Josh Stoddard

Charlie Belle

It's 1985 in Thatcher’s Britain. Wham! and Madonna are Top of the Pops, the AIDs crisis is at its height, and Finn Thompson has a secret...he's bisexual. Nobody knows and he wants to keep it that way. But when you live in a small town like his, everyone knows everyone, and secrets don’t stay secret for long. Recently dumped, Finn meets Kat, a punk with her own baggage. After a couple of chance encounters, they quickly fall in love. But when Kat learns Finn's secret, she worries she's not enough for him and their paranoia and secrets from each other lead to reckless choices with irrevocable consequences. If Finn wants the best of both worlds, he's gotta face the music. --- SMALLTOWN BOY is an LGBTQ New Adult romance novel written in first person, alternating between Finn and Kat's perspectives so we can hear both sides of their story. Originally Smalltown Boy was a TV pilot, but Josh was desperate to tell the rest of the story and saw it as the perfect opportunity to return to his roots in fiction writing. Smalltown Boy is semi-autobiographical, based on and inspired by Josh's life and the people in it. In particular, how his parents met and how he got together with his girlfriend. Being bisexual himself and having grown up listening to 80's music, Josh had always wanted to write something exploring that theme or set in that decade, so thought why not mash them together? The 1980's saw the AIDs crisis - young gay and bisexual men dying and suffering from stigma. But the decade also saw the beginnings of gay culture in Manchester, Josh's home. And the first Pride festival was in 1985, so Josh set in then. Josh had felt frustrated at the lack of bisexual representation in media, especially for men. Knowing just seeing the word "bisexual" was so important to himself, he decided to write Smalltown Boy to counter stereotypes and improve representation, hoping the novel would speak to people like other books had to him. Smalltown Boy also explores mental health, addiction, family struggles and bullying. As a New Adult novel, its characters are between 18-30, dealing with issues associated with that age range including: first jobs, friendships post-school, financial independence, living away from home and fear of failure. Josh hopes these characters' stories will resonate with readers his age who are technically adults but still coming of age. Ultimately, Smalltown Boy is a love story, but it's not just about romantic love, it's also about familial and platonic love. The love we have for our interests. Josh's love for the 80's, its music, rom-coms and first-person YA novels. And the most important thing of all, learning to love ourselves. Writing Smalltown Boy, Josh was inspired by authors such as Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Leah on the Offbeat) and Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park) and books including Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This is his first novel.

Smalltown Boy: Bisexuals, lies and mixtapes

RT SCREAMWRITER1: A preview of @jstodtv’s debut novel! #Preorder the #ebook for #Kindle now: https://t.co/fcjhH3BgCw

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#Writer 📺🎬📚🎭
Pre-order my debut novel SMALLTOWN BOY 🎧 A #NewAdult #bisexual #comingout story set in 1980's Manchester 💜
Also run @SCREAMWRITER1

A preview of @jstodtv’s debut novel! #Preorder the #ebook for #Kindle now: https://t.co/fcjhH3BgCw

#KindleUnlimited #backtothefuture #KindleBooks #bisexual #BookBoost #indieauthors #indie #author #WritingCommunity #writers #amazonbooks #IndieApril #BookPromo

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Smalltown Boy: Bisexuals, lies and mixtapes

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Smalltown Boy: Bisexuals, lies and mixtapes

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