Hop for Hope

Hop against Homophobia, Bi- and Transphobia

 

17th May is the International Day against homophobia, bi- and transphobia. You can find more information here.
http://dayagainsthomophobia.org/

Hope

There is still a great deal of prejudice in the world, but I wanted my post today to be about hope. it may be a rather obvious thing to state, but I’m a great believer in democracy. I don’t always agree with the results, but as a history teacher for over thirty years, I know what people have done to allow me, a woman, to put a cross in a box. Over those thirty years, I’ve also seen great changes in attitudes. When I started teaching there were no out teachers or students. I’m pleased to say that by the time I finished that situation had changed. Some students no longer hid their sexuality, and it was a great privilege to have young people feel able to talk to me about themselves. Maybe it was the pictures of John Barrowman and Captain Jack Harkness, or my well known hatred of students using the word gay as an insult that made them feel safe talking to me. I don’t know. I’m just glad that they did.

Last week, one of those brave young people was elected to a local council. He had the courage to put himself up for this role and his victory made me smile. Democracy had allowed a young gay man to openly work for the betterment of society. On a bigger scale, the UK became the country with the most openly LGBTQI representatives in the world. The UK has its problems, but this fact makes me proud to be British. The sexuality of a candidate should not matter anymore than the gender of the candidate, or the colour of their hair or eyes. All that matters is that they want to do the job.

Hopefully, sometime soon, this blog hop will no longer be necessary. To more and more young people prejudice on the grounds of sexuality is something they do not even think about. At least some of the results from last week’s election give me hope that some things have already, and will, get better.

 

You can find more information about this blog hop here
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.co.uk/

Anyone who makes a comment on this post before 24th May will be entered to win a signed copy of my book Sporting Chance or an amazon gift voucher for £10 depending on their location. Please leave your e-mail address for me to contact you.

Thank you for supporting this important cause. This link will take you to other participating blogs

http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=644125FF-AACF-4A13-A08A-696A562D8FB3

 

New Release - Rainbow Connection

 

Rainbow Connection

 

I thought hard about whether to go with the title, Rainbow Connection, but in the end it was the one that stuck. This is the story of two men, Mick Flanagan and Ceri Llewellyn, two men with seemingly nothing in common until they discover a mutual love, and Ceri makes Mick an offer he can’t refuse.

I wrote this story in fits and starts, losing several chapters when my laptop crashed and destroyed my hard drive, at the same time as I wrote Sporting Chance. It was written for a submission call for a story about a man who finds love again after losing his first love. It was turned down for the submission, but the publisher gave me some advice and later, after some revisions, accepted the story as a standalone. I had my second contract.

The inspiration for this story came from a few places. I read a story in the paper about a grandmother, mother and daughter and their strange life. The relevance of that will become clear when you read the novella. Also, one early morning, I sat in my car watching the man who filled the vending machines at work and thought I bet no one has ever written a romance for someone with that job. So I chose to write about a romance between a shy security guard with a past and the guy who fills the water bottles while trying to pursue his dreams, only to find he isn’t good enough to achieve them. These two needed to share a passion to bring them together, so it seemed only natural for them to share mine – let’s say it involves a certain time traveller.

Mick is a man who copes with life through routines until Ceri comes along and turns his life upside down. Ceri has been floating through life but discovers he needs an anchor. Rainbow Connection is the story of how these two men find something in each other, but have to work hard for their happy ever after. I love Mick and Ceri and I hope you will too.

 You can find Rainbow Connection here. Other links will be added as they become available.

MLR Press
Amazon UK
Amazon US 
All Romance
Kobo