Authors Electric

At the beginning of the nineties I started to receive phone calls and letters from people who wanted to write about abuses they had suffered in their childhoods. These were not people who had had the misfortune to be born in countries that were enduring brutal dictatorships, civil wars or ethnic cleansing campaigns, these were people who had been born and bought up in democratic, peacetime Britain , a country that prided itself on being civilised, with developed social welfare services. Their calls seemed to be cries for help and as I talked to them I became aware of just how much courage it had taken most of them to pick up the phone in the first place. These were people whose experiences did not lead them to expect to be listened to or believed but they had the courage to keep on trying to tell their stories. Many of the things they told me tore my heart out and I felt sure there would be a readership for them if I could just get them out into the bookshops. I ...

Inmates of an Industrial School    I’ve just revised my novel Bird of Passage – published to Kindle some years ago - before releasing it to various other publishing platforms via Draft 2 Digital – no real changes, just a little bit of much needed editing and reformatting here and there. This was one of my earliest eBook publications and I’ve been aware that it needed attention for some time. I have plans for a paperback later in the year when an engrossing new project allows. I revamped the blurb as well. And that’s what gave me pause for thought and the idea for this post. The background to Bird of Passage involves an issue or indeed a set of issues that are difficult to write about, problematic, sickening and to some extent neglected or even supressed. My second major professional stage play was a piece of ‘issue based’ drama so I know all about the problems and pitfalls. I’ve even run workshops on it for the Traverse in Edinburgh. But Bird of Passage is – and feels ...

I want to write about online porn this month, and this is why. A few days ago I was writing a post for My Tonight From Shrewsbury on the subject of punishments meted out in our town in the fourteenth century for ‘scolds’ – ie cantankerous women [always women] who refused to shut up, back down or desist from loudly and frequently expressing their opinions.   By a slightly circuitous route this led me to Google Images looking for appropriate engravings to go on my post.   Plenty came up, and a few I’ve used.   Amusingly, a photo came up, too, of a flame-haired Rebecca Brookes, whom I guess somebody must have seen as the modern incarnation of the medieval scold.   But also, and not amusingly at all - in fact unbidden, unwanted, unasked for and completely unexpectedly - up came two photographs in black and white. One was of the anal rape of a young woman with others looking on. The other was of what I can only describe from the equipment it included as the torture o...

Susan Jane Smith, B.Sc.            Do you believe all children in the world deserve and need the following  (extracted from my book “ Emotional Health For Emotional Wealth ” )?              Freedom from fear.           Freedom from inflicted physical pain – that means no hitting or kicking them;  no burning them (including stubbing cigarettes out on their bodies), not being knifed or shot.           Freedom from imprisonment in their homes (no shutting in cupboards or cages, no tying up).           Freedom from neglect – not living with inadequate parents/carers who do not provide three nutritionally-balanced meals every day. Not living with drug takers or alcoholics, not having to take care of an adult who is physicall...

Harry's Home!           I think that now I’ve done this for a few months I will change the title of my blogs for the New Year!            I was new to writing, publishing, social media and blogging.  Now I am gaining confidence and am taking my books seriously!  They were a change from counselling/psychotherapy so the transition has taken a while.           Yes, I wrote “Harry’s Home! A Cat Compendium” because I love cats and donate £1 for each book sold to support cat rescue groups. It’s not on Kindle yet because of the colour pictures so order via www.EmotionalHealthForEmotionalWealth.co.uk please.           “ Pre-Marital MOT: A Relationship Inspection” would make a great Christmas present for any couple intending to marry in the New Year!  Order via website by 15 Dec...