Beating the Blues – Guest Post and Giveaway from Jay Northcote
The main characters in my new novel, Not Just Friends, are university students, so they’re at that age where there tends to be a lot of falling in and out of relationships. Emotions are felt strongly, feelings get hurt and hearts get bruised, if not actually broken. We’ve all been there, and when things go wrong, you need your friends to support you.
One of my characters, Max, has a brief relationship with another guy early in the book, before getting involved with Lewis. At that point, Max thinks Lewis is straight and has no idea that Lewis has a crush on him. But they are already close friends, so when Max’s relationship with the other guy goes awry, it’s Lewis who has to pick up the pieces.
Max insists that they go to the supermarket to buy comfort food and booze, then Max, Lewis and two of their other flatmates sit around and get drunk and eat junk food in an attempt to make Max feel better. Here’s a little extract of the boys’ shopping trip.
***
They didn’t get around to venturing out until midafternoon, because Max got caught up shooting things on Dean’s Xbox for a while. Dean had insisted to Max it was an important form of therapy and would help him to deal with his anger. Max had taken this very seriously, but eventually had to quit because his fingers were starting to hurt. “It’s my dominant hand, mate. I’m going to need this even more now I’m single again.”
They ended up doing the longer walk to the local supermarket for supplies, because the convenience stores closer to their flat were much more expensive. It became a bit of an expedition. Rob and Andreas ended up coming along to Tesco too, but Dean had gone out with Beth.
The four of them spent ages trawling around the aisles, looking for the best deals on booze and junk food, or my-ex-is-a-wanker comfort food as Max insisted on calling it. He was clearly going to milk this opportunity for all it was worth.
Max laid his stuff out on the checkout and explained the logic behind each choice. “Red wine, because it will give me a headache. If I’m going to be miserable, I might as well suffer properly. Plus it’s on special offer, three bottles for the price of two. Jelly Babies,”—he pointed at the yellow bag—“because I can bite their heads off and pretend they’re Bruno.”
“Or you could subject them to a slow and painful death by eating them from the feet up?” Rob suggested.
“Yes! I like the way you’re thinking. That could work too.” Max nodded, all seriousness. “And I got chocolate because chocolate is awesome, obviously. And crisps, because then that’s all the major food groups covered.”
“Salt, sugar, alcohol and jelly babies?” Lewis raised an eyebrow.
“Exactly.”
***
Later in the evening, the other flatmates leave Lewis and Max alone and our boys hang out in Max’s room and listen to his Miserable Bastard Playlist—which features a lot of Morrissey and The Smiths 😉
Not Just Friends is out tomorrow, and I have a copy to give away. If you’d like to be entered in the draw, please leave a comment below telling me your favourite comfort food and/or a track that you like to listen to when you’re feeling blue.
Leaving home to go to university is an exciting phase in anyone’s life. One that’s full of new places, new friends, and new experiences. But Lewis is not prepared for the sudden and intense crush he develops on his out-and-proud flatmate, Max—given that Lewis had always assumed he was straight. Max starts dating another guy, and Lewis’s jealousy at seeing them together forces him to confront his growing attraction.
When Max’s relationship goes awry, Lewis is the one to comfort him and one thing leads to another. But after a night together, Lewis is devastated that Max wants to go back to being just friends. Lewis tries his best to move on and their friendship survives, but the
feelings he has for Max don’t go away. He faces other challenges as he deals with coming out to his parents, and needs Max’s support more than ever. But Lewis isn’t the only one who’s conflicted. When Max finally admits he cares for Lewis too, Lewis must decide whether he dares risk his heart again on being more than just friends.
Not Just Friends is available from Dreamspinner Press
Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of England, with her amazing, occasionally ridiculous husband, two noisy-but-awesome children, and two cats.
She comes from a family of writers, but she always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed her by. She spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content. One day, she decided to try and write a short story–just to see if she could–and found it rather addictive. She hasn’t stopped writing since.
Links
Website: www.jaynorthcote.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jay_northcote
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaynorthcotefiction
Jay’s books: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_953
Giveaway ends march 2 nd
Fav comfort food is strawberries/ song would be Barbra Streisand’s “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”
My favourite home cooked comfort food is spaghetti 🙂 my daughter loves it and it’s just so much fun to make pasta with her.
My favorite comfort food would be either meatloaf with mashed potatoes or a nice pot roast. 🙂
I like to eat a bowl of cereal when I need comfort.
Homemade soup. Doesn’t matter the kind, just homemade. and I listen to classical most when I’m a bit down.
My favorite comfort food is potato chips or popcorn.
A mocha or hot chocolate (with cookies!) is nice for that. I’ve always found Teenage Fanclub’s BANDWAGONESQUE album very soothing for some reason…
Popcorn with lots of butter. And I listen to Sarah Brightman.
Favorite comfort food-what ever is junk food in the cabinet. I listen to Elvis Presley for comfort
Mexican food. The crunch and spice always help me. If I’m not ready to pull out of my funk, I listen to “Home” by Michael Bublé; otherwise, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and Bon Jovi’s “Crush” pull me out of my mood. Love the question and reading all the answers!
Anything Italian – pizza, lasagna, spaghetti. Loved your book Coming Home – can’t wait to read this one. Thanks for the chance at winning a copy.
Love the selection for major food groups.
My comfort food is definitely chocolate and song would be ‘Wicked Games’ by Chris Issak.
My favorite comfort food is homemade soup, especially oxtail but chicken vegetable works too.
Favorite comfort food is either dark chocolate or some sort of pasta like rich, thick macaroni and cheese.
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Icecream, peanut butter and choclate, not necessarily together, are most comforting for me. I have no real comfort song though anything from my favorites playlist probably.
Something sweet – chocolate, ice cream, chocolate ice cream!
Sounds – well, something from the past to gee me up, at the moment I’m reliatening to my Eddy Grant Cd’s
Blackberries with sugar and cream
chocolate…who can go past chocolate as comfort food?
Vanilla ice cream, definitely. But then I hate myself for eating so much. 🙂
Comfort food – lasagne or peril (roast pork); music – Dredj. Thanks for the giveaway!
Comfort food is any kind of potato product and chocolate (not mixed, either will do). Favorite track to listen to when I’m down is Fake? ft. Anna Tsuchiya – Butterfly(don’t let my sun go down).
Favorite comfort food would be chocolate in a variety of different ways. Thanks for the giveaway!
home made pizza
Favourite comfort food – chocolate for sure! Thank you 🙂
Comfort food? CHOCOLATE…any kind!! Though does it count as food?
Pasta is a good choice any time, too 🙂
My favorite comfort foods are chocolate and mac & cheese. As far as music goes, it’s R&B slow jams – especially from the 1980s.
Food doesn’t comfort me when I’m sad. As for music, it changes constantly. I discovered this house track yesterday that I think is uplifting and comforting for when life gets you down. It called YACHT – Second Summer (RAC Remix).
blackasphodel(at)yahoo(dot)com
Pasta is my comfort food. It’s hard to pick a song I listen to when I’m down. It depends if I want to revel in it or break out of the funk!
My comfort food is either homemade chicken noodle soup (Because my mom always made it for me as a kid and things never seemed so bad when she did) and Mashed potatoes. I would eat them when I was pregnant with my son. It was a rough pregnancy and I couldn’t stand to eat much. I would sit with a bowl and chow down. He always kicked the hardest when I was eating them so I always associate them with his pregnancy. A song I listen to to lift me up, hmmm, Girls just want to have fun, Cyndi Lauper! Always makes me smile!
Probably pizza. Different toppings depending on mood. My favorite music is Classical Rock, but depressing times leads to country music love songs.
Fav comfort food… chocolate & wine or grilled cheese & tomato soup.
Music for when I have the blues? The Weepies, ironically enough. 🙂
Favorite comfort food: warm homemade bread with butter. My favorite comfort song changes with the situation.
My favorite comfort food has to be real NY Pizza!