I did, but couldn't do anything like what I envisaged, partly because it was beyond my technical abilities and partly because I didn't have the pictures to work from. Then I nearly went insane trying to find a free stock photograph of a room corner with two blank walls, then gave up and just used a flat wall which I warped ineptly to try and look like a corner, but in fact it just looks weird. So it was not a triumph, next to Lucas's lovely landscape photograph. 'Another life' works well though imo; I called mine 'Looking for Luke', but as a title it reminded me a bit of those 'Where's Wally' books; so much so that I briefly contemplated doing a Where's Wally picture but with Luke in the bobble hat.

Bit cruel though - he's not a wally.

I don't have the expertise to do a photo but I keep thinking somewhere in my head I have the perfect title but it just keeps eluding me. It's driving me nuts because I know it's in there somewhere.

I agree about Lucas's photos - just fab, beautifully set out, real artistry in them.

You have such a marvellous way with words WD - and I admit to having a smile this morning reading your post xx

I've decided to dodge out of the cover contest. If I did one I'd want to do it properly, with a cartoon and nice typography and all that. But then we're getting perilously close to crowdsourcing, which is a very nasty design industry practice where a client gets lots of people to do all the work upfront but only pays the one they want to use. So if 100 people submit designs, 99 of them have worked for nothing.

That's why I got a bit moany on FB. It wasn't at all clear whether or not this contest is just for fun and some people were assuming it's for real. I feel it's best I be honest about what I know regarding how the industry works, although I'm not an expert by any means. I'd hate Luke's blossoming literary career to get tainted with a reputation that he uses slave labour!

We get into a different discussion when we're talking about helping him pick the title, though. That's part of Luke's job as a writer so if he wants to abdicate that over to us then that's fine (although I expect the publishers will have the final say). It would be a lot easier though if he gave us a quick summary of the contests, otherwise we get a load of vague, loved up platitudes that wouldn't sell a copy in the real world! I did submit a title the last time he asked. He'd called it The Boy With Two Lives so I just personalised it and came out with Laura And Me. Luke had a habit of distancing himself from Laura, I felt, although he seems to accept her a bit more now and even has a laugh about posting his old photos. Great progress in just a couple of months!

I've got to join in with the Lucas-love now you mention it. Not only a very talented photographer in his own right, he also has that personal bond with Luke which means he knows exactly what he needs to capture. I'd love them to do a big project together examining what it's like to be a trans man, it'd be very poignant.

Aw, thanks.

I can see what you mean - I have seen competitions where the person organising it retains the copyright to all entries, so even those who don't win can't use their design themselves in the future. But I don't think there is any adverse intention here. Luke doesn't have any media experience - you could see when he came out of the BB house people even had to explain why he shouldn't keep re-tweeting every tweet he got. I am sure this was just a light-hearted activity meant just to generate a bit of fun, just as the poetry competition was. I can only imagine one of the entries being used if he self-publishes, in which case the person concerned would have to raise any issues they have. (I have been involved in self-publishing a book, and thought it worked perfectly well, but we only printed 400 copies and sold all 400, which was fine for someone with a very limited market).


Yes, true.

Yes, I keep being reminded of that which is why I've kind of appointed myself as one of the guardians of his best interests. To be scrupulously fair to the agent, he could have had his fingers burnt last time regarding Aaron, Faye, Harry, Mark etc all of whom seemed to have the potential for media careers so maybe when he's telling Luke there's nothing out there perhaps it means that he's still trying really hard but knows from bitter experience last year that he's fighting a losing battle. But there are certain things that I think it was the agent's job to tell Luke (like drop the A, be careful who you accept onto your facebook friends list etc) which he seems to have blatantly failed to do. There are also a couple of things Luke's doing which I think could back-fire (if anyone wants to know I'll PM the details but don't want to elaborate on here) and I'm concerned that the agent seems to have no interest in anything he does. That's why I asked about the book - as Val says, is he offering it to a variety of sources to see who is interested and who will give them the best deal - or, as I fear, is it all pie in the sky that will never come to anything.

Oh absolutely, I'd hate anyone to think I was accusing him of having sinister motives! As long as it's all kept as a bit of fun that's absolutely fine. I was just concerned at the FB comments assuming it was for real and I was asking for it to be clarified. I'm with our Oyster when it comes to guarding Luke's best interests (and now I'm curious about what the backfiring things are. )

No special reason for posting on here, I just wanted to remind everyone how gorgeous Luke is

Seconded!!! I see Luke is being targetted on Twitter again - blooming trolls

Yes, if that's 'normal' then I'm happy to be weird

I guess there is an element of fear in these 'she/he' type of tweets. They are people with no confidence in their own masculinity. I thought it was amusing when Luke offered him a hug.

For some reason I can never think of a thing to say on twitter. I seem to have got into my mind that a tweet is supposed to be original, penetrating and witty, and not surprisingly this kind of remark never comes to me.

Those type of tweets are so unimaginative though, and my guess is very ill educated and/or young, which is a shame

A tweet can also just be a real time conversation though WD, I enjoy nattering with you there (Though I must admit to be away more than I'd like to be at the moment)

All I want to say to the trolls is that I hope their manly testicles bear them many sons. All of them as camp as Christmas. But I guess that's a card I can only play once. Does playing it here count?

Not sure, but I like the way you're thinking. Anyone who has that much of a problem with Luke is not secure in his own skin that's for sure. By the looks of his profile pic he's into threesomes with people of his own sex anyway - or at the very least isn't man enough to stand up on his own.

Hope you're feeling better. I always notice when you are not around. xx

Ha ha

Luke is having his surgery tomorrow so I hope it all goes well and that he is happy with the results this time.

Yes. I have no idea how big an operation this is. But I'm sure this time he won't be put in the position of having to lift heavy weights around before it has all healed.

Tut at the general discussion forum and someone bragging about the 'facebook campaign to get you banned'. Is there really a campaign on facebook as well as twitter?

Now I REALLY need to know - who has a thing for owls? I am sure it is one of the Chelle's but I am having a blank moment and can't remember. I have an owly thing...

BIB: Pardon?

Think it's Boo who has a thing for owls.

Get you banned from where? I very much doubt that FB will have any influence over DS. Some people have nothing better to do with their time

It always baffles me how people like this think that asserting their heterosexuality somehow makes them immune from having LGBT children. The vast majority of gay/trans people have straight parents. Well... there's the singer from The Feeling who's gay and has 2 gay mums but he's the only exception I can think of right now.


Oh yes, fingers crossed he gets some decent results this time. Ruptured stitches aside, those scars looked pretty rough for such emotionally important surgery. I've seen pork chops hacked with more respect than Luke's boobs.


Whaaaaaaat? Is that nonsense STILL going on? Gen Dis is a dark and scary place and I wouldn't normally voluntarily go down there. Do you have a link to the comment? (By PM if need be, I wouldn't want all and sundry to come across something so offensive.) Surely even just saying that on here is worthy of a ban. If there's a FB hate page dedicated to you I'm sure you can get that taken down. As much as I know you'd rather shrug it off you REALLY have to take it seriously if they're not going to let it drop.


I think it was Chelleboo, plus Meltheowl of course and I think there was someone else. Actually it's hard not to love owls.

I see that Amazon are selling a book called 'A Parents Guide to Preventing Homosexuality'. I am pleased to see that the tags suggested for it include 'child abuse', 'brainwashing' and 'Amazon fail'. The reviews are quite bracing as well.


They might have looked ok at first. He said because he burst the stitches they couldn't be properly redone until they had settled down. So he had to live with the big scars for months.



The thread was pulled by the moderators. There was an FM called queserasera who kept saying that no one knew the awful things I did to him when he joined DS, but when I looked back at his early posts, our paths never seem to have crossed at all. It's all a silly game. No one can get someone banned unless they behave like an idiot. I have been banned for 48 hours, and know perfectly well why.

Impressed (and rather touched) that Luke not only sent a little message to FB on his way to the operating theatre, but also another one as soon as he woke up, even if he did say next morning that he had no memory of it.

And yay for the not-smoking. Hope it lasts.

Bless him, he turned us all into a flock of mother hens that night. Anyone would think it was open heart surgery!

I guess being in hospital is a perfect opportunity to have a go at quitting smoking. Let's hope he succeeds, he'll feel so much better for it.

I know, fingers really crossed. He did seem a bit hardcore in the BB house. Unfortunately he seems to feel much worse this morning, but I think that is likely to be because of the op more than the quitting smoking.