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| Time for Tea? |
In a few days time, I'll be back to work at Stoke-on-Trent CAB (actually, it's now Staffordshire North and Stoke CAB) as a part-time Training and Network Development Officer, rather than trying to make a living with fork, spade, paintbrush or pen/PC.
Not that I will be quitting horticulture completely; I have several clients whose gardens I would be sorry not to return to, and they seem keen to keep me on the case. 'Uplander Designs' will also continue, as I've got things to paint for Christmas craft fairs, but apart from having to keep doing self-assessment forms and pay Class 2 NI, those enterprises will almost be back to being hobbies. My new 'part-time' job is going to be very much to the fore.
There are also some ESA-themed adventures for my 'imaginary friends' at the fictional Solent Welfare Rights Project, now on a second edit and DIY proof-read, but before these hit the printed page even in prototype, I'd like to get the original tales out to a wider audience.
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| What I did last summer... |
Their purpose was always education - 'counter-propaganda' - rather than profit, but now I have an income lined up for the winter, it occurs to me that rather than contributing small change to my finances during the horticultural closed season, the fictional advisers could do something to help their real life counterparts.
If you've read the books, you might have noticed a key theme running through them. No, not the 'Atticus Finch principle' of not judging someone until you've stood in their shoes and walked about in them, or by appearances. That's too obvious. I mean the part that hot beverages play in the plot. The kettle is rarely silent, either at the Walkers' house or within the Project's tatty kitchen. Cups of tea and coffee play key supporting roles as characters take their first faltering steps along the road to romance, struggle to balance their shrinking budgets, or even as they consider whether life remains worth living.
The fictional advisers find solace after fraught interviews with a reviving cuppa, unwind after tough tribunals with a refreshing brew, dream their dreams of a fairer society with mugs in hand, and in that respect art imitates life. In fact, when I received my first meagre royalties recently, I remarked on Facebook that the sum would scarcely keep a self-respecting advice worker in tea for a week. Though written flippantly, that's now given me an idea. Since I couldn't have devoted so much time to writing without the remnants of my redundancy settlement to see me through the damp days of last summer, it would be great to be able to give something back to the CAB. Something utterly vital, and yet easily overlooked.
So the challenge I'm setting myself is to do a good enough job of promoting my books that the profits from sales of 'Severe Discomfort' and 'Continual Supervision' can fund my comrades' tea and coffee. I'll need to do better than at present, when I'm probably running at the equivalent of a pint or two of milk per week!
With all the crises there are in the world and the hardship there is in our region, this might seem a poor use of a charitable ideal. There must be more deserving cases; with foodbanks running empty, tenants facing eviction due to the 'Bedroom Tax', benefit caps and sanctions afflicting so many families, why aspire to give advisers free tea?
My answer is, because when you've spent a morning having to tell client after despairing client that there really is nothing more they're entitled to, that there's no way to draft a budget so they can both eat and pay rent, that you know nobody will employ them with their health as it is, but according to the law, they are fully fit for work, the best way to get your head together for an afternoon of the same is to get the kettle on. And if you're lucky, that little bit of thinking time over tea is when the strategy to solve one or two of these problems suddenly drops into place.
So here are the links to the books yet again.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Severe-Discomfort-Sarah-Honeysett/dp/1849143285
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Continual-Supervision-Sarah-Honeysett/dp/1849143374/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1
The Kindle version of 'Severe Discomfort' is available free for a few days from 31st July to mark my return to a 'proper' job, so ebook readers can try it for nothing. If you enjoy it, please give it a review; if you can afford to buy one, you'll also give an adviser a cuppa!
If you want real books, don't forget you can order paperbacks from real, tax-paying bookshops for no more than the Amazon price of £5.99. Foyle's were advertising each online at £5.39 with free P&P for orders over £10, so that's a £1.20 saving for the pair over Amazon - and a round of hot beverages for one of our teams!
So this summer, why not put your feet up with a good book and a cuppa!
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