Entry #35

Friday, 1 September 2023

5.30pm

I’m in the car on the way back to my hometown of Bolton for my mum’s birthday, which is today. We’re actually celebrating tomorrow, with a meal that’ll also be an advance celebration for my sister’s 50^th. But it isn’t the most pleasurable journey as there’s a train strike so the motorway’s busy and the vehicles are a little closer together than I’d like. In front of us is a sporty blue Mazda – what a straight friend of mine calls a ‘hairdresser’s car’ – and behind us a massive petrol tanker. I’m not going to think about how it might feel to be squashed between them.

After last night’s party to celebrate the end of this year’s Virgin Radio Pride, I woke up hungover. It was a good night, although it was pissing it down so we had to stay indoors and didn’t get the glamour of the roof garden. And the only food was pizza – not great if you’re gluten-intolerant – so I ended up with an empty stomach, which is my excuse for getting a little more drunk than I intended. And when we got home and let the cat out, that huge long-haired tortoiseshell cat that sometimes plagues Nelly was in the garden and hissed at her. She’s been nervous ever since and this morning didn’t just piss on the bathroom floor but also shat on the astroturf. That was fun to clear up on a hangover.

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At least my hangover didn’t stop me from working. I spent a few more hours filling out my character profiles for the new book then realised I’ve got quite a sizeable research gap to fill, around the great uncle and the story of his Italian love affair, as told through his letters. I’ve decided what happens in the story but, as my character will be writing from Manchester in 1958, I’m going to have to read around the period before I start writing his letters. Not only do I want to get the period detail and the context right – legally as well as socially and culturally – but I also want to make sure his voice is authentic.

Also, the corrected pages have come back for the American version of Becoming Ted, so I’ve started reading through those. And I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I’m enjoying it. And how good it is! I think I ended up feeling a bit down about it, as it sold so poorly over here. Without realising, I must have lost confidence in the book and started thinking it wasn’t up to much. But now I’m excited about giving it a second life in the States. When Katy Perry’s Roar starts playing on Magic FM, this only cranks my excitement up another notch. When I was writing Ted, this was one of the songs I’d play in breaks to perk myself up – and it’s one of the numbers featured in my character Ted’s drag show, so I included it on the promotional playlist I put together.

On the other hand, puncturing my enthusiasm is the discovery that fellow gay author Steven Rowley will be publishing a sequel to his megahit The Guncle in May, the same month that American Ted comes out. I loved the first Guncle book and am excited to read a sequel, but Steven has a great profile in America, whereas I’m a complete unknown. His last book was a New York Times bestseller and that’s something of which I can only dream. Will Ted get any attention or is it bound to flop on both sides of the Atlantic?

I’m also worried about the overlap between the themes explored in the Guncle sequel and the ones I’m going to explore in my new book. When I first had my idea, it did cross my mind that it might be a bit close thematically to the original Guncle book, but reassured myself the two stories were different enough for it not to matter. But now I hear that this sequel is set in Italy! Alright, it’s about the relationship between a gay uncle and his niece and nephew rather than a dad’s new boyfriend and his potential stepchildren, but even so… Am I right to be worried? Or am I just having a wobble as I’m about to start writing the first draft?

The Castle of Stories is out now, published by Pansy.