Disability

Having written about the loss of disability benefits in my story 'Single File' and overseen the SEN and disability policy (and various rewrites) at school I'm now debating whether the after effects of my mother's stroke are considered disabilities. Does my mother have special needs herself,now, after years of working with severely handicapped children and young people? Is the paralysis down her left side temporary or permanent? Can she sit in a wheelchair without being able to sense her left side?

   We are so glad mum can speak, listen, recall and respond. We are so relieved she can at least swallow little meals. But, at nearly ninety, this massive stroke has taken it out of her. Mum is very tired. I try to read to her, show her 2 minute films on the ipad, and she enjoys it. She reads the headlines in the paper to me and reads messages in her cards-then falls asleep. Her body needs all the energy it can get to recover and repair, it seems.

   We are hoping we can find some nursing provision which means she can be at our homes for a few weeks at a time. Is this a pipe dream? I don't know but I think it's what she wants. She looked after folks most of her life and has rarely been ill - until now. Ninety is a bit late for learning how to be ill! But none of our elders have been in institutions for long. Mum did the caring - now it's her time to be cared for.

Pass the baton on. Pass the baton on.

Trussell Trust

It seemed a bit of a blow to me, as a writer detailing the effects of Austerity, when The IMF showed there was an upturn in Britain's economy. Oh no! What will happen to all my material for stories about the difficulties faced during the cuts? My sidelong glances at situations brought about by being laid off  - such as in 'Gardening Leave' - or the fear of losing disability benefits in 'Single File' - these scenarios would be irrelevant in a booming economy! But on the same day as the IMF report the Trussell Trust showed there was an ever expanding list of people in need - folks who cannot afford to buy sufficient food to live on. It seems my stories 'Austerity and Other Cuts' will remain relevant for some time to come. They may be more than social satire-maybe more a commentary on life in Britain - despite its being the sixth richest nation on the planet. For some it is the best of times ... For others it certainly isn't.

Joy and Sadness

It was with great joy that I opened our anthology 'A Cache' to see my piece 'All the Responsibility - None of the Power' in print. Two encouraging forwards from Philip Hensher and Naomi Alderman and an acknowledgement for my part in the editing of the submissions were good to see.
    It was, however, with great sadness when I took down the 'Happy Easter' cards. It hasn't been a happy Easter. A little after eleven o'clock on Easter morning mum, who is coming ninety, was slumped over the sofa bed. I called 111, and the paramedics were on the scene within minutes. Of course mum had had a stroke but she was treated quickly once at hospital. She was out of A&E and in a bed in The Acute Stroke Unit a few hours later. She was trying to talk- it was slurred but she was understanding us.
     Monday morning was a terribly low point. We were told the survival rates for her age group and what damage had been done following what had been a massive stroke. She'd had a bad reaction to the treatment (anaphylactic shock). In essence the treatment hadn't worked. It had not dispersed the clot. We were told the worst. Thankfully mum didn't know. She was talking and was aware of the other side of her body - despite what the scan said. It was a terrible few hours.
     Yesterday, Tuesday, was a much better day. The second consultant was much more optimistic. Not based on what he saw of the scan but what he saw of mum. He was able to communicate with her and mum was thinking clearly. Good for her! She was talking more freely and there's even a chance she may be able to take fluids. The instruction 'nil by mouth' may be removed.

Readings, short lists, judging submissions and the anthology

After a busy few months April should be the busiest of all. After arranging reading events, (with musical accompaniment !) and making reading to others as natural an experience for me as possible,  I'm back helping judge the submissions for the Bath Short Story Award. A fantastic opportunity to see how other short story writers are faring. Thank you Jude Higgins for inviting me along as reader.

As I write this blog my website is almost ready, the cover design for the BSU Creative Writing Anthology is done, the Anthology itself is being prepared for the printers and my collection 'Austerity and Other Cuts' has been shortlisted for the Janklow and Nesbit prize. What larks! Soon we will have an anthology and we can all start thinking about literary agents. I have just ordered another set of business cards ready to give out at the Anthlogy Launch in May. I thought writing was a quiet, leisurely activity!

Have yet to finish reading Polly Toynbee's critique of Cameron's mid-term 'report' but have begun Nathan Filer's Costa Award winning 'The Shock of the Fall'. So lucky for BSU Creative Writers that 'one of our own' won Costa. I am also planning to read one of the larger works on 'Austerity'  - critical pieces that more or less say austerity measures haven't worked all through history.

I have more plans to develop my novella 'Coming of Age', following up the interviews I've done with women who didn't have a grammar school education but who had some paper qualifications despite the advent of World War II. 1918-1938-1978 are becoming significant years in this piece of writing.

I am putting my story 'Migrants' on hold until I see what interests literary agents. I have written four chapters for my novel 'Outside the Wendy House' (aka 'Where's That Cardboard Dinosaur?'). It's a satire on (mostly) state education as we know it in England - or should that be as I know it ?!

Birthdays!
Over the last two weeks I have been busy arranging an evening of readings. On my birthday, March 14th, friends and neighbours celebrated and shared their creativity. Two of us read our short stories, to an appreciative audience. Paul showed us a film he made, which is available on You Tube. Jan and Richard talked about the inspiration for their art work and ceramics and Sue read chapter one of her story for young teens. We were missing a musician, but, next time, we hope Geoff, a guitarist, will enchant us.

My collection of stories is ready!

I await peer feedback on my last two short stories. 'Coming of Age' is the least satirical of my pieces. It contrasts the life of Eliza Augusta with Kathryn, her great-niece. Eliza Augusta is a master butcher and enjoys having the 'married women's vote' aged thirty in 1918, about a month after the end of WWI. Much later in the story we meet  Kathryn, who is entitled to vote at the age of eighteen in 1979, just as Margaret Thatcher is about to lead the country. The two women have very different educational opportunities. Both are successful but only one knows how to cook a shoulder of lamb!

My final story 'Some have Entertained Angels' is based on the biblical verse '.. be kind to strangers for some have entertained strangers unawares.' It considers the reaction of a comfortably well off educational psychologist, Rachel, towards her friend and one-time neighbour, Angie. Angie falls on very hard times, takes antidepressants and suffers a fatal accident because she can no longer afford electricity in her tiny bedside - a far cry from the three bedroom house she rented next door to Rachel's comfortable Victorian villa. Rachel is full of remorse that she failed to help Angie when she needed it most. But her concern is, of course, too late.

Short stories - getting all my ducks in a row!

My three short pieces, which received distinctions or good reviews from readers,
All the Responsibility-None of the Power, The Inspection and Single File  seem strong stories to form the equivalent of the first three chapters of Austerity and Other Cuts.

They all link with each other through the theme of education.

Medical Mayhem is a group of short stories which satirise government diktats on the NHS and they make up another six stories.

My novella is The Climate King. Sylvester is a profiteer who becomes a millionaire during a frightening heat wave. He rubs salt in the wound when the floods come and he is still 'on the make' selling expensive sand bags to vulnerable people suffering the effects of torrential rain. It is no comfort to me that this story was written last spring - long before the heatwave and certainly well in advance of the recent floods which have upset so many lives. Fay Weldon said I must be psychic or be with the zeigeist. My plan is that The Climate King will form the middle third of my collection.

A longer story, Coming of Age, which spans the years 1918 - 1978 begins the last third of the collection. It is less satirical but is a comment on how women's lives have changed, such that some don't realise how important it is to vote, despite the married women's vote having been so hard fought for, and won, in 1918.

Finally two very short pieces Gardening Leave and Some have Entertained Angels end the collection with another more sombre piece, about real poverty in Sierra Leone, which is simply called Austerity.