I have been working on a story for the last few years – it is a little like a literary guilty pleasure… something like a modern guide to casual sex and dating mixed with a darkly comedic rom-com and commentary on the failure of modern man as he succumb to his fragile masculinity… I like to think it is a little like one might imagine the story of a younger wilder niece of Bridget Jones might be, as she goes going rogue online with her unfiltered accounts of her dating life…
I started a story about five years ago and set it aside… I was inspired to pick it up again around two years ago after a night of deep and extended conversations with a dear friend who pointed out many of my shortcomings (gotta love and hate that raw honesty that friends give you – even when you don’t want it).
Here is a preview of Ugly Sexy Love.
“There is something which is both beautiful and ugly, both disgusting, yet strangely acceptable about the relationships we conduct. The way we look at each other and treat one another should be evolving… to become open, civilised and pain free. You know, like the thermomix, like hair dressers appointments and cosmetic surgery… yet we hide our completely unsterile, unacceptably harmful and toxic relationships behind white curtains, cucumber eye-masks, and a complete and utter denial that anything untoward ever occurs.
My life is like this you know…. by day I am so smart, and so together…. and by night I chow down on canned mushroom soup, while my thermomix looks on and judges me silently from the corner. I am watching TV, avoiding my research, and waiting for him to call me, to message me, to offer me far less than I am actually worth. As my eyes flicker from the TV screen, to my mobile, and I wonder if I have any ice cream and if I should bother shaving my legs, my mind drifts to the blades I keep stashed in my drawer, and the pain killers in the bathroom. I really hope he calls.”
Josie Young 