Monday 30 April 2012

A Perfect Holiday Read

Perking the Pansies has just regained the top spot on the Amazon UK bestseller list for Gay and Lesbian Travel and is number 6 on Turkey Travel Guides overall. More remarkably for a gay nobody writing from and about an obscure peninsula on the Aegean coast of Turkey, it’s number 4 on the list for Gay and Lesbian Biographies (beneath the fabulous Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?). As Julian Clary would say, “I thank you”.





The book is now better value than ever at £9.99 ($16.00 across the pond) and, if you buy the book from the Book Depository it comes with free delivery to 120 countries and territories worldwide. A bargain, I say and a perfect summer accompaniment to a cool pool, G&T, ice and a slice.

 Check out buying options here. Not sure? Maybe the reviews will help you decide.

Thursday 29 March 2012

Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey

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Just imagine the absurdity of two openly gay, recently ‘married’ middle aged, middle class men escaping the liberal sanctuary of anonymous London to relocate to a Muslim country.
Jack and Liam, fed up with kiss-my-arse bosses and nose-to-nipple commutes, quit their jobs and move to a small town in Turkey. Join the culture-curious gay couple on their bumpy rite of passage. Meet the oddballs, VOMITs, vetpats, emigreys, semigreys, debauched waiters and middle England miseries. Enter Jack’s irreverent world for a right royal dose of misery and joy, bigotry and enlightenment, betrayal and loyalty, friendship, love, earthquakes, birth, adoption and murder. You couldn't make it up.
My debut book is a bitter-sweet tragi-comedy that recalls our first year as a British expat gay couple in a Muslim land. For more information, news and reviews please check my website. If you like to join us in our journey as expats and soon to be repats, please visit my blog.

Monday 27 February 2012

From Expat to Repat

‘In the beginning there was work and work was God. After 35 years in the business, the endless predictability made me question the Faith.’
I wrote those words on the 8th October 2010, the opening sentence of my debut post on a brand new blog about a couple of silly, cynical old queens who decided to jump the good ship Blighty and wade ashore to Asia Minor as gay semigreys (or is it semigays? No, that would be those who dip in and out). For a minority report, the blog’s done rather well. Now there’s a book. That’s done rather well too. Remarkable. Both crept up behind us without hint or herald. Maybe we should have listened to the early advice of our playground peers and kept our backs to the wall. Too late now.

We planned to stay in Turkey for a good few years, slowly descend into memory loss and erectile dysfunction disguised by a haze of alcohol, then paddle back to Blighty for the liver transplant and wait for the Grim Reaper’s call. Sadly, it’s not to be. I'd like to do author things and keep the pennies (and believe me I do mean pennies) rolling in. I can do neither in Turkey. There's another reason. An important reason. There are pressing family issues that cannot be ducked or delayed. If you have read the book you will understand:
"One day, our Turkish adventure might be curtailed. We were prepared." (Chapter 12)
That time has come.

Where will we be laying our hatboxes next? Well, there's a clue in the picture below. Hint - it's not in Soho.
Thank you Turkey for breaking the umbilical cord between wages and lifestyle. Thank you Turkey for giving me the time and space to write. Thank you Turkey for handing me a story of a plate. We hope one day to return. But, for now there’s no going back on going back.
The photo above is a picture of one of the great cathedrals of England but where is it? Answer correctly for the chance to win* a signed copy of Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey. Submit your answer by commenting here.
*The winner will be chosen at random by Liam from correct entries submitted before 4th March 2012. Comments containing entries to the competition will not be published until after this date so no cheating. The book will be shipped free to the winner to any address in the UK or Turkey. Delivery elsewhere (Mongolia, the dark side of the Moon, etc) may incur charges depending on the cost. Those who already know the answer are banned (we know who you are).

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Saturday 18 February 2012

Postcards from the Ege

I’ve got a small number of signed copies of Perking the Pansies available for free shipping to Turkey. Amazon delivery charges are simply outrageous so this represents a bit of a bargain. This is a limited offer (until the next one) so roll up, roll up to get your mitts on the best expat book to come out of Asia Minor since Alexander the Great’s Postcards from the Ege. You never know. It might be worth something one day

Buy one here!

Saturday 11 February 2012

Perking the Pansies at Polari

As my regular pansy punters know, I’ve just done a gig for the Polari Literary Salon at London’s Royal Festival Hall. I was in the company of a fine cast of literati - Faarea Masud, Hugh Mulhall, Max Wallis, Catherine Hall and Tiffany Murray. The chorus line was made up of friends and regular pansy characters – Nancy, Murat, Clive, Ian, Matt and Philip. I calmed myself with a quick wine stiffener in the Green Room before I climbed the stage to perform against a sumptuous backdrop of The London Eye and Palace of Westminster. I’m not sure who was the more nervous, Liam or me. Despite the tummy terror, I didn’t fluff too many of my lines. I was well received by the enthusiastic audience and I’m eternally grateful to the wonderful and gifted Paul Burston who made it all possible.

Watch the video

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours

If you live in the United Kingdom and would like to buy a signed copy of Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey, delivered free, please click here.

If you’d like a signed copy of the book but live outside the UK, please leave a comment on this post or contact me via my personal website.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Jack Scott's World Book Tour

It’s done and dusted. My World Book Tour across four continents has finally come to an end. The stage lights have dimmed and the sequins have been packed away for another day. I’m knackered even though I’ve not shifted from the sofa. Was it a sell out? No idea. Have I sold copies of the book? Certainly. Please extend a massive hand to the talented and generous supporting cast, stars in their own right who took a back seat and let me take centre stage to strut my stuff.
Fittingly, the tour kicked off in my foster land with Soldier, Solder at a place in the country with rustic old sapper Archers of Okçular.

Next stop was a flying visit to the motherland for our London gig at cosmopolitan Aussie Gidday from the UK with Gidday from Turkay.

The third show, AussieBum was presented Down Under at A Life Less Ordinary with the far from ordinary Russell.

A long virtual night flight took me across the Pacific to the Eureka State - California – for Perking Across the Pond on Lick the Fridge courtesy of gifted wordsmith and family man, Jared.

My second Californian date was a camp inquisition on the pink sofa with the absolutely fabulous Impossibly Glamorous.

No time to dawdle. It was back on the virtual trail to Old Constantinople for a gig on the sharp and witty Istanbul Stranger telling my Yankee Tales, continuing the American theme.

Daft planning took my back Stateside to Provincetown in New England to be entertained by M’lady and the puppets review Perking the Pansies at cross-cultural Slowly-by-Slowly, no strings attached.

I flew the virtual transatlantic red eye for the Continental European leg of my tour. First stop, a chat of the This Morning sofa with my inspirational publisher, Jo Parfitt in the Low Countries.

Next up a trek across the Pyrenees to a campsite somewhere in southern Spain for my Trailer Trash show with the impossibly healthy Helen from Helen’s European Journey.

This was followed by another Dutch gig at Adventures in Expatland with the blogger with the big heart. She entertained us with Pansies Oh So Successfully Perked.

Safe on home soil saw me facing the questions again from the lovely Natalie at the top notch Turkish Travel Blog.

Last and certainly not least, my final interrogation was by Roving Jay on the Bodrum Peninsular Travel Guide. Jay pins me down with questions about Bodrum.

Thank you to one and all, for letting me loose on your blogs, for the Facebook posts and likes, stumbles, tweets, retweets and mentions. Your support is heart-warming. Thank you also to those who followed me around my virtual world. Now the fun really starts...

By the way, would you like to buy my book?

Thursday 19 January 2012

Perking the Pansies eBook

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You don’t need a Kindle to buy and download the Perking the Pansies ebook. All you need is a Kindle Reading App for your iPhone, PC, iPad or Android device. Download it for free from Amazon.

Break a Leg

I'll be talking about my debut book, Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey at the Polari Literary Salon at London’s Royal Festival Hall on the 6th February 2012. Polari is the brainchild of Paul Burston, award winning author, Gay and Lesbian Editor of Time Out London and one of Britain’s leading commentators on gay life. Paul created the forum to showcase new LGBT writers. Since its launch in 2007, Polari has established an enviable reputation as a centre of excellence for promoting new talent.

For further details about the event check Time Out online. To buy tickets check out the Southbank Website.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Amazon Bestseller

Liam got very excited this morning (not that kind of excited – get your mind out of the gutter). He woke me with a cuppa and glad tidings from Amazon UK. Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey has hit the bestsellers’ lists.
  • Top Ten – Gay and Lesbian Biographies (in the company of Jeanette Winterson and John Barrowman),
  • Top Ten – Turkey Travel Guides (alongside the Rough Guide, Lonely Planet and Orhan Pamuk),
AND
  • Number One for Gay and Lesbian Travel.
I’m rather pleased.
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