#LadLitSunday: Matt Dunn joins the Lad Lit Blog Tour and Rob Radcliffe pens a book by his readers

It's been a quiet week in lad lit land so I will keep this update short!

First off, I am delighted to announce that Matt Dunn will be joining the Lad Lit Blog Tour. The lad lit best-seller will be hosting a guest post from yours truly on his very own blog in a few weeks time.

The first week of the blog tour to promote lad lit has just come to a close and it's been fantastic so far. One of the highlights was being part of a Q&A on Jon Rance's blog, so to have signed up a second hugely successful lad lit author is a real honour. 

And this week I interviewed Rob Radcliffe, who is currently flying high in the Amazon humour charts with his novel Meat Market. One of the highlights of my chat with Rob was finding out about his latest project called Untitled where his readers are helping him write the novel.

Rob said of the unique project: "As a writer you find yourself shut in the dark while you scribble away in the hope your book will connect with your readers once you have finished. For Untitled I have turned that on its head. As I write the chapters I post them on my website and the pages are accessible to people who have signed up to The Novel Experiment reader’s list. I wanted feedback and comments as I wrote this book, I wanted reader engagement as I went through the writing process and so far feedback has been awesome. There have been readers who have made suggestions to me which have helped shape the direction this novel is going and it is great. The title will be voted for by my ever growing email list and it really feel like I am connecting with the people I do this for, my readers"

You can check out the full interview here.

Tweet of the Week
He has a point...

This guy has accused Obama of being “weird and ridiculous”. pic.twitter.com/851pqEn3bp

— Danny Wallace (@dannywallace) April 23, 2016

#LadLitSunday: Matt Dunn donates the dedication in his next book to charity

Another week, another #LadLitSunday and this week there is no other place to start other than the awesome initiative Matt Dunn has set-up to raise money for the charity Streetwise.

The author of Home and The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook will dedicate his next novel to one lucky winner to donates just £2 on his JustGiving page to help the homeless. Matt has been busy promoting the unique opportunity this week on Twitter by Tweeting: "Win a WHOLE BOOK DEDICATED TO YOU (or someone you love/fancy/want to embarrass) for just £2." The dedication will appear in every single copy sold, not just the copy the winner receives.

It's a brilliant idea and I have already made my donation - you can make your donation here.

Elsewhere, Esquire magazine published the article 50 Novels All Men Should Read. Some of the books included in the list: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and Hearts In Atlantis by Stephen King. Sam Parker who wrote the article writes: "Forget coming-of-age fiction or impenetrable 'classics' – these are the books all grown men should be ticking off. Why? Because they're as entertaining as they are wise."

In other news, I interviewed lad lit author Ben Adams this week and he revealed he was busy working on his third book with the working title Trouble in the Staffroom. You can read the full interview here.

Quick bits

• I announced this week that my Lad Lit Blog Tour will start on April 19 and run until May 19. Follow the hashtag #LadLitBlogTour for more announcements
• The Real Men, Real Style website put together their 10 Books All Men Should Own list. You can see it here.

Tweet of the week
Great quote picked out from author Jon Rance. It's got to be up there with Rod Stewart's "I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger." :) 

"The tragedy of life isn't that we get older, it's that we forget how to be young." #quoteoftheday

— Jon Rance (@JRance75) March 28, 2016

Author Interview: Matt Dunn

Hi Matt, thanks for taking the time out to chat with me. You are busy working on your tenth novel at the moment - what is it called and what's it all about?
The working title is A (Christmas) Day at the Office - it's a sequel to A Day at the Office, and revisits the Seek Software team nine months after that fateful Valentine's Day. It's set on the day of the office Christmas party, when big changes are in store for the company, and all the people who work there...

Your last novel, Home, has so far proved to be your most popular work in terms of reader reviews (4.5 average rating on Goodreads). Why do you think this story has been so well received?
Well, the Goodreads score's closer to 4, and it seems to be well-received on Amazon too (not that I check more than half a dozen times a day), but to answer your question, from what people have told me, it's mainly because a lot of people seem to identify with the story (people leaving small towns to live in the city/complex relationships with their parents/the people they leave behind, family, illness etc.). Plus it seems to make them laugh and cry, which I think lends to a much more involved reading experience. My previous novels have been pure comedies, so maybe I'm on to something...

The main character in Home, Josh Peters, returns to the seaside town he grew up in after living in London for the past 18 years. You also grew up in a seaside town. How much of this is based on real life experiences?
None. I made it all up completely. At least, that's what my lawyers have told me to say.

You are one of a number of successful British male romantic comedy novelists alongside the likes of Mike Gayle, Nick Spalding, Danny Wallace and Nick Hornby. How do male writers tackle the genre differently to their female chick lit counterparts?
You'd have to ask them. But personally, I think we just tell it how it is from our point of view. Or rather, how we see it. Which is kind of how it is, if you believe all that 'perception is reality' bollocks. Which I do, obviously.

Of all the characters you have created in your novels, who has been your favourite and why?
Dan, from the Ex-Boyfriends/Ex Girlfriends/Accidental Proposal trilogy. He's the one I've had the best feedback about. Though I stress he's not me. And probably because I could get away with a lot, given that he's so extreme/shameless.

If you could have written any book other than one of your own, which book would it be and why?
Fifty Shades - for the royalties. But in terms of quality, Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. It's the perfect example of my genre, and the book that I wanted to emulate when I first read it. Ten novels later, I'm still trying.

Your second novel, The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook, was optioned for sitcom development by CBS. What happened and if it was made into a TV show, which actor would you have playing Edward Middleton? 
Hmm. I get paid more the more popular it is, so whoever the current biggest box office draw is. One of that Game of Thrones lot, perhaps?

Social media platforms have revolutionised the way fans can communicate with their favourite authors. What is the strangest thing you have ever been asked by a fan?
The strangest thing that actually happens is being asked for free (signed) books by people who aren't fans, without any preamble. I get a lot of that. They might at least buy me dinner first. Generally, though, I LOVE social media. I spend all day at my desk creating an imaginary world, so it's great when real people email me, or tweet, or say 'hi' on Facebook.

What is the best piece of advice you could give to an aspiring author? 
I'll simply pass on the best advice I was given: read the best-sellers in your genre, and see how they achieve their page-turning quality. And then, um, do that.

You turn 50 this year, any big plans on how you will be celebrating your half century?
'Celebrating' turning fifty? Yeah, right!

Check out all of Matt Dunn's work at his website and Amazon page

What is lad-lit? Move over girls, the boys are coming!

So what is lad-lit?

Often referred to as dick-lit by our American cousins, lad-lit is best known as male equivalent of chick-lit. It is books about men by men. Like my very own novel The Drought, lad-lit typically explores the male psyche, especially around subjects such as friendship, relationships, love, and sex.

The undisputed king of the genre has to be Nick Hornby, who has penned novels such as Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity. Hornby has carved out a career writing about themes often associated with chick lit novels from a man's point of view.

And that was my sole purpose for writing The Drought. I got sick and tired of being forced to endure countless hours of mind-numbing chick flicks at the hands of my girlfriend. I would watch the male characters on screen and inside I would be screaming a man wouldn't do that!

For example, you know that bit in the film when the guy realises that he actually is in love with the girl so he rushes off to airport to stop her jetting off out of his life? That wouldn't happen! You know why? Because the bloke would get too caught up playing Grand Theft Auto and would miss the train to Gatwick! Besides, he could always send her a text or Facebook her later on. 

And the part when the woman gazes into the man's eyes and he takes her in his arms and makes sweet passionate love to her all night long as Boys II Men plays in the background? Forget about it! The only song playing in our head at that point is Celebration by Kool and the Gang! And we never call it making love!

I wanted to write a light-hearted story about a bunch of  normal everyday blokes and stick them in the middle of a chick lit situation and allow my own versions of the tale to unfold. And the result? Normally it tends to be hilarious, sometimes downright cringy situations, but always brutally honest. And that's because we're men! When a woman says to us If you really loved me, you would know what to do, we genuinely think the correct thing to do is to go to the football with our mates rather than stay and celebrate our four-year anniversary of the first time we slept with each other. After all, it's not a proper anniversary if you can't get a Hallmark card to celebrate it!

Nick Hornby is not the only author flying the lad lit flag. Danny Wallace and Mike Gayle have both written best-selling novels telling the story from a male perspective. You just have to pick up a copy of Shortlist magazine each week to read the fantastic ramblings from Wallace in his award-winning column Danny Wallace is a Man. Lad lit is becoming increasingly popular and new writers, such as Nick Spalding and Matt Dunn, are now frequently seen flying up the eBook charts.

For me, lad lit isn't necessarily confined to stories about love and relationships, and you will find that the books I review on this site are both fiction and non-fiction stories that I feel would have a broader appeal to men. 

If you would like to read more about lad lit and books for men, then check out Steve's Book Reviews.

Top Ten Lad Lit Authors (the male version of chick lit!)

My top 10 lad lit authors!
In a previous post, I attempted to answer the question What is lad lit. Well in this section I am going to attempt to introduce you to of the world of lad lit authors, with a list of some of the most well-known authors in the genre, plus a couple of up-and-coming writers to watch out for...



1. Nick Hornby
The undispited king of lad lit! Hornby has penned some of the great lad lit novels of our time and marked his arrival on the scene with Fever Pitch; a memoir about his obsession with football and Arsenal FC in particular. But it was High Fidelity where Hornby set the benchmark for all aspiring lad lit authors. His tale about thirty-something record shop owner Rob Fleming laid out many of the adult male insecurities with great hilarity. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Hornby is that, despite the huge success of his novels, he has only published six fiction titles since High Fidelity in 1995, with the 2009 novel Juliet, Naked being his latest work.

2. Mike Gayle
Mike Gyale was a features editor and later an agony aunt for girls mags Just Seventeen and Bliss, which probably goes quite some way to explaining why he is so good at understanding the chick lit for men genre. His first book, My Legendary Grlfriend, received fantastic praise and was even heralded as a Bridget Jones Diary for the male audience. Since then Mike's novels have continued to generate great feedback from readers, but some would argue that his style of writing has crossed over from being lad lit to more traditional chick lit author, albeit one that tends to write from the male perspective.

3. Danny Wallace
One of my favourite authors at the moment. Where Danny gets his crazy ideas from are anyones guess, but he writes them so brilliantly that you just can't help but get wrapped up in the story. He is probably best known for Yes Man (which got turned into a Hollywood blockbuster starring Jim Carey) and his award-winning column in Shortlist magazine. But the first Danny Wallace book I read was Friends Like These, where Danny travels around the globe to track down his ex-Primary School classmates. Utterly pointless but totally brilliant at the same time. Danny's recent novel Charlotte Street was his first foray into the world of fiction.

4. Tony Parsons
Tony Parsons is in the same ilk as Nick Hornby, in that he found huge success writing about the trials and tribulations of the thirty-something man. Parsons had written a number of books before he found huge success in 1999 with the multimillion selling novel Man and Boy; the brilliantly engaging novel that follows Harry as he learns to become a father to his son and a son to his aging father, and tries to find love at the same time. Parsons found his niche writing about relationships and often refers to his novels as Men Lit.

5. Nick Spalding
I only recently discovered Nick Spalding, who has enjoyed the successful journey from best-selling indie author to getting a three-book deal with a top publishing house. Another author in the Mike Gayle mould, where there is a very thin line between him being a lad lit or chick lit author. Still, what Spalding does is capture and identify the emotions and feelings from both the male and female characters, as he did so brilliantly with in Love... From Both Sides. It will be interesting to see what he delivers now he has the backing of a big publishing house. I'm watching this space!

6. Matt Dunn
Matt is another one of those authors that I have only recently just come across since I started to delve a bit deeper into the lad lit genre. I haven't read any of of his books yet, but he has had great success with his contemporary romantic comedy novels including Best Man and The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook, which was shortlisted for both the Romantic Novel Of The Year award, as well as the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. He's also written about life, love, and relationships for various publications including The Times, Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Company, Elle, Glamour, and The Sun.

7. Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich is perhaps not the most obvious name to jump out at you when you think of typical lad lit, but I add him to this list because he has an uncanny ability to spot real-life stories with male leads, and make you want to be that character! You might be more familiar with Mezrich's work on the big screen as he penned the books which the Hollywood smash hits The Social Network and 21 were based on, which starred Justin Timberlake and Kevin Spacey respectively. What Mezrich does so brilliantly is take a true story and use his artistic freedom to create a a really exciting read, albeit from very interesting stories.

8. Steve Carter
Steve Carter is the author of the number one Kindle smash hit Love, Sex, and Tesco's Finest Cava, which reached number one spot in the UK humour and number one in contemporary romance in March 2011. Another indie author who has proved that you can achieve great sales by going it alone, but other than that I don't know too much else about this author, other than his second novel is called Finding Yourself in Seville.

9. Mil Millington
Mil Millington first came to public prominence when he created a web-site entitled Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About. The site's main content was anecdotes describing arguments and misunderstandings between Mil and his German girlfriend Margret, mother of his two sons. Such was the popularity of this site that Mil was offered a publishing deal, and wrote a novel with the same title as his web-site, but with new content, published in 2002.

10. Steven Scaffardi 
You didn't really expect me to write a top 10 list of lad lit authors without including myself did you?! Okay, so it's a little bit cheeky but with each and every positive reader comment and book review that trickles in, I'm confident and hopeful that my name will one day start to appear on other peoples top ten lad lists in the not too distant future. My debut novel The Drought is often compared to some of the authors I have listed here, which I always take as a huge compliment. And if you don't believe me, then just check out the reviews and comments it has been getting yourself!