East Yorkshire sets its sights on Rio

The show jumping (individual and Dengie qualifier) event at Bishop Burton College, East Yorkshire, had already attracted more than 100 entries before the day, including a young rider who discussed a potential sponsorship deal with local publisher,  Fantastic Books Publishing as part of its drive to support local talent.

 The CEO of Fantastic Books Publishing is seen here chatting to James Ireland. James sorts out the technical side for La Scala Studios who made a photographic record of the event.

The books on display were an East Yorkshire crime series whose heroine, Annie Raymond has bumped up against the equestrian world a number of times.

With an East Yorkshire publisher who promotes East Yorkshire books by East Yorkshire writers thinking about joining an East Yorkshire photographic studio in sponsoring an East Yorkshire rider, we might yet see a whole swathe of East Yorkshire colours in Rio. Who knows?

Some pictures from the HERIB book fair

HERIB put on a lavish and colourful book fair on Saturday 9 Feb 2013. The local team came in fancy dress.

 The authors corner featured local authors and publishers including Fantastic Books Publishing, Linda Acaster, Sylvia Broady, Penny Grubb, April Taylor and Val Wood .

The HERIB run regular very successful fund-raising events. Learn more about them and their work on their website.

Journey through the NHS

The system was slick and efficient. It had to be. Apart from the regular arrival of ambulances, a steady stream of people came via other means – on foot, in their own cars, in police vans. There were many more arrivals than departures with the inevitable result that the place was full when we arrived and it stayed full. Way beyond full really. They have shifts but no hours of opening. It never closes. And there is no regular amnesty period where people stop getting ill/beaten up/ hit by cars and so on, where it could empty and start afresh. The miracle is that they keep piling people in, keep the line moving, keep everyone scheduled and looked after. But they do. It was pretty much a miracle to see this unending line of people treated medically, but became almost surreal to see everyone treated politely and well; including the heroine addicts climbing the walls, the confused and frightened who lashed out and screamed and the drunks who groaned and moaned and wanted to roll off their trolleys on to the floor. And also the majority who were content simply to wait.

G’s trolley was parked by the magnetic whiteboard for a couple of hours so we spent the time working out the system. At first glance it looks low tech – magnetic cards, marker pens, handwritten lists on whiteboards, but the lists were cross-referenced using various codes (we didn’t crack them all) and no one gets forgotten. There was a computerised list, too, and terminals and paper notes. Eventually we managed to work out when we were next due for attention and what would be done. Another miracle: the listed actions happened to time, sometimes up to 10 minutes early, then the cards would be wiped and rewritten, the lists reordered.

Whoever designed the A&E Department with wide corridors probably had something in mind, but I doubt it was deliberately done to allow three trolleys to pass. I say that because if that had been the original aim, the design would have been just a tiny bit wider. Nonetheless, this full-to-overflowing world made good use of its wide corridors. Trolleys were parked down either side and in every corner. And there was *just* enough room for traffic down the middle. Waiting relatives had to cram into gaps to allow the system to flow. No chairs of course. No room. After several hours standing I hopped up on to the trolley with G. It got the weight off my feet and eased the traffic flow, but I wondered if it might be contrary to the rules. It probably should have been in terms of infection control but the place was so crammed that it could hardly make a difference. Saying that, there was plenty of hand-washing going on and alcohol rub everywhere.

We had been one of the ones who arrived by ‘other means’. The surgery wanted to send G by ambulance as an emergency, but G who had only gone there because his shoulder injury was playing up, could not be convinced he was ill. Of course, this wasn’t the first time he’d called into the surgery for something routine and been carted off by ambulance. It was the fourth. On all the other occasions he’d turned out to be OK after a night in hospital and he got stubborn. Even the fact of the mega-aspirin having magically cured the pain wouldn’t convince him. He felt a bit of self-medication (Guinness in the Queens) would sort him out.

In the end, he agreed to go to A&E but not in an ambulance. So I drove him and had strict instructions to drive right into the ambulance bay and to register him as an emergency. [I did. I was convinced I’d get clamped, but didn’t]

Then began the long and interesting journey through the NHS system. He was triaged and given stabilising treatment more or less straight away. Fairly quickly after that we were allocated to the Acute Assessment Unit for an overnight stay, but remained in A&E awaiting a bed. As it turned out, all the overnight obs were done in A&E because the bed didn’t become available until nearly midday the next day. The intensity of the unit was unbelievable. 12 hour shifts at this work rate must simply fly by and at the same time must be incredibly stressful and draining. But there’s a system to it that keeps it running smoothly, that keeps managing the impossible, and (despite all the recent bad press) does it all in a caring and good-natured way. No lack of compassion here, but I wonder how people interpret what they see.

There’s the guy who keeps shouting out at random; the other one curled up on his trolley. The nurses and medics bustle past, back and forth, no eye contact other than with each other. A beeline to the specific patient who is next on the list for treatment. Ostensibly they pay no attention to anyone else. On the face of it, it seems a little cold. What’s the harm in a reassuring smile or quick word on the way past? A couple of hours close observation (not a lot else to do whilst perched on the end of a trolley) and the potential harm became clear. With so many patients and more arriving all the time, 5 seconds, even 2 seconds, paying attention to those who wanted the quick word or reassuring smile would very quickly add up. There are only 30 lots of 2-seconds in a minute; many more than 30 patients crammed in. Lose a minute on every trip down a corridor and the system will soon snarl up; obs won’t be done to time, things will be missed. And the lack of attention turned out not to be that at all. One patient twisted on his trolley and let out a low groan (of the sort that I would have expected to be drowned in the racket) but there was something about the sound or the movement that signalled ‘could be serious’ and had a nurse there in a second.

The only thing they didn’t provide for G that might have helped him was sleep, but no one there had the power to make extra beds and extra staff appear. That’s in the politicians’ hands. I’m sure many politicians are honest and hard-working. I know some personally who certainly are. They didn’t all fiddle their expenses and they don’t all carp about working long hours, but sitting in the midst of this chaos, seeing the NHS distinguish serious from trivial, save lives, move people through the system smoothly and humanely as far as they could with the tools they’re given, I couldn’t help thinking that it’s the politicians who need to learn something from the NHS and not the other way round.

The Acute Assessment Unit was quieter, but still pretty chaotic, trolleys arriving, people being hustled back and forth. By the time G was allocated a bed, it was the following day, he had been told he was being sent to a different hospital and in fact already had a bed allocated there. All he was waiting for was an ambulance.  He was reluctant to spend any time on the newly allocated bed. He felt it was a waste of the clean bedding and that he might as well sit in the waiting room with me.

The nurse was tenaciously insistent and got him into bed. She was also amazingly good-natured with everyone whilst keeping them all to their routine. G wasn’t the only absconder. One of the others was a confused patient who wasn’t properly ambulant. I started out agreeing it was a shame to waste the bedding when we wouldn’t be there for long, but again it soon became clear why G should be with his bed.

The only way the system can work when it’s so overstretched is to have processes and procedures and stick to them. Betty Macdonald put it well in The Plague and I when she described the rigid routines at the Pines Clinic. It’s the only way to keep an overstretched system working. The big difference was that at the Pines in 1930s America the nurses were instructed to be cold, clinical and unsmiling. Here they were quite the opposite, but equally strict and for good reasons.

The cardiology ward at the new hospital was like a different planet. A good-sized room with its own phone, TV and bathroom. Not only one patient per bed, but one bed per allocated space for a bed (as opposed to one bed and several trolleys). In a way it was like being in a peaceful sunny meadow, with small groups of people dotted sparsely about the grass enjoying the peace and quiet. And towering above the meadow a huge dam, a great mass of people waiting to burst through. A&E was the mass behind the dam. AAU was the overflow. The cardiology ward was the meadow.

The analogy broke down a little on the peace and quiet front. The 5-legged obs machines beeped and screeched their way up and down the ward like busy little robots. Blood pressure and so on was taken every couple of hours night and day, so sleep was periods of dozing off and being woken. G was alarmed one night to be woken by a doctor who put a stop-tap in his arm. There’s probably a medical term for it, but G used the plumbing equivalent. Later that same night he became aware of activity down by his side and opened his eyes to see a nurse with a torch, who said not to worry, she was just changing his battery. He had to puzzle himself to full wakefulness to realise it was the battery on the mobile ECG machine that he was attached to throughout his stay.

He was allocated to the surgeons after 3 days but then delayed a few hours by the arrival of 2 emergencies. The medics arrived in teams and interrogated him on every aspect until they had the story straight and could make it fit with the observations charts. There was an air of quiet confidence and competence about every aspect that was very reassuring. We knew it was considered an A-team in terms of cardiac care and it showed.

If we’d been private patients in a private hospital, what would have been different? Maybe none of that scrum to start with, except that there’s no such a thing as private A&E because there’s no way to make it pay in the narrow way that defines profit. And anyway, within that scrum was the medical expertise we needed. And it’s hard to imagine a private hospital being much better appointed than the one where we ended up, though I guess there might have been flowers and carpets; maybe the TV would have come for free; the car-park might have been big enough. But there wouldn’t have been the medical expertise on tap.  It’s the medical care that costs a lot of money. We might have had earlier treatment but if anything had gone wrong, the specialists would not have been on hand because when money’s the only focus, you don’t keep expensive expertise hanging around, you buy it in parcels for specific purposes. It’s why private complications end up in the NHS.

That stretched-to-the-limit feeling was always there. G’s bed was being readied for the next patient almost as soon as he’d been wheeled down for treatment. And after a night on the close observation ward, he was up and in the day room at 7.30 AM so someone else could have his bed, though we didn’t get to leave until the afternoon because someone needed to find the time to bring new medication and a discharge form – which are things that can easily and understandably be knocked down the priority list. But we were offered tea, coffee, snacks and lunch while we waited and we had a stack of DVDs. We watched French & Saunders and Porridge.

On the way home, we stopped for a wander round the shops in Cottingham because G was desperate for some fresh air. Then home and a lot of sleep to catch up on. There are many ways to get from our house to the hospital. We’re one side of the city and it’s the other. The shortest route isn’t the quickest in the rush hour and there are several longest routes that are sometimes quicker, but they all converge to cross the railway at some point. I was late a few times, often caught at the level crossing, and twice by taking wrong turns. It’s a route I know well but a bit of inattention  can go a long way. One time I headed for the wrong hospital. That put half an hour on the journey. Another time I simply took a wrong turning, thought I was further along the way than I was so turned left and found myself in a narrow winding unfamiliar road with a large vehicle close behind and no obvious place to turn for an annoyingly long way.

The car windscreen now has frilly edges where all the car park tickets flutter side by side. I should have removed them instead of just adding more every day, but somehow I didn’t. Apart from the large one that appeared on the outside admonishing me for parking on the grass. Sorry about that. It pained me to leave tyre tracks on such a wonderful hospital, but there wasn’t a spare inch anywhere else to put the car.

Where are the photos? I took one. G thought it would be nice to have a record of him looking cheerful to show the family as reassurance. But despite the fact that he was by then relaxed and feeling fine, none of that came across. In the photo he looked ghastly, wires and machinery everywhere, battered and bruised. We decided not to scare anyone so no photos on this blog.

#justimagine Author Jonny Rowland on Fusion and more spandex than intended

My interviewee is Jonny Rowland whose story, The Flight of the Magician, appears in the Fusion anthology.  Jonny tells me he considers himself a person who plays against type. He is a graduate of the University of Warwick’s MA in Writing, which makes him the only Arts student in a family of scientists and nurses. He also is an autistic adult who has absolutely no interest in mathematics. He hopes writing stories like The Flight of the Magician will help him continue to redefine boundaries.

When did Jonny learn that his story would be published and how did he feel? He says, ‘I was surprised to learn from the Fantastic Books YouTube feed that The Flight of the Magician was to be published. It was a story I had been tangling with for a while, and it seemed like I would not be able to find a place to tell it. Being published felt like being given a boost up over a wall.’

And what was his main reason for entering the competition? Jonny tells me, ‘The opportunity to be published was the main draw for me. I feel that the writer’s market right now is driven by personality, and I wanted to make an impression on people. Having my name in a good anthology is definitely a step towards that for me.’

Of the other Fusion authors, he says, ‘For me, writing is about learning new things about yourself and others. I have learned a lot from the works of other contributors, and I hope that there is something in my work that inspired them as well.’

I ask how he found the editorial process, working with the team at Fantastic Books to polish his story for publication. Did he find it helpful? He says, ‘Definitely: working with the editorial team to fine tune the story made me feel like a true author. I am new to the market, and working as a contributor gave me much needed experience with talking to publishers.’

When I ask Jonny to recommend something to ease the tedium of a long journey, he is not the first of the Fusion authors to mention Tolkein. He says, ‘Always a tricky question for me. My current choice in long-haul flight literature is Tolkein's The Hobbit, though Neil Gaiman’s supernatural road-trip novel American Gods comes a close second.’

Along with all the interviewees, I invite Jonny to put himself in the shoes of a space scout for an alien race. He has discovered Earth and learnt its history. Would he recommend that his people make contact? His answer makes me smile and has shades of the engaging style of The Flight of the Magician. He says, ‘Yes – assuming we could comfortably share the same atmosphere. Being unable to breathe puts a dampener on meet-and-greets! I imagine that the meeting would be the equivalent of galactic babysitting, though - the aliens watching the humans, hands on hips, and saying, “No, you get to play with cold fusion when you’re older.’”’

Now I want to know what writing projects Jonny has underway. He tells me, ‘Currently, I have been writing my pseudo-scientific deconstructive superhero novel The Incredible Story of No Man. It’s a mercurial piece full of action, love and more spandex than I had previously intended. I hope to have it finished by April – hopefully I can present it to Fantastic Books at that time.’

I know they’ll only too pleased to see it land on their doorstep, Jonny.

Learn more about Jonny on his blogsite, which also contains links to his Twitter feed, where he aims to deliver fortnightly updates on his latest work.

#justimagine Author Sarah Cuming on Fusion and a wealth of literature hidden in secret corners

My interviewee is Sarah Cuming whose story, The Star Worker, appears in Fusion. Sarah lives near the New Forest and loves going on walks to wake up her creative side. Landscapes often crop up in her work, in this case the icy wastes of The Star Worker. Sarah has recently graduated from her Masters in Writing with Merit at the University of Warwick, and has had short stories published in four anthologies (including Fusion) and her University’s New Writing Society magazine.

Sarah tells me that she first heard that she would be published in Fusion on Fantastic Books Facebook page, and then in the official announcement via the YouTube video. She says, ‘I was absolutely astonished. The Star Worker was my first true fantasy story, and so I’d sent it out more as an experiment than actually expecting to hear anything back. Finding out that my story had been chosen was absolutely wonderful, and it wasn’t very many minutes before my family found links to the announcement cropping up in their inboxes.’

I have to say I’m astounded to learn that The Star Worker was Sarah’s first venture into fantasy. There is an easy maturity to the writing that makes you assume she settled into the genre years ago.

I ask what motivated her to enter. She tells me, ‘I think the fact that the competition was raising funds for charity was definitely a motivating factor. The thought that, even if I didn’t get published, money would be going to a good cause gave me the nerve to submit my piece, whereas otherwise I might have just left it in a drawer to gather dust. Publication was a definite bonus, though!’

When asked if she sees it as a positive to have been published alongside established authors, Danuta Reah and Stuart Aken, Sarah’s answer is very clear. ‘I can’t think of any way in which it could be seen as negative. They are great writers and having my work printed alongside theirs is a definite privilege. What I also like is the fact that fans of theirs may find other writers they like from the great selection of authors in the anthology. There’s such a range of stories and styles that you can’t help but be drawn in and become enthralled.’

I certainly agree with that. Fusion is a great anthology.

Along with all shortlisted authors, Sarah worked with the Fantastic Books editorial team to polish her story for publication. How did she find the process? ‘Having the Fantastic Books editorial team comment on my work was very helpful, and it helped put the edges and the shine onto what was previously something of a rough diamond of a story. Writing is a constantly developing process, so I found the comments from the editorial team to be of great value to me. Getting the final proofs through from them was a lovely feeling.’

When asked to recommend a compelling read to counter the tedium of a long-haul flight, Sarah says, ‘Ooh, so many choices, but I find that when it comes to recommending books, I can’t help but return to the books I read as a teenager. If something that you read at thirteen can still sing to you at the age of twenty three, it’s worth reading. The two that come to mind at the moment are Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy, which has some fabulous female characters, and Kevin Brooks’ novel Lucas. Lucas isn’t sci-fi or fantasy, but it is a beautiful, haunting book that taught me that a tragic ending doesn’t stop it from being a good one. On a more recent note, a friend of mine, Rosanne Rivers, has a new book out called After the Fear that would definitely make the hours of a long-haul flight disappear before you knew it! It’s a Young Adult dystopian novel written with great depth and emotion. My copy arrived a couple of days ago and nobody’s been able to tear me away from it since.’

Along with all my interviewees, I ask Sarah to imagine that she is a space scout for an alien race who has discovered Earth and learnt its history. Would she recommend that her people made contact? She takes her time to give me a thoughtful and considered response. ‘Hmm, don’t know. People can be a pretty awful lot, both to each other and to the planet we live on, and the good things sometimes get lost in amongst the darkness. I think my alien self would recommend contact – a wary, tentative contact, in order to share knowledge, and I’d like to think that in doing so it would be astonished and surprised by the beautiful wealth of literature and art it would find hidden away in secret corners. I also think it would show its people the beauty of our environment and how precious it is, and help humanity see that we need to do more to preserve it, help us heal some of the hurts.’

Sarah is clearly building a fan base who will want to know what she’s currently writing. She tells me, ‘I’ve got a couple of writing projects on at the moment – a few short stories that are halfway through their first drafts, gearing up for competition entries, and a children’s fantasy book that’s only just at the scribbles-on-a-whiteboard stage but that I can’t wait to get going with.’

Don’t wait too long, Sarah. If you can produce The Star Worker as a first attempt, I for one can’t wait to see what comes next!

To find out more about Sarah and her writing, follow her on Twitter where she posts her writing info. 

Or sample her writing:

“The Embers of a Masterpiece” from Momaya Annual Review 2012: Heat 

“Magazine Me” from Papercuts: Stories from the Warwick MA inWriting 2012 

“Fingernails” from The Draft: Stories from the Warwick MA inWriting

#justimagine Author Celia Coyne on Fusion and having the shoe on the other foot

Introducing Celia Coyne who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand and who is author of The Truest Black, which appears in the Fusion anthology. Celia comes with an impressive writing track record and CV. She has worked in publishing for 20 years, as a journalist and editor of non-fiction. In her fiction writing she says she enjoys exploring unusual themes and ideas. This is clearly apparent from the expertly woven tale that appears in Fusion where a vein of humour runs through a story that has a truly sinister undertone. 

Of being shortlisted in the Fantastic Books competition, Celia says, ‘It is always a pleasant surprise to be placed in a competition. You send off what you think is your best story, you hope that it is the right sort of thing that the publishers are after - and the rest is luck. There is always a bit of subjectivity involved in the whole writing game - so you can never be too confident.’

I wonder what someone with Celia’s experience looks for in a competition, what motivates her to enter? She tells me. ‘One of the things I look for in competitions is a chance to be 'placed' - and published. Competitions with just 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes are all well and good - but for me it's not so much about 'winning' but about people reading my work. I like to win, of course, but I reckon I'm hugely motivated by the chance to get my work out there so people can read it. I also like the set up with Fantastic Books - with the donation to charity. It is a great idea and I think that people will respond to it - I certainly did.’

Like the other authors, Celia sees it as definitely a positive to be published alongside established writers.

Everyone on the shortlist worked with the Fantastic Books editorial team to polish their stories for publication, but Celia’s day job is as a sub editor, so as she says, ‘The shoe was on the other foot!’

How did she find the process? ‘ The editing process by Fantastic Books was indeed helpful. Having a fresh, professional eye look at your work is essential for any writer - established or not. I think that this attention to detail ensures that any book published by Fantastic Books will be of a high standard. I've noticed that the editing process is sometimes overlooked by other publishers - and the quality of published works is diminished. Shockingly I've noticed it in the works of some very well known authors (not mentioning any names!) It is a symptom of the big publishing houses cutting corners and trying to save money but it is a false economy. I am comforted by the fact that there are still publishers like Fantastic Books who want to pursue excellence and do this with the tried and tested approach of carefully reading and then editing the work.’

I know that answer will get a smile of satisfaction from Dan and Gabi at Fantastic Books. They take great pride in looking after authors and their work.

What would Celia advise as reading matter to alleviate the boredom of a long journey? She says, ‘For a long-haul flight I'd recommend 'Fight Club' by Chuck Palahniuck. It is a fairly short book and beautifully written - very dark humour and many layered. I'd also recommend any short story collection by Ali Smith.’

Celia is currently working on a collection of short stories. She tells me, ‘You can find You Look Beautiful When You Smile online in Issue 7 of Penduline Press's magazine. This story kind of sums up what it is like living in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the 2011 earthquake. We are all trying to get back to being happy - but it's a journey. You can also find one of my stories, The Age of Aquarius, in issue 76 of Takahe magazine. And there is another one, Travelling Light, coming up in issue 78 (April 2013).

Celia has a website where she hopes to be able to showcase some of her work. She tells me that the site is still under construction, but I’m going to bookmark it anyway. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed The Truest Black, I don’t want to miss new works from this talented author.

#justimagine Author David K Paterson on Fusion and cooking for hungry geeks

My interviewee is David K Paterson. His stories, White Noise and The Removal Man, appeared in Fusion. David rediscovered a love of story-telling in 2007 while taking a creative writing course and since then the words have just been pouring out. He has written several screenplays, novellas and short stories. He has also completed the National Novel Writing Month twice and Script Frenzy three times. His first published short story was featured in My Weekly magazine in February 2009 and a longer short story was selected for an anthology in 2010 but this one is yet to be published so Fusion has beaten it to the tape. David says he is proud to have his second and third published short stories in the Fusion anthology and is looking forward to a productive and enjoyable writing future.

How did it feel to hear that his story would be published in Fusion? David says, ‘I wish I could say I was playing it cool the day that both sets of results were announced, but that would be untrue - I may have permanently damaged my keyboard's F5 key from refreshing the event page. As any creative person knows, there's always that nagging worry that "they're all going to laugh at you", but we have to take the risk, otherwise we never progress. I felt that I had written good stories that entertained me, but to end up with both short-listed was something I never expected.’

David sees it as a definite positive to be in an anthology with established writers. As he puts it, ‘It’s not just that people who know Danuta Reah and Stuart Aken will pick up the anthology and hopefully discover new writers, but it’s also to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with them and feel that a professional writing career is within reach.’

When recommending a book to pass the time on a long journey, David tells me, ‘The last book I read on a long-haul flight was "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. I really got into the story, the tale of a down-trodden hero who battles through a massive online game to claim the legacy of the game's designer. Great fun if you're a fan of retro arcade games!’

David is clearly building a fan base after his contribution to Fusion, so what can we expect next from his pen (or keyboard)? He says, ‘I'm working on a non-fiction project with a few friends at the moment. We're producing ALL THE NOMZ!, a cookbook for hungry geeks, with recipes contributed by some of the biggest names in nerd culture.’

It isn’t the answer I expected, but I love the concept, especially when he goes on to say, ‘All proceeds from the book will go to Child's Play Charity, a charity drive set up by the people behind the Penny Arcade web comic, to donate video games, consoles and money to children's hospitals around the world. We hope to publish in May 2013.’ You can follow ALL THE NOMZ on twitter and it also has its own website www.allthenomz.com.  

Find out more about David and his writing on Twitter 

or on his blog