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May 1, 2008 11:00 AM

GUEST BLOG: William Coles

William Coles has done the unthinkable and written a love story. And he's been kind enough to write us a guest blog to explain how and why.

A few months ago, I ventured into very dangerous waters. I broke one of the literary world’s biggest taboos. I did something that a guy just isn’t supposed to do.

But - what the hell - I went ahead and did it anyway …

I wrote a love story.

And this, it would seem, is a completely no-no for a man.

Go into any bookshop today, and you will find scores - hundreds - of books about romance. Along with celebrity cook-books, they’re the most popular books going.

I would guess that at least 98 per cent of these romances and these love stories are by women. It’s extraordinary. I don’t know whether it’s because men don’t like reading romances, or whether male writers think that love stories are plain soppy, but women have got a total monopoly on love.

And in a very small way, I’m attempting to break the mold.

The bulk of people who read love stories are women. And there’s now almost a perception that guys can’t do romance. That they won’t be able to get it. That they’ll bodge it up and that the writing won’t be genuine; or that the book will be all laddish and blokey and jokey, as if it’s a transcript of a conversation down at the pub.

Well … as it happens, I love going to the pub with my mates.

And a guy’s perception of love and romance is going to be markedly different from a woman’s.

But I think if that if a book’s voice is true, then it’s got a good chance of working. There are many other things that you need to throw into the mix for a book to become a “Go” - but the authenticity is the key.
A love story by a man is going to have a very different take on romance. It will be another view of love - a strange, possibly curious view of love. But it can still be just as authentic.

Fingers crossed that I succeeded.

My only slight concern about the book was the name. My name. Since women generally like to read books by women, my publisher urged me to have an authorial sex change. That, though, was a bridge too far, and for the moment I’m sticking with William Coles.

Maybe for the second edition we’ll bring it out under the name “Mina Coles” and see if it sells any better.

William’s book “The Well-Tempered Clavier” is published by Legend Press, price £7.99.

You can hear him talk about the book in his two-minute promo on Youtube here. He blogs at www.wcoles.com.

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Posted by Keris on May 1, 2008 in Guest blogs | Permalink

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