De-blog

WIPpet numbers for 26th April, 2017: 268 (26 and 1+7) words from The Making Of Us ( Checking Him Out Book Four) WIPpet Context: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. This snippet comes a short while after last week’s: Jesse has taken Leigh to meet his mum for the first time. * * * * * “Are you ready?” Leigh nodded and tilted their head towards the door in encouragement, but the door whooshed away from me before I had a chance to open it. “Hello, oh!” My mum blinked at us and looked to see what I was staring at—my keys still dangling from the lock. She tutted and p...

WIPpet numbers for 19th April, 2017: (even though it’s now the 20th—I was a bit tied up with Reunions launch stuff yesterday and didn’t get around to posting) 19+4=23 sentences from The Making Of Us ( Checking Him Out Book Four) WIPpet Context: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. In this snippet, Jesse is taking Leigh to meet his mum for the first time. * * * * * “Anyway, she knows you’re queer and that you use they/them pronouns. Hopefully, she’ll get it right, but it’s my fault if she doesn’t.” “You always do.” “But I told her about you the first time I saw ...

It's here! It's here! At times, I honestly wondered if it ever would be. Two years of writing, weeks of editing, proofreading, formatting and faffing. Phew! Reunions - Season Seven of Hiding Behind The Couch - is out today (19th April). I'll keep this short. Firstly, thank you x millions to: Nige, Andrea, Amy and Jor for editing, proofreading, reading and cheering me on. Thank you also to the Rainbow Snippets and WIPpet Wednesday authors for snippeteering, reading, commenting and sharing. If you haven't read any of the Hiding Behind The Couch series before, you could start with this book, but it does contain spoilers for previous stories. You can find a reading guide on this page: http://deb248211.blogspot.co.uk/p/hiding-behind-couch.html There is also the Hiding Behind The Couch website , which has some bonus extras as well as background information about the stories and what inspires me to write them. Lastly, there is my website: debbiemcgowan.co....

I fail at reading calendars. I've been telling everyone Reunions is out on Thursday 19th April, and it is out on the 19th of April, but that's...Wednesday. Tomorrow! Gulp. In my defence, writing Hiding Behind The Couch does require rather creative use of calendars. To illustrate, here a screenshot of my timeline calendar, which I use to keep track of characters' birthdays, ages, anniversaries and so on: Yes, OK, I know April 19th isn't a Thursday there, either, but my brain frazzes on numbers if I consciously think about what I'm doing. So, anyway, the long and short of it is this: Reunions   - Season Seven of Hiding Behind The Couch -  is out tomorrow! (Oh, and did you spot that little sneaky title up there, next to 'Reunions' in the screenshot? That's Season Eight...coming when it gets here. ;) ) FOR FUN... A quick-fire interview with Sean Tierney (caught on the hop between jobs) Place of birth: Derry, The North of Ire...

So, yesterday (Sunday), I started my Reunions launch week really well by totally forgetting to run my giveaways while I was on Beaten Track Radio . That's typical of me...as is blaming Nige, and it was his fault. Honest. ;) Thank you to all of you who tuned in and listened on Sunday. I had a lot of fun, and your questions were awesome! Now, the whole point of these launch week shenanigans is to let people know about the release of Reunions , because I do have a few series readers, but it's been a couple of years since Season Six ( Two By Two ) was released, and I want to make sure everyone who's interested gets to know about it. If you are new to Hiding Behind The Couch you probably don't want to start with Reunions . Although I do re-introduce the characters in each of the main books (the 'Seasons'), there will be lots of spoilers relating to events that have happened previously. The good news is that you can download the first prequel ( Beginnings ...

Brief explanation: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. I wasn’t going to post this week, but I just reached 50k, so here are the six lines that took me across the threshold! Here’s the snippet: “If you don’t want to, that’s OK,” Leigh assured me doubtfully. “We could leave it for a bit, until we’re—” “I do.” I looked up and held Leigh’s gaze—until they broke it with an eye roll. “I wasn’t proposing!” they said. What could I do but kiss that cheeky grin? * * * * * Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share ...

WIPpet numbers for 12th April, 2017: 12 paragraphs from The Making Of Us ( Checking Him Out Book Four) WIPpet Context: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. Jesse and Noah are English literature undergraduates; they have a presentation to do… * * * * * The day of the presentation came. I’d put forward all my best arguments for why Noah should do the talking, but he was having none of it. “Who’s up first?” our Discourse Analysis lecturer asked. A hand shot up somewhere in front of us, and the lecturer beckoned the brave volunteers to the front of the theatre. It was ...

Here's the point at which some people will mutter, 'Oh, no, not another blog post about yet another M/M Romance debacle.' Yes, I'm afraid it is, because it's...well, let's call it a 'passionate' community, which isn't surprising, given the popularity of Romance as a genre overall, and the fact that M/M Romance is - debatably - considered the largest subgenre of LGBT fiction. Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I am NOT saying this relates to all authors of M/M Romance, nor even to all straight female authors of M/M romance. A few authors have posted on their blogs about how (rightly) upset they are by being tarred with the same brush. Some of those authors ARE allies to some parts of the LGBTQIA+ community. But take a look at all those letters and remember: it's entirely possible to be an ally to one at the expense of others. Rarely have I seen an M/M Romance author/ally take to the podium to fight for lesbian rights or the ...

Brief explanation: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. I was a bit stumped for a snippet today, and in the end I went with 12 short paragraphs (rather than 6 sentences—a double rainbow? ;) ). Jesse and Leigh are at the ‘tell our friends’ stage. Here’s the snippet: We were still holding hands when Matty arrived twenty minutes later and stopped a few feet away, his mouth and eyes wide open in a ‘Matty shock-horror’ face. He pointed at our joined hands. “Wh-whe-when did this happen?” I turned to Leigh. “I thought you’d told him.” “Nope. I was waiting for you.” “Really?” ...

WIPpet numbers for 5th April, 2017: It's my ‘baby’ sister’s 40th birthday today! :) 247 words (7-2=5, and 4) from The Making Of Us ( Checking Him Out Book Four) WIPpet Context: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. This snippet starts with a private message from Leigh to Jesse. * * * * * Hey Jesse. Hope your day’s going OK and you’re getting loads done. x If I’d had my phone with me, I’d have got the message while I was in the waiting room. Then, 11:30: That was a mad lecture. Advanced maths? Call that advanced? Haha. x Only I could fall for a number buff...

Brief explanation: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. In the snippet below, it’s the morning after Jesse and Leigh’s ‘date’, and Jesse’s reflecting on his sleepless night. The poetry relates to his university coursework. Here’s the snippet: I had too much Larkin in there, but in our seminars, we’d been exploring ‘irony and understatement’, which was surely just being ‘British’—something Philip Larkin did particularly well. I preferred Roger McGough’s dry sarcasm, largely because when I read his poems, I heard them in the voice of the narrator of Thomas and Friends , which ...

WIPpet numbers for 29th March, 2017: 29th of the third month = 293 words from The Making Of Us ( Checking Him Out Book Four) WIPpet Context: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. This snippet is the morning after Jesse and Leigh’s first ‘date’. * * * * * “What are your plans for today, then?” Mum asked. “Seeing Leigh, I suppose?” “I hope so. We didn’t arrange anything, but I might suggest we go for a walk or something. What’s the weather forecast?” I had my phone in my pocket, so I could’ve checked for myself, but my mum would know without looking. “More of the sam...

Brief explanation: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. In the snippet below, Leigh has taken Jesse to see a friend perform at an open-mic night. Sorry it’s eight sentences, not six. :( It needed the last paragraph for a sense of context. Here’s the snippet: Once I was settled in the corner, Leigh slid—more scooted—along the seat, and I got a waft of that citrusy smell again. I switched to breathing through my nose, getting high on the mix of that smell, the dizziness of slightly hyperventilating and Leigh being just a few inches away. They giggled, and I shrugged to ask why...

WIPpet numbers for 22nd March, 2017! (2017/22)*3=275 (rounded to a whole number) words from The Making Of Us ( Checking Him Out Book Four) WIPpet Context: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. In this snippet, Jesse and Leigh are about to go on their first (kind of) date. * * * * * Leigh came into the living room, shoving stuff into the pockets of their… blue ? pants. Whatever colour they were, Leigh’s shirt appeared to be the same shade, over which was a striped waistcoat. Probably not blue and yellow. Baseball boots had replaced the Doc Martens of the past few days. ...

Brief explanation: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. Here’s the snippet: When I thought back to the first time I saw Leigh and felt the tug of attraction—OK, full-on crush—and Matty told me Leigh wasn’t a girl, I did have to consider what that meant, but not because I’d thought Leigh was a girl. All I knew then was what I knew now; I was head over heels, and Leigh being queer—the word they said fitted them best—was irrelevant to that feeling, other than pushing me to reconsider who I was myself. Well, I was the same old Jesse Thomas I’d always been. I was male. I’d never...

WIPpet numbers for the Ides of March! 15 (for the day) paragraphs from The Making Of Us ( Checking Him Out Book Four) WIPpet Context: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . You can read the others here . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. In this snippet, Jesse is sitting in Noah’s backyard, and Leigh has gone inside to get drinks. * * * * * I’d never noticed Leigh singing before. I wasn’t musical myself, but I could tell if someone was singing in tune. Leigh’s voice was incredible. In tune, yes, but there was something more, like they were channelling the oppressive warmth of the evening and transforming it into this husky, rich melo...

Brief explanation: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse and Leigh, who first appeared in Taking Him On (Book Two), which is Noah and Matty’s story. The Making Of Us is first-person, told from Jesse’s perspective. Here’s the snippet: I liked piercings. They were fun, and if I’d been slimmer, or less bothered about not being slimmer, I’d have probably got my eyebrow pierced, although…maybe it would draw attention away from the rest of me. I couldn’t recall if Leigh had piercings when I first met them. I was kind of overwhelmed, and everything had gone a bit hazy and soft focus. Whether Leigh had them or not, I’d still feel the same, but the nose stud was definitely recent. Would the one on their lip make kissing more difficult? * * * * * Rainbow Snippets...

WIPpet numbers for 8th March, 2017: No numbers, because I checked the count for my WIPpet snippet, and this number magic happened: WIPpet Context: It’s International Women’s Day , so I thought a WIPpet featuring a female character would be most appropriate. This is one of my three (it was only two this morning) current works in progress, tentatively titled Not My Coach . It’s a stand-alone story, featuring Charlie Davenport (a minor character elsewhere in the HBTC universe). The cover is a placeholder, probably… She appears mostly in Two By Two (Season Six) and Those Jeffries Boys (character special), as well as a couple of chapters in Reunions (Season Seven - out in April). I was reading Beginnings (free ebook)—the first prequel—this morning, in which Charlie is still in a pram. A few years have lapsed since; in this snippet, Charlie is thirty-five. * * * * * “Get warmed up, Charlie. Nish is coming off.” She was out of her tracksuit in seconds and up on her ...

Title: Transphobia: Deal with it and be a gender transcender Author: j wallace skelton, illustrated by Nick Johnson Publisher: James Lorimer & Company Ltd. Published: 1st January, 2017 ISBN: 9781459407664 Link: http://www.lorimer.ca/childrens/Book/2892/Transphobia.html Blurb: Who do you think you are? Part of identity is how people experience their gender. Transphobia is intolerance of any part of the range of gender identity. This accessible, illustrated book offers information, quizzes, comics and true-to-life scenarios to help kids better understand gender identity and determine what they can do to identify and counter transphobia in their schools, homes and communities. Considered from the viewpoint of gender challengers, gender enforcers and witnesses, transphobic behavior is identified, examined and put into a context that kids can use to understand and accept themselves and others for whatever gender they are — even if that's no gender at all! Revi...

Brief explanation: Another snippet from The Making Of Us . Progress is slow, but I'm making some, at least. The Making Of Us is the fourth book in the Checking Him Out series , but it’s a stand-alone story about friendship, love and romance—LGBTQIA, with the emphasis on the B, Q and I. The main characters are Jesse (Noah’s best friend) and Leigh (Noah and Matty’s new housemate). The story is first-person, from Jesse’s perspective. Here’s the snippet: All through school, people had told me I was a good friend. By ‘people’, I mean ‘girls’, and by ‘good friend’, they meant ‘not boyfriend material’. I didn’t really mind that much. The number of mates I had who hit on girls just because they could, it made me feel a bit sleazy on their behalf. They liked the girl, sure, and I don’t think—I hope they didn’t—force themselves on anyone, but they’d go too far, too quickly and without getting to know each other. I don’t know, maybe spending my teens perpetually ‘in the friend...