grease 2
Nothing to do with John Travolta and Olivea Newton John . Great songs. Judy Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft is in it playing a fabulously air-brained Paulette. I saw this a long time ago. I think it bears re-watching.

7 All About Eve (1950)
Bette Davis plays Margo Channing who accidently helps the ascending star of a backstabbing actor Eve Harrington. I’ve not seen this.
‘Fasten your seatbelts...it’s going to be a bumpy night!’ Who hasn’t said that at some point? *shrugs* maybe that’s just me then.

6 Body Of Evidence (1993)
Madonna is in this odd whodunit accused of sexing her aged boyfriend to death. I’ve not seen this. And we all know how well Madonna's singing skills translate into acting skills...

5 Mommie Dearest (1981)
It’s about how Joan Crawford beat seven shades of shite out of her step daughter Christina. Meant to be quite similar in its unhinged feeling to Single White Female and Fatal Attraction. I’ve seen the last two, but not this eighties gem. Yet.

4 Flash Gordon (1980)
Flash Gordon takes on Ming the Merciless. Lots of Queen camp rock music. Fabulous in stereo with Technicolor lycra. Clearly, I’ve seen this. “Gordon’s alive!” Brian Blessed’s best line.

3 Whatever Happened To Baby Jane (1962)

2 Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Gloria Swanson is a faded silent film actor who hires a writer to facilitaae her return to cinema. ‘I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.’ What a great quote. Haven’t seen this, but I will be soon.

1 Showgirls (1995)
This is the definition of so bad it’s good. It was completely panned at thet cinema but has become a cult classic on DVD. It’s about a group of Las Vegas lap dancers. It’s meant to have some magic OTT camp dialogue I’m dying to dive into, none of which I can quote here I’m afraid because I like to try and keep it clean around these parts *shudders*. How very dare you.

How many of these have you seen? How does this list compare with my list of camp classics?
Would you watch any of these now they're in this list?
I'd love to hear from you.

Liam Livings xx

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How I self edited my Nanowrimo 2013 novel

14/10/2014

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I did my first Nanorwimo in 2013. I loved it. Here's how I prepared for Nanowrimo 2013. It taught me about fast drafting, and I’ve used some of the techniques I picked up there, planning and character biogs, to write novels since then, at a much faster rate than I was before doing Nanowrimo.

I said I’d blog about what it was like to self-edit this first Nanowrimo novel, so here goes.

Phase 1
I left it until April 2014 to look at the story. I re-read the story, then made a 3 page list of page number references and things to fix. Then I wrote an additional 7k sorting out some things about the fantasy world of the angels I’d created, added in some stuff about the main character’s best friend, so she was more of a 3d character, added in some description to some of the scenes (I tend to write less description than needed in early drafts as I hate novels with pages and pages of description, I just want dialogue and to move the story along) and I added in some more emotions to the scene I’ll call ‘the night’ as I don’t want to spoil the plot.

This was editing on my own, without an editor, and without any beta readers seeing it. This was hard, as it was writing new bits, scattered throughout the existing story. This is difficult for me as it’s hard to post it note plan a little paragraph in the middle of another scene. This 7k probably took more than 14hrs to write. This whole phase took 2 weeks.

Phase 2
Then in August the manuscript went to Elin Gregory, one of my wonderful beta readers, and she came back with a load more comments and suggestion for changes.

I went through and fixed any of the little suggestions Elin had given.

My part in this took an evening.

Phase 3
I re-read it and made a list of the main areas needing fixing: a big gap of more than 100 pages without any angels at all (I know, how on earth did I miss that?); the main character was not really happy about something, which made the climax of that part less of a climax; there was a lot of page time with a character who wasn’t pivotal to the main romance story.

I spent 2 weeks fixing these points: adding in regular angelic scene in the big gap; made the main character really happy, when before he’d been a big meh; I wrote as a separate new document the 14k of new scenes I’d planned with the main character and the romantic lead; I cut the bits with the non-pivotal character (putting them into a separate document as it felt better than just cutting it and losing it altogether. Doubt I’ll use it again, but you never know).

Then using my little bits of paper method, I put the new 14k in amongst the remaining bit of the main document, I took another week to read through it again for consistency errors, and knock on effects the new 14k had on the main manuscript (which added another 3k words!) and now it’s gone to Love Lane Books to be added to the editing queue.

In conclusion
Was that any worse or better than editing my non Nanowrimo novels?
It was the most cuts I’ve had to do, but I totally saw why that stuff needed to go.

It’s less of an edit than I’ve done on some other novels, and more of an edit than I’ve done on others. So basically *shrugs* who knows. Pretty unscientific I know, but what I’ve taken is the amount of editing depends more on the story, than whether I wrote it in Nanowrimo or not.

A lot of the fixes were about the world of the angels I’d created. Could they do this? What was the rule I said about them at the start? What did the handbook have to say on that point? This is the first fantasy novel I’ve ever written. With contemporary there’s no ‘rules’ to remember, it’s real life, and that’s it. With the angels I had a whole new set of rules and norms to remain consistent throughout the story. Next time I’d keep a separate document for these rules. *note to self*

Am I doing Nanowrimo again this year?
I have two more novels on the rota for first draft writing in 2014, one in October and one in December (I’ve been alternating months so I can have the other months ‘off’ for edits and promo of other stories.) So at this stage I don’t know if I will Nanowrimo 2014 or not.

Have you had any Nanowrimo learning you’ve used afterwards?

Was editing your Nanowrimo novel a real hot mess, and worse than your normally written novels?

I’d love to hear from you,
Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

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Where Are All The Men?

9/10/2014

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I went to the Romantic Novelist’s Association conference in June 2014 I blogged about it, and was one of about six or seven men. This was a more than 100% increase on 2013 I’ve been told. I had a wonderful time.
I’ve attended the UK Meet since 2012 and gradually noticed an increase in the number of men attending.

BUT THERE’S STILL MORE OF YOU OUT THERE. I KNOW IT.
*WALKS CLOSE TO THE SCREEN AND TAPS IT*
YES, YOU, MAN, SAT THERE IN YOUR COMFY TROUSERS, I MEAN YOU! PUT ON A NICE JACKET AND JOIN ME AT ONE OF THESE EVENTS!
*TAPS SCREEN*
I MEAN YOU.

Eight reasons why men should attend these events

1. There’s an increasing number of these events each year. So far in 2015 there is an authors’ event organised by RJ Scott, a Manifold Press event in 2015, an event in Berlin, organised by Marc from Rainbow Gold Reviews, UK Meet 2015 obvs, and recently there was a gay romance book signing event in London. So if you’re a man reading, writing, blogging about gay romance, then you should get yourself booked onto one or more of these events. These events are a really important way to engage with our community of authors, bloggers and readers of gay romance. So if you’re not attending, even one or two, you’re missing out. And who wants to miss out? Exactly!

2. You might get to see these.

I'm the one in the natty red jacket - not me. I mean the butlers in the buff. They were at UK Meet 2013 and if I have anything to do with it we'll have more at UK Meet 2014. You do the maths!

3.   Even if you’re an introvert – and many of us are - and the thought of groups of people worries you, I bet you a chocolate muffin you’ll still have a great time. The women at these things are lovely, friendly, interesting, and you’ll get to talk about gay romance with them. And maybe ogle some butlers or gogo dancers in a gay bar. But any more of that’s not for here. Anyway, there’s plenty of time to talk to people one to one if groups aren’t your thing. If the panels and networking gets too much, you can always take yourself off to a quiet lobby, back to your room or outside to recharge your batteries. I’m an extrovert – like you didn’t know - and I secreted myself in my room a few times during the conference weekends to recharge and get back to Stars Hollow with my Gilmore girls.

4.   If you’re worried about preserving your identity while attending these events, UK Meet has a strict no photos policy if you wear the white lanyard, so your face won’t appear on the internet at our event.

5.   It’s a great way to meet new readers and connect with them face to face. Nothing beats talking to another reader about how much you loved that cowboys from space/ gay unicorns shifters from Uranus story. Authors, nothing beats hearing a reader telling you the story you wrote back to you, and how it made that person feel. These moments are what life is all about. Men, go grab yourself some.

6.   You can make new blogger friends face to face – I met Marc from Rainbow Gold, Beverley from Prism Book Alliance and reacquainted myself with Mark and Monique from Sinfully Sexy review blogs. It’s so much nicer to put a face to a name when you’re sending ARCs through the ether.

7.   You can make new author and publisher friends face to face. Conversations I had at UK Meet resulted in me spreading my story love around a few more publishers, so I’ve now got contracts with Wilde City, Love Lane Books and Manifold Press. It was through talking to the publishers and owners of these face to face that I could make an informed decision about where to put some of my un-contracted work. One of the panels at UK Meet advised not to put all your book eggs in one publishing basket. So I took their advice.

8.   If there are books for sale at the events you can have a real life version of the Amazon ‘other readers who bought this, also bought that’ experience, and discover loads of great new authors.

I am tagging two male authors/bloggers/readers of gay romance for them to post three reasons they will attend a future event like these.

I’m also giving away one e-book copy of my published stories to two different people who comment here, by midnight GMT on Sunday 19 October with a response to this question:

How do you feel about us encouraging more men to come to gay romance events?

Until next time,

Liam Livings xx

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Work In Progress - Kev Friends Perfect Book 1

7/10/2014

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Here's another WIP I've added to my virtual book shelf. It's a spin off from the Best Friends Perfect series, but this time it's from Kev's point of view. It covers roughly the same time period as Best Friends Perfect, and has some of the same characters, but this goes into much more detail about Kev's life, since it's his POV. A reader recently commented that Kev felt like the least fully fleshed out of the boys in Best Friends Perfect, so since he was so popular with beta readers, I've given him his own series.

There's an extract on the story shelf.

Enjoy!

Liam Livings xx

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My Top 10 Camp Classic Films

6/10/2014

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Attitude magazine listed 20 camp classic films, and I've seen 10 of them. I’m just putting that out there. They defined camp as: ‘Camp turns order on its head – finding humour in tragedy, femininity in masculinity, and value in trash.’

Here's my top 10 camp classic films. All quotes thanks to IMDB, I’m not claiming ownership of the quotes by posting them here. Just saying...

Muriel's Wedding
Camp rating: 9/10
I love this film so much. It’s a classic film structure, the heroin learns, it has a happily ever after. It has a sassy best friend, and some brilliant put down lines. Every time I watch it – and I’ve watched it more than thirty times – I cry, laugh ,and love it even more. It’s a film that delivers you the story. It doesn’t mince about with artsy shots of things, it tells you the story.

Muriel: ‘When I lived in Porpoise Spit, I used to sit in my room for hours and listen to ABBA songs. But since I’ve met you and moved to Sydney, I haven’t listened to one ABBA song. That’s because my life is as good as an ABBA song. It’s as good as Dancing Queen.

Joan: [on 4 different occasions] ‘You’re terrible Muriel.’

Rhonda: ‘Stick your drink up your arse, Tanya! I’d rather swallow razor blades than have a drink with you.’

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Dessert
Camp rating: 11/10
Three drag queens drive around Australia in a huge pink bus. Guy Pearce has arms to die for. Terence Stamp plays a post-op transsexual, who falls in love with the man who plays Muriel’s dad in the above film. It’s chock full of amazing costumes, brilliant songs, and has so many quotable lines there’s too many to list. Oh, and that scene with Cynthia, and the ping pong balls. But any more of that’s not for here.

Bernadette: No, I’ll join this conversation on the proviso that we stop bitching about people, talking about wigs, dresses, bust sizes, penises, drugs, night clubs, and bloody ABBA!
Tick: Doesn’t give us much to talk about then does it?

Whatever happened to Baby Jane?
Camp rating: 10/10
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford – who in real life hated one another – play sisters trapped together in a shared house. If you’ve read Best Friends Perfect book two you’ll know how much I love this film, because part of it makes an appearance.

Blanche: You wouldn’t be able to do these awful things to me if I weren’t still in this [wheel] chair.
Jane: But you *are* Blanche! You *are* still in this chair!

Death Becomes Her
Camp rating: 11/10
Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn) and Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) are two pretty washed-up Hollywood stars who’ve always hated one another, ever since Ashton seduced Sharp’s husband Ernest (Bruce Willis) from her. Throw in Isabella Rosalini, a potion for making you never age, and some brilliant special effects, camp lines and you’ve got the perfect guilty pleasure film. That is all. This, and other Goldie Hawn films make an appearance in And Then That Happened.
[Goldie Hawn has a gaping hole in her stomach after being shot into a pool.]
Sharp: Look at me, Ernest! Just look at me! I’m soaking wet!

Ernest Menvill: Where did you put my wife? [Ashton]
Doctor: She’s dead, sir. They took her to the morgue.
Ernest: The morgue? She’ll be FURIOUS!

Strictly Ballroom
Camp rating: 10/10
It’s Australian, it’s directed by Baz Lurhmann, it’s about ballroom dancing. It’s also got Bill Hunter (Muriel’s dad, and the love interest from Priscilla). It’s all focused on how a dancer wants to win the competition by dancing in *his way* which isn’t according to the strict rules of ballroom dancing. It’s a bit like Dirty Dancing, but Aussie and much much camper.

Barry Fife: There are no new steps!

Scott: Look, a beginner has no right to approach an Open Amateur.

Connie & Carla
Camp rating: 10/10
Two women dress up as drag queens to escape the mob as they get accidentally involved in a shooting. It has so many clips and bits from well-known songs from musicals. It has David Duckovney as a brother or a cross-dressing man, coming to terms with his brother.

Bedrooms & Hallways
Camp rating: 9/10
A nineties sexual identify swap comedy. I've blogged about it in more detail on UK Gay Romance. A gay man, Leo (Kevin McKidd) goes to a men’s group, where he tells the group he’s attracted to Brendan (James Purefoy). And a brilliant comic turn from Darren (Tom Hollander) in all his camp flamboyance.
[After Leo has confessed to Darren he may find a woman attractive Darren’s phone rings] Darren: it’s probably the sex police. Yes...

Angie: Leo, you are a strawberry blond. You can’t go out with an ash blonde, it’s not right!

Legally Blonde
Camp rating: 9/10
A blonde sorority queen is dumped and decides to follow her ex to law school to get him back. I saw this as a play in London for my birthday a few years ago, and it was every bit as fab as a play as a film.

Elle: Hi, I’m Elle Woods and this is Bruiser Woods. We’re both Gemini vegetarians.

Warner Huntington IIII: If I want to be a senator, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn.

The Birdcage
Camp rating: 11/10
Robin Williams (RIP) and Nathan Lane pretend to be a straight couple so their son can introduce them to his fiancée’s conservative parents.

Armand: It’s like riding a psychotic horse toward a burning stable.

Armand: what are you giving him drugs for? What the hell are Pirin tablets?
Agador: It’s aspirin with the A and the S scraped off.
Armand: My God, what a brilliant idea!
Agarod: I know.

Armand: Yes, I wear foundation. Yes, I live with a man. Yes, I’m a middle-aged fag. But I know who I am, Val. It took me twenty years to get here, and I’m not gonna let some idiot senator destroy that. F**k the senator, I don’t give a damn what he thinks.

Heathers
Camp rating: 10/10
If you’ve seen Mean Girls, you have to see this. It’s the original teen clique film. It focuses on a group of girls, all called Heather, and how Winona Ryder becomes part of their clique, with a helping hand from Christian Slater. It’s a dark dark comedy.
Veronica: It’s one thing to want someone out of your life, but it’s another thing to serve them a wake-up cup of liquid drainer.

Heather Chandler: Did you have a brain tumour for breakfast? First you ask if you can be red [in croquet], knowing that I’m always red. [puts her croquet ball against the Heather Duke’s and sends it flying]

Valley of the Dolls
Camp rating: 10/10
I’ve read the book, and in comparison, this isn’t as good, but then again when are films as good as the books. However, taken as a film in its own right, it’s pretty amazing. The colour, the outfits, the bitchy lines, the overall trashiness of it knows no bounds. And the *wig* scene from the book is here too – such fun! It’s all meant to be based on Judy Garland and some other Hollywood stars from the sixties, so obviously I was hooked.

Neely O’Hara: I have to get up at five o’clock in the morning and SPARKLE, Neely,SPARKLE!

Helen Lawson: The only hit that comes out of a Helen Lawson show is Helen Lawson, and that’s ME, baby, remember?

Have you seen any of these films?
Which films would make your top ten camp classics?
Or do you not enjoy a bit of camp?
I’d love to hear from you,
Until next time,
Liam Livings xx

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