I’m delighted today to have one of my fellow UK Meet organisers, the lovely Liam Livings, here as part of his Best Friends Perfect Book 3 blog tour. Having seen some of his fabulous outfits, I couldn’t resist a metaphorical delve into his closet!

Welcome, Liam! Congratulations on the new release.

Now, anyone who’s met you knows you can be counted on to brighten up the room in more ways than one! So what would you say is your best clothing purchase ever? (for whatever reason!)

Liam: I’m picking three, because I couldn’t pick only one. It’s like trying to pick your favourite song, or film or food…

A black jacket with orange flowers I bought in Sydney while waiting to go to the top of a tower to eat in a revolving restaurant. The lift to the restaurant was broken, so we turned up for our booked table and were told we had to wait and they would call us back if the lift was fixed. The ground floor of the tower was in the middle of an enormous shopping centre in the middle of Sydney, so we had a sniff around the shops to kill some time. We walked into a department store – an Australian equivalent of John Lewis – the first thing I saw at the top of the stairs was the jacket. They had it in my size, and it was on sale, down to 25% of its originally (albeit slightly too high) price. I resisted the matching trousers as I didn’t want to guild the lily as they say.

A black velvet buttoned waistcoat (vest in American English, I’ve just found out) I bought in H&M in central London with my friend Nick. I’d seen him so many times at work wearing a selection of natty waistcoats with such confidence and panache I knew I had to jump on the bandwagon. We’d both had a more than slightly terrible week at work and needed some retail therapy. I wear it with T shirts, shirts, and long sleeved T shirts, and as it’s black it basically goes with everything. And every time I wear it I’m reminded of that fun shopping trip with Nick.

A ¾ sleeved white T shirt with a colour Mickey Mouse on the front. It always gets so many comments whenever I wear it – usually with plain jeans and a smart jacket for a bit of contrast – and it cost very little to buy as it was from one of my favourite high street shops – Uniqlo.

In Best Friends Perfect, the main characters are 19-20 years old which is a time when what you wear, how you express yourself, is very important. Kieran is trying to work out how he wants to express himself by what clothes he wears, which friends he hangs around with, the clubs and pubs he goes out in.

And while we’re on the sartorial theme: Do you dress up for Halloween & if so, what’s your favourite costume?

I don’t usually dress up for Halloween, because I’m not so much into dressing up in costumes. Usually I turn up to a Halloween party, dressed normally and when someone asks who I’m dressed as I calmly reply, ‘A psychopath; they look like normal people.’ Once, at university, with a group of American student friends, we all dressed up as nurses. I realised the American type of dressing up for Halloween was much broader than scary ghosts and ghouls. [JL: Yes, we Brits tend to be a bit mystified by non-scary Halloween costumes. Can any passing Americans enlighten us?] I wore the tunic I wore for my work at the hospital, the others bought nurses uniforms and we did had sort of zombie / slutty nurse thing going on. This was me Halloween 2001 http://www.liamlivings.com/blog/throwback-thursday-halloween-2001 and I think that was a pretty good Halloween costume. Despite the previous shenanigans with costumes, I think my favourite is simply going as myself.

I’ve tried to reflect the clothing fashions of the time in which Best Friends Perfect is set, and how important clothes are to young people. Even though there’s no Halloween costumes, there’s plenty of wardrobe emergencies, shopping trips and parties as an excuse for the characters to dress up and find out a little bit more about who they are trying to become as they enter adulthood.

Thanks, Liam. I’m now experiencing a painful flashback to my own late teenage years and some very questionable clothing choices. Ra-ra skirts, anyone? *cringes in shame, and thanks God smartphones and the internet weren’t around in those days!*

Best Friends Perfect Book Three

What happens when your perfect new best friend isn’t so perfect after all?

1999, Kieran, 18 is at uni searching London for Prince Charming with new best friend, Jo. Between his new uni friends, American students Julie and The Sarahs, his work at the hospital and his studies he’s keeping himself busy.

But all Kieran wants is to share this with Jo, but he’s disappeared with his boyfriend, Irish student Andrew. Why doesn’t Sean call Kieran back?

And then something happens to turn Kieran’s world upside down, when he really needs his friends around him.

How far can you really push a practical joke? How many frogs does a boy have to kiss, until he meets his Prince Charming? And what do you do when your friend can’t see what’s in front of his face?

Available from Wilde City Press http://www.wildecity.com/books/gay-mainstream/best-friends-perfect-book-3/

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PRIZES!: If you’d like to win a copy of one of Liam’s ebooks, please comment below, answering the question what’s your best clothing purchase, and why? and include your email address. A week after this post is live, he’ll draw names out of an electronic hat. [JL: Seems a dodgy fashion choice, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Liam!] 

Good luck!

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About Liam Livings

Liam Livings lives where east London ends and becomes Essex. He shares his house with his boyfriend and cat. He enjoys baking, cooking, classic cars and socialising with friends. He escapes from real life with a guilty pleasure book, cries at a sad, funny and camp film – and he’s been known to watch an awful lot of Gilmore Girls in the name of writing ‘research’.

He has written since he was a teenager, started writing with the hope of publication in 2011. His writing focuses on friendships, British humour, romance with plenty of sparkle.

You can connect with Liam

Twitter @LiamLivings

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/liam.livings

Blog http://www.liamlivings.com/blog

Website www.liamlivings.com