Footy

My first ‘contemporary’ novel.

Like so many of my stories, the inspiration for it came in from somewhere odd.  I read a newspaper story that David Beckham  (the metrosexual soccer player, in case you didn’t know) likes to wear his wife’s thong undies.  This sexy, straight man wears lace?  So I wrote a short story about an ex Aussie (or Ozzie) rules footy player (Oz plays Ozzie rules football, soccer, and both rugby league and rugby union)  who is straight (and wears his wife’s lacy thongs).  He finds he has no friends when he’s no longer a football player.  Except one.  Who hates footy, and makes the mistake of falling in love with him.

The short story just kept on growing.  I grew to like all the characters so much I simply had to explore their lives  It’s become a novel. This novel has ended up exploring the issues of bisexuality, of how we can have two loves, how people manage that, and how denying part of your most profound self can be lead to sorrow and pain and loss, not just for you but all those round you.   And of course, how love, the kind that seeketh not itself to please, is marvellous and healing and helps make all this work.

I also wanted to explore how sometimes love, physical — no sexual — can come from friendship, and how friendship can come from sex.  Tom, the footy star, connects with Adam because they are friends first.  Will connects with Sean because he picks him up in a bar.  Only afterwards does their love expand and grow into something precious.  Yet they both end up in the same place.

Chapter 1     Chapter 2    Chapter 3    Chapter 4      Chapter 5

Chapter 6     Chapter 7    Chapter 8    Chapter 9      Chapter 10

Chapter 11   Chapter 12  Chapter 13   Chapter 14   Chapter 15

Chapter 16   Chapter 17  Chapter 18   Chapter 19    Chapter 20