Just a day to go in the travel writing competition by We Said Go Travel and I'm in second place. If you're on Facebook, please help me win by clicking here and 'liking' the picture of the fabulous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Thank you!

I entered a travel writing competition and there's a bit of cash in it if I win. If you're on Facebook and you'd like to help the competition along, please click on the image above and 'like' the picture on Facebook. A boy's gotta eat.

My article is called "Istanbul, the City that Straddles Two Continents" which I adapted from a chapter in my recently published eBook - Turkey, Surviving the Expats. 

Read the full article on We Said Go Travel.

Fancy winning a Google Nexus 7 tablet? Earn points by downloading and rating e-books from iWriteReadRate. The more you download and rate, the greater chance you have of winning. It’s that simple. Of course, I hope Perking the Pansies is one of the books you choose. 

Click here for more information.

iWriteReadRate have shortlisted  Perking the Pansies for their book of the month competition. If you can be bothered, please vote. You’ll have to registered, though which is a bit of a drag. Who knows? You might like this fancy new book site and stick around.

Roll up, roll up and join the Rainbow Book Review Blog Giveaway. I’m offering one free paperback copy of Perking the Pansies (to UK callers) and an e-book (to international callers) to the wittiest comment left on my article Fifty Shades of Gay.  

I seem to be giving away a lot of books at the moment. All part of the PR strategy, my publisher assures me. It’ll pay dividends in the end, I’m told. We shall see! Congratulations to Caroline Jones and Angela Gray, the winners of the Goodreads giveaway. Hopefully, you should now have your hands on a copy and, hopefully, if you’ll like what you read, you'll be kind enough to add a positive review.

I had a tipple or three with the winners of the book giveaway competition that I ran in March. Congratulations to Niki Fowler and Paul Hard, the worthy winners of signed copies of the book. I had intended to post copies but Niki and Paul had bolder ideas. They had a pansy summit in mind, a liquid convention on our home turf. The dastardly plot was hatched and the conference commenced. We made a jolly bunch. Four hours in the making, it was a memorable and fun-filled finale to an epoch of epic proportions. Next stop Norwich.

Congratulations to Mick Sutton. He's the lucky winner of the competition run by british expat to win a Kindle version of Perking the Pansies. Liam and I put the entries into a bowl and Mick's name was pulled out at random. We were particularly taken by Mick's explanation for wanting a copy. He wrote:

"I would like a copy of the book in kindle version because although I am not gay, I am willing to help out if they are short handed."

Priceless.

"It’s a good account of the light and shade of an off-the-wall expat lifestyle, told in a fast-paced and highly amusing way.
Jack is an expert people-watcher, and much of what makes this book enjoyable is his wry, witty and sometimes downright scathing observations of others. We all know the type of expats who huddle together in groups, with no interests other than reinforcing their superiority over the locals, slagging off their new country, bemoaning what’s become of their old one, and attending regular expat meetings. I’ve heard the type referred to before as [insert name of local British group here]-types. Jack refers to them as “emigreys”. Brilliant!" Kay McMahon, British Expat

Click here to read the full review and for the chance to WIN a Kindle version of Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey.

I’ve offered Goodreads a couple of books to give away free to two lucky winners. The competition is open to any Goodreads member in the United Kingdom. Simply provide your name and address to be entered into the prize draw. Not a member of Goodreads? Why not join? It’s a great book lover’s site and it’s free.