Justin Myers is a journalist who for a long time wrote under his pseudonym The Guyliner. I first started reading his hilarious writing back in 2012 when his blog posts started getting published on the Huffington Post. He has written for Gay Times, GQ and the Guardian. His first novel, The Last Romeo, was published by Little, Brown in Spring this year.
We talk about writing non fiction and how his fiction has some similarities to his journalistic career.
His book The Last Romeo tells a story of the character James - his long relationship with Adam ends, decides to try out the dating scene for the first time, writing about his exploits for a small, loyal audience under a secret identity: the Last Romeo. An account of a date with a closeted celebrity boosts the blog’s popularity, not to mention its notoriety, and soon James finds himself reluctantly internet-famous, and dealing with the associated perks and pitfalls; the fans, trolls, and haters, who all want to know one thing: who the hell is Romeo?
We talk about what it's like coming out as your real self from behind an anonymous blog and how to use your experiences for a novel. We also talk about age and I like this quote from Justin: "There is no new rule that once you hit 35 or 40, you are suddenly no longer interested in new things around you or new stuff."
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