I’m never going to ‘be’ anything in the writing world but got a lovely DM yesterday from someone in a long distance relationship whose bf read him The Lodger over video call and he loved it. #WritingCommunity #writinglife #books #gayfiction #queerlit 
And The Lodger is so old (published 2002) that @OfficialSteps have come back into fashion since it was written. (Songs by Steps feature a lot…).
The Lodger is my most successful book. Sold 3,000 copies, finalist in the @LambdaLiterary awards, number 1 on Gay and Lesbian Amazon chart. So if anyone tells you life isn’t downhill… #WritingCommunity #gayfiction #queerlit
I wrote a sequel, Rising Camp, but the publisher went bust. (Gay Men’s Press was bought by a bigger gay company who found dildos more profitable than books - so I was told.) An editor contacted me last year re publishing it. But. It’s hard to go back. I’m not that person now.
I also, when The Lodger, came out got a letter from a soldier who said that reading The Lodger had helped him come out. I got quite a few handwritten letters forwarded from publisher. Oh. Those halcyon pre-email days #comingout #gayfiction #queerlit
It was written in my bedroom in my mum’s council house in #Derby. After publication I didn’t think anyone would see it. But I checked into Amazon at the library, I had no computer, and the first review described me as a big new name in gay fiction. 20 years later. Still waiting
I was working in the National Rail Enquiries call centre when it came out. The people there were lovely about it and @WaterstoneDerby put it on a table. Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel featured National Rail Enqs. And I’m still working in a call centre. So there you go..
One of the other writers at GMP said the Lambda Award nomination would ‘open doors’ and I should use it. But it never did. And 20 years later I’ve given up hope. But. The difference now is I’m happy in failure. With age is perspective. And I look back and see how well I’ve done.
As a gay teenager in the 80s I thought all awaited me was misery and AIDS. But I have a bf of 16 years, 2 dogs, and books and stories overflowing with all sorts of gays. So there you go…
The Lodger was written after I saw a Daily Mail article saying disgusting gay men could adopt. I’d been looking after a little boy, gay friend’s son (in Australia). So The Lodger is about gay parenting. I got to meet up with ‘the little boy’ when he visited England few years back
It was published the year my father died. He got to see only the manuscript and read only the first line. “Professional as hell,” was his opinion. We used to write each other stories. That’s how I started writing… silly spoof crime stuff…
So there in The Lodger is a whole ‘gay’ writing history of life and death. And I’m still going… very proudly published by @beardedbadgerpc - who have been great!
And a link to my history linktr.ee/drewgum
Well, The Lodger seems to have sold some copies yesterday … as it’s now more expensive on Amazon and slower to dispatch.. The Lodger amazon.co.uk/dp/1902852400/… - (it’s out of print since 2006 so 2nd hand only available). Twitter - bringing life to old books… @BacklistedPod 😂
And here are my author photos… mum took that one of me. I was 29 when I wrote The Lodger, and now 50…
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