1. I was born in, and brought up near, the city of Liverpool - which is of course where the Beatles hailed from. Growing up, I lived about fifteen miles outside the city and we didn’t often get in, but my Mum took me to Santa’s Grotto in Lewis’s department store in November every year as a special treat. The Grotto had moving displays which struck me with awe as a small child. I left the city in the 1980s to find work elsewhere, and haven’t been back at all since the mid 1990s.
2. My star sign is Virgo and I fit the ‘earth sign’ perfectly since I adore gardening, wildlife and anything to do with the natural world. I’m a member of The National Trust and regularly visit beautiful gardens around the country, and I also enjoy fell-walking, which is the northern English term for going up mountains! In our last house I hacked, dug and nurtured a garden out of a strip of bare turf and found it incredibly rewarding.
3. I have a degree in Ancient and Medieval History and Archaeology. I chose the course at Liverpool University because it featured a whole year’s worth of studying Roman history, which fascinated me at the time. Two years into the course, I found I was even more interested in the early Middle Ages and eventually specialised in early medieval art and architecture. Sadly, the archaeology was entirely theoretical and I’m ashamed to say I have never been on a dig, although I devour archaeological magazines and programmes on tv.
4. My favourite place on earth is Ambleside, a small town (well, village really) in the English Lake District. All the houses are built of the local, very dark, slate and the whole village is sheltered by high hills with evocative names like Fairfield, Red Screes and High Pike. Mountain streams race down from the valleys and tumble past the village shops and tea rooms and there’s even a quaint little house built as a bridge over the largest stream. I find it an incredibly peaceful place and even when the streets are thronged with tourists it’s possible to walk up the back streets into the countryside beyond.
5. I started writing gay fiction many years ago now. I’ve always cared passionately about equality and equal rights for everyone no matter what they look like or how they choosse to live (well, axe murderers excepted!) and I’m also fascinated by lifestyles or [things] that I’ll never be able to experience myself. Writing about gay men seemed to be a natural extension of that. My gay romance novel, ‘Roses in December’, which combined my loves of history and gardening, was published by Torquere Press and I’ve also had many short stories published over the years.
So there you have it, me in a nutshell. There’s lots more, of course, but I wouldn’t want to bore the pants off you (even if this is Pants Off Reviews!) so that will do for now. It’s been nice ‘talking’ to you all.
Blurb:
Being an openly-gay detective in Birmingham comes with its share of problems. For one, the pay is awful. For another, Jake always gets stuck with the crappy undercover jobs. Like posing as a prostitute to catch the new crime boss in town—a man notorious for rough sex with pretty young rentboys.
Jake’s latest op is fraught with difficulties, all of them men. Like his partner, Mac, who he’s secretly fancied for months. And his new client, Graham, who he keeps sleeping with for reasons far beyond maintaining his cover. And of course there’s the target, Frank Warren, who’s much harder to lure than anyone had anticipated.
The longer the job drags on, the tougher it gets for Jake to juggle his own needs with those of the job. They may be closing in on Warren, but Jake’s heart—and his sense of right and wrong—are slipping through his fingers. Mac is there to back him up, but is he really the man Jake needs? Tough to know among all those lies Jake's been telling himself and everyone else.
Giveaway
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During this blog tour I’m holding a little contest with a variety of prizes. There’s a perfect-bound (ie print) copy of my earlier gay cop story ‘Any Means Necessary’, a print copy of Radgepacket Volume 2 which contains my gay short story ‘Rock and a Hard Place’, and various bits and pieces of general swag!
All you need to do is answer the following three simple questions, the answers to all of which can be found in ‘Necessity’s Door’. When you have the answers, email them to me personally and I’ll put all the correct entries into a hat (well, actually a willow-pattern bowl, but who’s checking...) and the first correct entry drawn from the bowl at the end of the blog tour will win the prize.
Here’s the questions:
1. What is the real name of The Blue Baboon gay club?
2. What colour is Frank Warren’s hair?
3. How much does Warren pay Jake for sex?
Think you know the answers? Then get emailing and good luck! I’m looking forward to hearing from you. And in the meantime if you’d like to find out more about me and my work, then please just drop into my website or my blog.
