GUEST BLOG: Author LIAM LIVINGS

Caroline is, of course, jealous of the all the new people I meet at writers' conferences and events. I'm not allowed to question her extended business lunches or overnight stays in five star hotels, but I have to give detailed descriptions of everyone I've talked to and whether I fancy them or not. I particularly enjoyed telling Caroline about Liam Livings, who writes romantic fiction with gay themes for a wide audience, and who I met at the RNA bash this summer. I know Caroline would love Liam, not just because he's very handsome, but because he would listen quietly to her relationship problems and make a great story out of them. I'm delighted to welcome Liam to this blog, on the occasion of the publication of his new book, And Then That Happened .

I'm always interested to find out how other writers get the words down. Do you write every day?

No. And yes. Let me explain.

In 2014 I’ve written a first draft roughly every other month, and used the other months to edit, do promotion, plan other stories. When I’m writing a first draft I like to try and stay with the story as much as possible, not leaving it for more than 2 days without writing. I did Nanowrimo in 2014 and wrote 61,000 words over 13 days, spread over three weeks. So when that’s happening, I do try to write every day. But when I reach the end I often take a week or so off from this sort of writing, because it’s exhausting. Then I plan, plot, do other things.

When I’m not drafting I’m always doing other parts of *writing* making notes about ideas, planning character biogs, going to my local writers group of the Romantic Novelists’ Association London Chapter meetings to talk to other writers. So even when I’m not sat at my laptop writing, I’m still thinking about writing, reading about writing, so when I do get back to the laptop I’m usually raring to go.

Do you find writing fun while you're doing it?

I love writing; everything about it – plotting, working out characters, getting the ideas, first drafts, http://www.liamlivings.com/blog/my-writing-process-blog-tour even getting edits back and working with an editor to improve the story. I love it all. I’m not creative in any other ways – I can’t sing, draw, paint, dance (ballroom dancing, I can certainly throw some shapes on the dance floor of a night club, but that’s not for now) so being able to express myself through writing is a wonderful gift. Even when I’ve gone through very dark times, writing has helped me through them, just putting a few sentences together on a screen or a piece of paper helped me through some difficult times earlier in 2014 http://www.liamlivings.com/blog/grief-is-the-price-we-pay-for-love-1-of-2 and http://www.liamlivings.com/blog/grief-is-the-price-we-pay-for-love-2-of-2

Who is your favourites(s) of your characters in And Then That Happened?

Dominic was interesting to write. I wanted to have a character who had experienced mental health issues, particularly depression, just as I have. I wanted to include that in his story to show it’s all around us, it’s something people live with on a daily basis. I think it’s important to cover these sort of issues in what many people think are just lightweight fluffy romance stories, because they’re real issues. I aim to make my characters as real and three dimensional as possible, with the imperfections and problems real people have.

Gabe was such fun to write – his grab life by the balls attitude is wonderfully refreshing. He just dives in and thinks later. I’m not at all like that. It was such fun to see how Gabe’s impulsive nature gets him into certain situations, and write about how that affects him, behind all the bravado, and smiles.

And Then That Happened

Should you settle for a nearly perfect happiness or put your heart on the line for more?

It’s 1999 and 28-year-old Dominic’s carefully planned suburban life with his boyfriend Luke is perfect. His job as a nurse, his best friend Matt, his relationship with his parents, everything is just right. He and Luke have been together ten years, seen each other through friends’ deaths and their parents’ ups and downs, and even had a commitment ceremony.

Gabe isn’t happy with his boyfriend, but he stays with him, because, well it’s complicated.

Fate throws Gabe into Dominic’s life. And then that happened. Gabe’s open relationship, impulsive nature, enthusiasm for life and straight talking advice are fascinating to Dominic. They’re friends, they click over a shared love of Goldie Hawn and Gabe shows Dominic there can be more to life than planned and safe. So why can't he take his own advice?

And Then That Happened is about finding a new kind of happiness, even when what you have is already perfect. And how sometimes perfect isn’t quite what it seems.

It’s available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

You can connect with Liam:

Twitter @LiamLivings

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/liam.livings

blog http://www.liamlivings.com/blog

Ten new things I learned at the RNA 2014 Conference

I've returned from the Romantic Novelists Association annual conference, held this year at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, with severe jet lag. And I didn't even fly there. But romance is another country, and exposure to new cultures is stimulating and confusing in equal measure. It will take weeks to digest the rich diet of people, information, and Harper Adams farm-grown food, but here are my first ten observations;

1. The number of men attending the conference (as writers) increased by a hundred per cent over last year, from approx three to approx six. Is there a mutual support group for men writing romance? Maybe the time to form one is now? Get in touch if you thinks so too. Anyway, thanks to the RNA and its female members for making a minority feel so welcome.
2. Unlike the students, the cows, sheep and pigs do not go home for their holidays. The exotic perfumes worn to the fantastic gala dinner on Saturday night were mixed with the pungent aromas of the barn and silage tank. Thanks are due to the livestock, sadly now passed away, who contributed such excellent roast beef, bacon and sausages to the three good meals a day. The veggie food looked good too.
3. It's always hot and sunny at the RNA conference. I base this on only two visits, but I am assured this is the case. 
4. The Aussies have a great attitude. I knew this already from arguing cricket with Erica Hayes on Twitter, but Nikki Logan, President of the Romance Writers of Australia convinced us that the glass is well over half full when it comes to writing and selling great fiction, and was not in the slightest apologetic about a genre which some people feel does not get it's fair respect. Let people think what they want and focus on selling books, said Nikki. Did you think Chemistry was boring? If you want to understand what's going on in readers' brains, it's absolutely bloody fascinating. Sorry if you weren't there, but luckily you can buy her book on the Chemistry of Reading. 
5. 'Writing is easy.' This quote from Jean Fullerton made at the start of her presentation on not losing the plot was said with irony. Jean illustrated (with rainbows) what a complex pattern a good novel should be. If that one hour could be distilled and sipped over the months it usually takes to write a novel, we would all be best-selling authors and no-one would bother to watch TV again because every evening would be spent reading.
6. There will be more agents, publishers and industry types at the conference next year, when it is held in a London university conference centre and not in a farmyard. That is not to disparage Harper Adams University, which is a beautiful venue and has an outdoor swimming pool. Cool. Good old Harper Adams bequeathed his dosh to set it up in 1892, and its graduates have a ninety-six per cent employment rate. Lisa Eveleigh, the one agent who did venture north out of the smoke, was generous with her time and insights. 
7. Kindle Direct Publishing are not the enemy. They can't be, because we drank all their wine, every drop. Self-publishing and ebooks are not a second class carriage on the publication express. This was explored in (at least) two fantastic sessions, the first by Dr Alison Baverstock (with Hazel Gaynor, she of The Girl Who Came Home fame) which was based on Alison's own research into the motivations and demographic of self-publishers; and the second by Ian Skillicorn of Corazon Books, who made it sound easy. The self-publishing, that is, not the self-selling. 
8. Having said that, a good freelance editor and a striking, professional-looking cover are not options to be dispensed with lightly, however limited the budget available. It could be a good time to be a freelance editor like Eleanor Leese .
9. Liz Harris was intelligent and engaging even at nine o'clock on Sunday morning when most people were reaching for the paracetamol. Her session entitled 'If only I'd known - The Path to Publication' came with a chocolate, laughter, and generous sharing of her experience of the year before first publication when she was also trying to research and write the second book in the deal. After the honeymoon excitement of publication, the relationship of the writer with their writing gets tougher.
10. Writers are mostly introverts who are now forced onto the social media - Facebook, Twitter, Blogger - in order to (gulp) build a fan base and publicise their work. The new democracy in publishing means that thousands of titles appear every week. Visibility and sales are harder than ever to achieve. It's a good job the actual writing is so rewarding. Many more great talks and conversations happened at the conference, but I've run out of numbers.

Click here for Shameless enjoyment

Outnumbered at the RNA Conference 2013

This is an extra post. Followers of the ups, downs, and bizarre happenings in C and I's relationship need not fear. What happened (according to Caroline) when she went to a business dinner with someone trying to sell her software will be revealed shortly. So will some of Caroline. But the reader is king, or queen, and a reader wants to know what happened when I attended the Romantic Novelists annual conference in Sheffield last weekend.

Shameless Ambition is not strictly speaking a novel. It's a factual account of what happened when Caroline met the famous German banker, Herbert Von Wolfswinkle. Some of the names were changed (see 4. below) to avoid further work for people like me. Neither is it very romantic, unless your idea of romance is a sex club in Copenhagen.

However, the RNA is a broad church and publishers have to find a label for books which enables readers to find them. Steam eReads helped me understand that Caroline's exhibitionism and the consequences of her indiscretions were in fact Romantic Suspense, even though some people laugh quite a lot.

The book having gone out into the world, I needed to know something about writing and publishing, in case Caroline agrees to let people know what happened when she tried to track down her natural mother and fell into the clutches of a dangerous, manipulative woman. Yes, there could be more Shameless titles.

That is how I came to spend the weekend with nearly three hundred women and at least two other men. Did I learn anything useful? Here's the list:

1. Pink is a popular colour but I changed my pink shiny goody-bag for a Sainsbury's carrier for the journey home. The pink identification lanyard complemented every outfit (see below).
2. Mills and Boon is still going strong - stronger than ever in terms of titles published, and stronger in content too.
3. Women bring several pairs of shoes to wear for a weekend even when it's too hot to wear even sandals because the air-con has broken.
4. When giving fictional characters a name, be careful not to inadvertently use the name of someone you once knew and is now a lawyer specialising in libel cases.
5. The big four UK publishers are creating new imprints, digital and multi-platform, faster than you can say Bondage, Domination, Sadism, and Masochism. So fast, they've shortened it to BDSM.
6. ePublishing means you can go all cross-genre. Paranormal steam punk meets traditional romance anyone?
7. There are many delightful people of advanced years who have published a whole bookshop of novels and have kept up with the times. In the Q&A one speculated that dolphin sex could be the next big thing.
8. One of the women, Gill, who has published over 30 M&B medical romances is a man called Roger Sanderson. Check on a popular search engine if you don't believe me.
9. It is the older hands that are making money from their books. They get up at 5am, write five thousand words before breakfast and stay up all night on global social networking sites. They lunch, if at all, with their accountant, and the accountant pays. If they go on a cruise they stay in their cabin and write so it's tax deductible.
10. The publishers are sparky and upbeat women who leap around on the shifting sands of the publishing world and smash the balls back to the other side (the writers) like a beach volleyball slam dunk.
11. They are looking for incredible, unique fiction which is totally different, emotionally compelling and has instant commercial and mass market appeal. Got that?
12. Everything happens very quickly now, except authors receiving any money.
13. Transmedia publishing is a new term, but no one is sure what it means.
14. However, when making a proposition (pitching a book, not what you do after too much wine), emphasise the transmedia potential of your dazzling concept.
15. You have got to have a social media presence, but no-one knows which bit of tweeting, facebooking, or blogging, if any, has an impact on sales. You must have faith, it's the new religion.
16. Julie Cohen (http://www.julie-cohen.com ) does a great workshop. (There are other good workshop providers.) She made us think even though it was 100 degrees in the hall and people were making fans out of the programme. I believe Julie could help anyone in the daily struggle to write better books.
17. If your plot leads to integral and unavoidable sex scenes, follow Sue Moorcroft's ( http://suemoorcroft.com/ ) advice; don't call it a willy, good sex happens between compatible people, bad sex is fun to write, people sometimes speak during sex, and sex has consequences. Oh yes, yes, yes it does.
18. The secret of instant acclaim and financial success is writing lots of really good and polished books until well beyond retirement age. Simple.
19. What was it like being in a crowd that was one per cent male? At times I felt invisible, but never unwelcome. People were friendly from the moment I arrived, and I arrived not knowing a single soul. When I left I had met a lot of very good writers, and I met another one in the taxi to the station, Denise Barnes (http://denisebarneswriter.com/)
20. I got some terrible stick at the pub when Caroline told the landlord where I had spent the weekend.

Back to the plot next time.