Lad Lit November 7, 2010

Ian Barker

There’s women’s fiction and chick lit. While novels by such authors as Nick Hornby, whose single male protagonists fall into situations as crazy and campy as anything written by Jennifer Weiner, are bestsellers, they don’t get a category to themselves. Why? Is it solely a marketing decision, or is there more behind it? This week in #litchat we’ll discuss books with young, urbane and sexy men as protagonists in romantic set-ups.

Joining us on Friday, November 12, 2010 is Ian Barker, author of Fallen Star (November 2010, Rebel ePublishers). With a keen wit and a sharp eye on social commentary, Barker brings us the story of boy-band heart-throb Karl Weston. When the lead singer of the Fallen Boys dies of a drug overdose, the band disintegrates and leaves Karl and the other Fallen Boys floundering in their own fame. Reality thrusts a mirror in Karl’s face when a mix of dodgy management and pop-culture theatrics send Karl looking for gigs in all the wrong places. His life heats up again when he meets Irish firebrand Lizzie Keating and joins the cast of a reality TV show called Celebrity Boarding School.

Barker’s first cash-in-the-bank publishing credit was a Laughter the Best Medicine gag for Reader’s Digest in 1998. Since then he has gone on to write topical comedy sketches for BBC Radio’s The News Huddlines, and has had short stories published in Evergreen magazine, and in the WritersNet Anthology. He has stories published online in the e-zines Starving Arts and Crime Scene Scotland plus a co-written story on Admit Two. Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Barker grew up in north-east England and gained a business degree from Teesside Polytechnic in the early ’80s. In his day job he is editor of PC Utilities magazine and a regular contributor to sister publications. He currently lives in Bolton, Greater Manchester and doesn’t own a dishwasher.

Follow Ian Barker on Twitter: @IanDBarker

Read the chatscript of #litchat with guest host Ian Barker here.