UK Meet 2013 4/4

Welcome to the fourth and final part of my UK Meet 2013 story.

Sunday morning I had two very useful author one to ones with Anne Brooke and Becky Black (they ganged up on me together) followed by RJ Scott. Thanks to you all for your time, I made loads of notes and loved it.

Novel endings saw an interesting debate about the difference between a happily ever after, and a happy for now. Answers on a postcard, or in the comments box. There was an interesting debate about whether writers have a responsibility to readers to give them a HEA for escapism. I suppose if you’re reading a genre romance you’re expecting a HEA, like when you watch a romcom you know how it’s going to end. I liked the comment that a HEA doesn’t mean all the problems have to be solved, or where’s the sequel, where’s the interest? I bet even Cinderella and her Prince had the odd ding dong, she’d spent too much on new glass slippers, he was out too late jousting, you know the sort of thing.

The wonderful Alice in Wonderland style of the Richmond Tea Room's interior. These were antlers, I believe.

Marie Sexton, in her fabulous dress and Wyoming Twang gave a brilliant talk about not having to apologise for your choices. She turned 40 (and I think has definitely had some of that elixir from Death Becomes Her, because she doesn’t look it), and realised she didn’t want to take anyone else’s crap any more. Everyone’s life experience is equally valid and so the choices you make are also equally valid. It’s easy to look at someone else’s life decision and say, ‘I just don’t understand why they did that’ but if you step in their shoes it helps you understand they made a valid choice for them. Marie’s list of things writers don’t have to defend was remarkably refreshing:

• Traditional publishing, indie publishing, self publishing
• First of third person narrative
• Whether to respond to reviews or not
• Whether they write every day or not
• We don’t need to defend these choices any longer! Yay us and our different ways of doing things.

A question from the audience was ‘why do you write what you write?’ Marie said she’s tired of answering this, as it chooses us, and it’s about trying to capture universal experiences with a gay bent (sorry!) like falling in love, having a broken heart. However you see things it’s ok, as it’s valid.

When I wrote my first book, Best Friends Perfect, I didn’t even think I’d actually written a MM novel (I didn’t know about MM actually, until Clare London invited me to the 2012 Meet). I’d just written a story about things I knew and had experienced, including characters with some resemblance to the people in my life every day: my friends, family etc. I suppose because I am a gay man, I will always see things with that sort of bent ;-) but I can’t see life any other way. I will always look at a man and think, ‘He could be gay’ or watch a film and think, ‘I wonder if that character’s gay?’ with some hope.

So that’s it, the end of my UK Meet 2013 journey – well, not quite, we’re starting to plan the UK Meet 2014 and will do our best as the five planning group spices to make it even better than 2013.

Liam xx