Welcome to today’s stop on the Paulyanna: International Rent Boy blog tour hosted by Page Turner Book Tours. I hope you enjoy today’s guest post from author Paul Douglas Lovell. Don’t forget to sign up for the contest!
Paulyanna: International Rent Boy by Paul Douglas Lovell
Title: Paulyanna International Rent Boy
Author: Paul Douglas Lovell
Publisher: Self Published
Formats Available In: Digital
Released: September 2013
Blurb: Paulyanna: International Rent-boy is an honest and frank portrayal of a working-class male prostitute’s life.
Many factors contribute in delivering the main character onto the streets. Some very typical such as early abandonment, poverty, lack of education and sexual abuse. But Paul does not dwell too much on the past and refuses to allow these events to mar his ambition.
At eighteen a lost train ticket leaves him stranded in the city after a job interview. He uses his questionable wits to make a quick decision that steers him down a rather dodgy path.
Without added glamour or grit, Paul shares the raw accounts of his life as a rent-boy in the 90s, from London to Los Angeles. It may not have been pretty, and there was risk and danger as well as fun and thrills, but Paul had the audacity to succeed in his quest to obtain happiness, security and wealth.
This is not an erotic tale. It is an ordinary account of day-to-day life as viewed from a unique perspective. A peek into what really goes on behind the glassy-eyed smile of a male street worker. Read about his life in this optimistic and fascinating roadbook adventure.
About Paul Douglas Lovell:
A Black Country Lad who now lives in the Black Boy Land or Schwarzbubenland as it is called in Switzerland. Life started off badly and after spending a big part of it on the margins of society working as a rent-boy (gay male prostitute) I eventually found my husband (civil partner) in 2000 and a new chapter in my life began.
Years on and we are still very happily married, or at least I am. He kept every single one of his promises and didn’t tire or change his attitude towards me. Never once have I felt cold, hungry or scared.
I now live in a detached property with a large garden in a small hamlet of 895 residence. Set in the foothills of the Jura mountains. I am surrounded on all sides by hilly forests, a small stream runs through it’s centre. It really is a proper piece of paradise. When I’m feeling extra spiritual it is easy to imagine. We are nestled in the palms of an almighty giant. God if you like. Whom, despite all I had done saw fit to watch over me and guide me to a life worth living. I have a beautiful black cat called Darcy and also a Gordon Setter girl-dog name Asherah. We live an idyllic existence.
I now enjoy the small pleasures in life, gone are the pressures of Big City Life nowadays, I can see sky out of my windows. I experience every season. In the Spring and Summer, whilst out walking in the woods we often make a fire to cook a jumbo sausage. My dog likes sausage walks. Autumn is spend harvesting our homegrown and raking up leaves. I spend a lot of my time gardening. Chopping and stacking wood for the log burner that heats our home throughout the Winter season. I’m a Glippy a glamourous hippy. We are extremely green and energy efficient, I’m a recycling master.
I wear what I call my doggy clothes mostly, saving my glad rags for when visiting the city. I like to pretend I’m living in the olden days and going to town is a really big event. So that is the new improved me. I must admit I do still enjoy cannabis but now, I drink red wine also.
“I always had a dream to become a writer and although not quite there yet am doing everything I can to make it a reality.”
Guest post: Why did you create this book?
Why did I create this book? That is a deceptively short question.
My instant answer is for prosperity and vanity. Sorry, I mean posterity.
I wrote an autobiography about a non-celebrity. A portion of an uneducated, working-class person’s life set mainly in the 1990s.
It is my first book, however I have held a desire to become a writer since I drew matchstick men with speech bubbles at time too young to date correctly. If I were to make an educated guess, I would say seven as most of my symptomatic traits began around this age.
So I created because I believe, regardless of sales figures, that I AM a writer. Why this specific book? Because being my first, it’s a case of write what you know.
I am a novice who is still learning; for instance, that witty prosperity-posterity mix up was actually today’s lesson.
I am not at all educated and when I say ‘not at all’, I mean it. I can remember doing homework once on the first week at BIG school. A novelty that was short lived. At eleven years old, I had only one desire and that was to leave school. A desire I fulfilled much earlier than my peers.
Subsequently, in a life that never did flow smoothly, my career prospects were limited to unqualified not-so-glamorous manual positions. Hindered further by a carefree sociopathic type of attitude towards the law and a wonky moral compass, it was almost inevitable that this damaged package was heading for a bumpy ride.
I wrote a whopping 140,000-word “professionally edited” novel. It is vitally important for me to announce my manuscript has been edited. An investment I made, and was always going to make, to give my story every chance possible and also the respect I thought it merited.
I also know my limits. After the fifth read-through, I could no longer see the wood (words, in my case) for the trees. As for grammar and punctuation, I know I have no skills in that department.
I spent a lot of my life regaling people with my tales. Captivating and attention-grabbing, I noticed people listened intently. This is how I gained self-confidence in social settings; I hijacked conversations simply because I was uncomfortable with silent pauses. Felt the class clown in me itching to entertain. Whether I fully acknowledge it or not, this stereotypical behaviour was brought on by past influences that have always shaped and steered my life. If I were to omit such strong facts as sexual abuse, I would not be painting an accurate picture of the main character.
However, I am not at all comfortable mentioning this subject so it is enough for me, and you to know it happened. Besides, the twelve-year-period of my story covered in Paulyanna: International Rent-Boy begins when I am already in my late teens. Perhaps one day I will tell my childhood tale too.
This story, crammed full of quirky happenings, strange opinions and insightful observations into an unfamiliar existence, is also intended to give encouragement to people like myself by dispelling the notion that the damage is permanent and life will continue to be shit.
So it is much more than a mere glimpse behind the glassy-eyed smile of a street worker. It is me giving something back, albeit if unconventionally and with a subversive tilt. Sex, drugs and gangster rap with an undercurrent of spirituality and karma.
I do imagine many buyers will happily pick this book up for a second reading and echoes of this story will linger longer than most novels. That is a very arrogant and brave boast I’m making here so I’d best move on quickly.
I make one more claim. I know my life has been both unique and stereotypical. I am an extremely observant people-watcher and I often viewed myself from a lofty viewpoint whilst events unfolded. With complete detachment, and in many cases with astonished disbelief, I planned my retelling. I really hope you like what you read.
Here’s what you could win:
Amazon gift voucher (to the cost of 15 euros)
Paulyanna: International Rent Boy ~ ecopy
Feature in Reader’s Shadow
Enter the contest here.
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