How To Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison @MrEwanMorrison BLOG TOUR @Sarabandbooks @RandomTTours #HowToSurviveEverything #LockdownReads

 

My dad taught us to be prepared for whatever was coming. He said we should know the facts about how long we could survive without food, water or fresh air, and to remember that we couldn't live at all without hope. It was better, he said, to be ahead of the game. Better to be ten years too early than one minute too late.

That's why he did what he did, on that morning

Inspired by her father's advance planning and her own ingenuity and courage, this is one teenage girl's survival guide for navigating life under a new, even more deadly pandemic from the confines of a prepper compound. Will she ride out the collapse of everything she knows, and how can she save her family and sanity?

How to Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison is published by Saraband today, 1 March 2021.

My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour.

I read Ewan Morrison's Nina X at the very end of 2019 and it was one of my top books of that year. I was delighted to have the chance to read this, his latest novel. I think he's one of our best living authors, his voice is unique, his style is magnificent and his imagination knows no bounds. 

Set during a worldwide pandemic in the near future, this is a startling and prescient novel that is particularly chilling given our present circumstances. I realise that there will be people who have no desire to read about the potential destruction of the world, or about the often selfish behaviours or our fellow mankind. However, I devoured this one. It is not just the story of the breakdown of the world as we know it, it is also an intelligently written study of family, and how the behaviour of adults can destroy their children.

Haley is an average fifteen-year-old girl, dealing with the breakdown of her parents relationship, whilst experiencing the teenage angst that is common to all girls of her age. She and her younger brother Ben live with their control-freak mother and have regular visits with their father. It's after one of these visits that life whirls totally out of control and Haley and Ben are abducted by their father and taken to a 'safe house' in the wilds of the countryside. Their father is a prepper and is convinced that the latest virus discovered in Asia will really end the world this time. Governments learned nothing from the 2020 COVID crisis and he and his followers are prepared. With a stockroom filled with everything from asthma inhalers to diamorphine, they are ready.

Morrison has created a small community of dysfunctional people who have hit rock bottom in life.  These characters are frightening, yet vulnerable. Violent, yet sensitive. They need a leader, and direction, and preparing for the end of the world gives them a mission.

There are scenes within this novel that are stomach churning to read. There are no holds barred and Morrison does not shy away from painting a disturbing and sometimes bloody picture. However, there are some powerful messages within the story. The reader is never quite sure just what is happening outside of the metal fence that encases the safe house. There's a question mark that looms heavily over the narrative, with echoes of the fake news and propaganda that is prevalent in our society today.

How To Survive Everything is a terrifying and harrowing novel, yet is is also deeply touching. The life journey undertaken by Haley, her sudden realisation that the two people who she is supposed to trust the most are both damaged and damaging is so moving. 

Most certainly a novel of our time. One that will stay with me, and haunt me. 

Ewan Morrison is a multi-award-winning novelist, screenwriter and essayist. 

His 2019 novel, Nina X, won the Saltire Society Scottish Fiction Book of the Year and is currently being developed as a feature film with a multi-award-winning director. 

He has previously won the Scottish Book of the Year Fiction Prize (2013) and the Glenfiddich Scottish Writer of the Year (2012). 

His first feature film, an adaptation, was released in five territories in 2016, and was a finalist for four international film awards. American Blackout, a feature length docudrama co-written by Morrison, reached an estimated audience of 30 million viewers. 

Morrison has also been nominated for three Scottish BAFTAs. 

www.ewanmorrison.com

Twitter @MrEwanMorrison

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman @GailHoneyman @HarperCollinsUK

Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.

Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine?

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is published in the UK by Harper Collins in hardback on 18 May 2017 and is the author's debut novel.


This debut novel is beautifully written, Gail Honeyman has created a character in Eleanor who is difficult to dislike. She's also quite difficult to understand, but her innocent outlook and wry observations of some of the most mundane things really are magnificent.

Eleanor has worked in the same office as a finance clerk for many years. Her job is unexciting, she has no real relationships with her colleagues, it's just a place that she goes to every morning at the same time, Monday to Friday. On Wednesdays she speaks to her Mother. Eleanor has a weekend routine too. It involves a pizza from Tesco, a bottle of wine and two bottles of vodka. It rarely changes.

A very unexpected night out (she won the tickets in a charity raffle at work), to a band night changed Eleanor's routine, and her outlook. One glance at the lead singer on the stage and she knew that he was the ONE. Mother had always told her that there would be someone, one day.

The story that follows is an emotional, incredibly insightful and quite bewitching story of Eleanor's attempt to make herself shiny, to try to catch the attention of one man, to enter the real world. During the telling of Eleanor's story, the reader learns more about her past, and how that has shaped her present. This is a study in how one person can live in their own solitary. lonely existence, and how they can gradually draw themselves out of it. Eleanor is helped along the way by two characters who show her the most basic of things; kindness and friendship.

Eleanor is quirky, I have to be honest and admit that sometimes she was just a little too over-the-top for me. I wanted a little bit more of the inner Eleanor, not just her slanted views and observations, however, there is no doubt that Gail Honeyman has an incredible talent for crafting unusual characters, and yes, Eleanor Oliphant really is completely fine. A recommended read from me.

My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review,

Gail Honeyman wrote her debut at same time as holding down a full-time job, fitting writing into early mornings, evenings, weekends and holidays. While it was still a work-in-progress, she won the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award, which included a writing retreat at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre - an opportunity to spend uninterrupted time working on the book. Gail was also shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, the Bridport Prize and longlisted for BBC Radio 4's Opening Lines. She lives in Glasgow. 
Follow her on Twitter @GailHoneyman



GAIL ON WRITING ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE: There were two main ideas behind Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: the first was sparked by a newspaper feature about loneliness. 
One of the interviewees was an ordinary woman in her late 20s, with a job and a flat in the city, who said that, unless she made a special effort to arrange something in advance, she’d often – and not by choice - spend entire weekends without seeing or speaking to another human being. 

I started to wonder about how such a situation could come about, and about how devastating the consequences of such loneliness and isolation could potentially be, particularly for a relatively young person living alone in a big city. 

When loneliness is discussed, it’s most often in the context of older people who have perhaps been widowed and/or whose families have moved away. 
Whilst this is undoubtedly a serious issue, I started to think about hidden loneliness amongst younger people in particular, and about how little attention this receives. 
The workplace can be a good place to find opportunities to socialize, but what if you don’t meet any like-minded people there, or don’t have anything in common with your colleagues? Is it, somewhat counterintuitively, easier to find yourself lonely in a city than in a small town or village? Is there still a stigma attached to admitting that you’re lonely, especially if you’re a younger person? 

The second idea, which eventually became entwined with the first, was the concept of social oddness; specifically, the kind of person we sometimes come across socially who just seems a little awkward. Their conversation and behaviour does not give cause for concern or alarm, but it sometimes makes other people feel mildly uncomfortable, perhaps prompting them to make their excuses and move away quickly to find somebody else to chat to. Superficially, such interactions are of very little consequence. 

However, I began to think about how, whenever I’d found myself in a similar situation, I had rarely (if ever) paused to consider whether there might a reason or an explanation behind the other person’s perceived oddness or social awkwardness, perhaps rooted in their childhood or in difficult life experiences. Together, these two ideas led me to the character and the story of Eleanor Oliphant.

Unbroken by Madeleine Black @madblack65 #BlogTour #MyLifeInBooks

For many years after that night, my memories of what happened after he held the blade to my throat and threatened my life were fragmented... difficult to piece together. It was too extreme, too violent for me to understand.

Violently gang-raped when she was thirteen years old, and raped three more times before the age of eighteen, Madeleine has experienced more trauma in her life than most ever will.

Living in a state of shock and self-loathing, it took her years of struggle to confront the buried memories of that first attack and begin to undo the damage it wrought, as men continued to take advantage of her fragility in the worst possible way.

Yet, after growing up with a burden no teenager should ever have to shoulder, she found the heart to carry out the best revenge plan of all: leading a fulfilling and happy life. But the road to piecing her life back together was long and painful. For Madeleine, forgiveness was the key. True forgiveness takes genuine effort. It takes a real desire to understand those who have done us so much harm. It is the ultimate act of courage.

In Unbroken, Madeleine tells her deeply moving and empowering story, as she discovers that life is about how a person chooses to recover from adversity. We are not defined by what knocks us down - we are defined by how we get back up.

Unbroken by Madeleine Black was published by John Blake Publishing on April 4 2017 in paperback.

As part of the Blog Tour for Unbroken, I am delighted to welcome the author, Madeleine Black to Random Things today. She's talking about the books that are important to her, in My Life In Books

My Life in Books - Madeleine Black

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett  
I can remember reading this whilst still at primary school and is one of the first books that I disappeared into and was totally transfixed by the story. I loved how the relationship between Mary and Colin grew by her telling him stories to take his mind of his illness and how he was once neglected but then thrived under her care and attention.


Anne Frank’s Diary 
This was the first autobiography I ever read and as my father was a holocaust survivor I found it very powerful. I was amazed what people can go through in order to survive but even more amazing was Anne’s attitude to still see the goodness in life. I have worked as a guide when the Anne Frank’s exhibition came to Glasgow and I think it’s easier for people to connect with one person’s story out of the six million that died.


To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee 
I studied this at school and it has stayed with me ever since. It is essentially about ingrained racial prejudice, loss of innocence and judgement. “You never know someone,” Atticus tells Scout “until you step inside their skin and walk around a little”. There is so much truth in that, people are too quick to judge with no understanding


Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E Frankl 
This is another book that has had a lasting effect on me and think it should be read by everyone. The description of life in a concentration camp is tough but his observations of humanity are powerful. He shows us that it is our attitude in life that is important and there is always hope.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
I didn’t know that people could speak or write about child rape before I read this book. She showed me that it was possible to go on after experiencing trauma and live a rich existence, planting a seed of hope for me. I would have loved to have met Maya Angelou and I use one of her quotes to start my book “I may be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it”



The Courage To Heal by Laura Bass & Ellen Davies
I found this book before I found my voice and it made me feel like I wasn’t alone with everything that I was feeling internally, so much resonated with me. All the effects of my trauma were explained and it started to make sense to me why I felt how I felt. Another beacon of hope


Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
I just find that her words speak to me in a place deep inside; they are both beautiful and moving


The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle 
After reading this book I realised that everything in life is where we put our attention and I was spending too long in my past and imagining my future which kept me from being truly present. It’s not been easy but I try to keep myself in the present moment, for after all that’s all there ever really is. It’s a book I give to a lot of my psychotherapy clients.

If You Sit Very Still by Marian Partington
I was so moved after hearing Marian speak and then reading her book that she greatly influenced me to share my story too. Her book is about the disappearance and murder of her sister Lucy, by Rose and Fred West. It is about her refusal to be a victim, compassion and humanity.


Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin 
I love memoirs and found this one so moving. The changes he makes in his life are so contrasting, from living in extreme poverty in China living under a dictatorship to one of a world-class ballet dancer. It was a window into a world I knew nothing about and found it fascinating, courageous and inspiring


When You’re Falling, Dive by Mark Matousek
This is a collection of stories from different people who have all experienced trauma and disaster and how they use it to awake and transform their lives. It showed me that life is best lived



The Forgiveness Project, Stories For a Vengeful Age by Marina Cantacuzino
Just a few months after I shared my own story on the Forgiveness Project’s website I was asked if it could be included as one amongst forty in this book. These stories are all very different and are from both victim’s like myself and perpetrators too who have all transformed their lives around through the power of forgiveness.

Looking at my list I can see I'm very attracted to true stories of courage, growth and strength where people transform their lives and I really believe in the power of sharing our stories. They strengthen my own belief that it’s not what happens to us that is important, but what we do with it. It’s about our attitude and mind-set that we bring to a situation and if we really chose to we can get past anything in life.

Madeleine Black - January 2018

The sharing of her story on The Forgiveness Project's website in September 2014, opened many doors for Madeleine in ways she never imagined and the invitations started to pour in. 

She has taken part in both TV and radio interviews and has been invited to share her story at conferences, events and schools.

She recognises that she was a victim of a crime that left her silent for many years, but has now found her voice and intends to use it. Not just for her, but for so many who can’t find theirs yet. 

She is married and lives in Glasgow with her husband, three daughters, her cat, Suki, and dog, Alfie.For more info please see her website madeleineblack.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @madblack65

This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech @louisewriter BLOG TOUR @OrendaBooks #ThisIsHowWeAreHuman #JubilantJune

 

Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely.

Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy … she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants.

Violetta is a high-class escort, who steps out into the night thinking only of money. Of her nursing degree. Paying for her dad’s care. Getting through the dark.

When these three lives collide – intertwine in unexpected ways – everything changes. For everyone.

A topical and moving drama about a mother’s love for her son, about getting it wrong when we think we know what’s best, about the lengths we go to care for family … to survive … This Is How We Are Human is a searching, rich and thought-provoking novel with an emotional core that will warm and break your heart.

This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech is published in paperback by Orenda Books on 10 June 2021. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review for this Blog Tour 

I have read every book that Louise Beech has had published. I have loved them all, some more than others, but every single one of them is made up of the most beautiful prose, and the most magnificently created characters. 

She's an author who cannot be put into a box. Her stories slip into multiple genre, she weaves a magic with words that is utterly astounding. 

I read This Is How We Are Human in one weekend, hardly raising my eyes from the page during that time. I have a new favourite Louise Beech novel, and it's this one. It is exactly what I want in a book.

Sebastian James Murphy and his mother Veronica live in Hull. They are the world to each other. When the story opens Sebastian is aged twenty years, six months and two days. Sebastian really wants to have sex but no girl that he knows would consider having a relationship with him. Sebastian is autistic. Apart from his mother, his life revolves around his love of Billy Ocean, swimming, fish and a daily portion of fried eggs; cooked perfectly, just as he likes them, by Veronica. 

Veronica is devastated by Sebastian's longings. Whilst he is handsome, with beautiful eyes and a body that is toned from his swimming, as soon as he begins a conversation, woman retreat. Veronica is also scared. She's scared that Sebastian will do something terrible, despite her efforts to talk to him about consent. Veronica decides that the only way forward is for her to pay someone to have sex with her son. 

This is not a decision that she takes lightly. 

Violetta works nights as an escort. She's with a reputable agency, she's not a sex worker who picks up men from the streets. Violetta is not her real name. By day, she is someone else. She is someone with responsibilities and a strong sense of loyalty. Escort work is her only choice. 

Sebastian and Violetta's worlds collide, with Veronica playing an integral part in the blossoming relationship. Things do not work out how any of them imagined. 

This is a beautifully written story, told with sensitivity and with wit. There are people who will say that only #OwnVoice writers should tell a story such as this, and whilst I totally respect that movement, this author has made it very clear that she worked closely with a friend who has a son who is autistic when she created this novel. 

It is daring and brave. All too often, the issue of sex is swept under the carpet when we read fiction about people with a disability. It's almost as though it's a taboo issue, but honestly, this is how we are human ... we are all human, and Sebastian is most certainly human. 

This is not just a story about a twenty year old who would like sex. It is also an exploration of relationships; those within the family, and also how other relationships form, especially if someone is a little different. I had so much compassion for Veronica. She is the ultimate mother, putting her own needs aside to ensure that her beloved boy has everything he possibly can to live his life to the full. She has some difficult, quite tragic scenes within the story. Telling Sebastian that he can no longer attend his swimming lessons, because he is an adult now and it's not appropriate for him to be naked around children is heartbreaking to read. 

Violetta too has her own intimate story; one of hope, and sadness, tinged with a sense of shame and then with a feeling of not believing in herself when long held secrets are exposed. 

Wonderfully moving, emotional and very thought provoking. A book to savour and love. Highly recommended. 

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Reader’s Choice in 2015. 

The sequel, The Mountain in My Shoe, was shortlisted for the Not the Booker Prize. 

Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. 

The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her 2019 novel Call Me Star Girl won Best Magazine’s Book of the Year, and was followed by a ghost-story cum psychological thriller set in a theatre, I Am Dust. 

Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull – the UK’s 2017 City of Culture – and loves her job as Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. 

Follow Louise on Twitter @LouiseWriter and visit her website: louisebeech.co.uk.

Afterworld by Lois Walden

Meet four generations of the Duvalier family, for whom sugar cane is both a blessing and a curse.  From patriarch Carter, who perishes before the novel begins - after being hit in the head by an exploding manhole cover - and his indomitable holy-roller wife Lily, to their dysfunctional sons Winston and Steven, and their equally screwed-up grandchildren, the Duvaliers, both dead and alive, would do anything to keep their secrets hidden.

As their world is blown apart by the winds of Katrina, and consumed by greed and lust - and with Afterworld exercising an unearthly control over them all - their story creates a novel of unimaginable beauty, dark humour and terrible tragedy.

Afterworld is Lois Walden's second novel and is published in the UK by Arcadia on 22 September 2013.

This is certainly one of the most original novels that I have ever read.  It's a mash-up of sex, laughter, drink and debauchery.  A story told in many layers by many generations.   Each quirky voice is hugely individual and more than a little bit eccentric.

The reader is led through Louisiana, and along the way many secrets are uncovered and a corrupt world is exposed.

This is a story full of magic, it's incredibly clever - almost a little too clever for me and I find it quite difficult to write a review that does any justice to the quite incredible writing.  I'd really recommend that readers go out and read it for themselves.  Then, please, let me know what you think!

My thanks to Colin from www.bookshaped.com who sent my copy for review.

Lois Walden is a writer, performer, lyricist, teaching artist, and founder of the star-studded gospel group The Sisters of Glory. In 2010 Arcadia published her strong debut novel One More Stop. Her latest is a hugely imaginative tour of Louisiana and its corrupt beauty, and seductive secrets along with a vision that carries through life, death, and back again. Most recently, she has been commissioned to write the Buddhist opera, Mila and is at work on her third novel. 
Find out more about Lois and her work at www.loiswalden.com

Questions  & Answers with Lois Walden,  Author of Afterworld

What was the genesis of Afterworld?
I started writing a book of erotic short stories each of which was about how we use sex to control our lives, transcend our pain and hold power over others: the misuse of sexual energy, at which I am an expert! After quite some time, I pulled these stories out of the drawer, took a good look at this one in particular and decided it should be a novel. It is not just a book about sex; though there is quite a bit of sex in it... and sex is never just. Never.

Did writing Afterworld change your outlook in any way?
It's left me questioning everything I ever thought and believed. I am now, after all my searching, a romantic existentialist, which is an oxymoron: I only exist in the now and my heart is always breaking.
Though I am hopelessly questing for some mystical outcome – because of things that I have practiced and studied in my past – I know at this moment that there is no outcome. As Kenny Loggins wrote, "This is It." My faith in mankind and humanity with its group consciousness has been torn asunder. Life is about the individual. The greatest way to live a life or make a difference is to live one's life to its fullest. I can only make change by being more and more who I am without external rules. And who I am, hopefully, changes every second I am.

What do you hope that readers take away when they finish Afterworld?
I leave that up to the reader. I hope they have a fabulous ride, that they question their own beliefs. That
“pervert”, “drunk”, “gay”, “straight”, “death”, and “life”, are just labels to give man his identity. None of
these things is for us to judge.

Which writers do you most admire?
William Faulkner and Philip Roth. Philip Roth because his books tap into the psyche of my genetic makeup and Faulkner because I feel as though I've lived somewhere in the south and as if I were in some of his characters’ lives but was unseen. With his writing you really have to pay attention. Sound and the Fury and American Pastoral are my favorites. I read an enormous amount of non fiction; Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi and Hazrat Inayat Khan's, The Music of Life are two of my favorites. And let's not forget Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Patti Smith’s Just Kids.

Both your novels explore LGBT themes from different angles. What was different about writing One More Stop compared to Afterworld?
One More Stop was an incredibly personal book that tapped into my life on the road as a teacher in classrooms filled with tormented teens all over America. It also tapped into my relationship with my mother, who committed suicide many years ago. It gave me the opportunity to heal that particularly difficult mother daughter relationship. After all, when someone takes their life you tend to blame yourself for their death, even if it has nothing to do with you. Afterworld truly expresses the notion that at all times there is something in play between the seen and unseen. We do not have the slightest idea about the hows and whys of what we do or do not become. We make this shit up to survive.
For me, LGBT, gay or straight is all sexuality. How we deal with what we're dealt is what makes us genuine. I love women. I love men's bodies, but emotionally I am definitely gay. You can't hide behind any label. Look at what labels did to people like Oscar Wilde. I am glad I am alive at this time, and not that time. You have to claim your sexuality and not let it shame you.

What fascinates you about sex?
The lack of it, the quest for it, the power of it, the remembrances of it, the hopes for the future of it, the complete all encompassing need and desire for it, the manifestation of life through it. Whether you are gay, straight, just love it, because sex is great, fun. As far as I'm concerned, the libido is where it's at.
The other parts of us are so cluttered with moral morass. If you have completely lost touch with at least some shred of your libido, you might just as well die, or pray for an orgasm.

What is your obsession with death?
Some days the thought of it scares the shit out of me and yet, I look forward to it. It's a conundrum, and I like the fact that it has my brain twisted at all times. Probably what I write will always have some death involved. Because there always is some death involved. Sondheim says "Every Day a Little Death." People always try to put a rational spin on why death comes, but the truth is we don't have a clue.
Who or what influences you in your day to day, supports you in how you live, how you work, how you
play, how you see and live in the world?
Margot, my partner, supports me in more ways than I care to mention. She has taught me about will, hard work, and the way of the warrior. I tend to be passive. I mean like staring at bees sucking on clover. I can do that for hours, and have. I have walked away from many opportunities in my career because they required will, and work. I just walked, started another chapter, called it my way of dealing and left the baggage behind me. There was always the same baggage wherever I went, so now I stick to things, even if it drives me crazy.

Where do you write?
Anywhere. It's not that I write: I think and think, take notes, an idea goes into this part of my brain and I turn it around – it goes on for weeks and months – and I know how it begins and ends and I know the arc and the story... and then I sit down and fill it in. Sometimes I'm in a car and I have to pull off to the side of the road and write something. When I'm in the midst of writing I don't write every day – I wish I did – but because I do many other creative and foolish things, I can't. I'm not looking forward to sitting down to the next book. Afterworld challenged everything I believed in and I'm not anxious to be exposed again, but I will and I have begun. This next book is a very emotional novel.

How do you choose your subjects?
They choose me. People I meet, things that happen. The synchronicity of certain experiences and then all of a sudden seeing a panoply of a unique world. Sometimes they percolate for years.

What would I like to be when I grow up?

I'd like to be fully present.

 

Cancer Free For 20 Years by Curly Martin @CurlyMartin @BookPublicistUK #cancersurvivors #BlogTour

A humorous how to book, full of tips, tools, techniques, and the secrets I used to overcome cancer which I share with you in the hope you will be inspired. 

I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer in 1992 and I was given a maximum of nine months to live.
“Inspiring, uplifting and funny read.” Prue Gent.

This book is all about my fascinating and funny 20 year journey from cancer to coaching. Around the same times as my diagnosis I became homeless and I was unemployed. I now live a passionate, exciting, healthy, wealthy, happy life.

My story tells of my passage through the conventional medical approach consisting of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
This is then rapidly followed by funny tales of my experimenting with alternative therapies, sampling some weird concoctions and cultivating unusual remedies.
“Curly’s book is flush with guidance to have self-mastery in the face of adversity. These tricks of positivity are not just for the fearful and sick, but for all of us; I guides and tempts us to greater psychological wellbeing and well ‘being’.
Thinking well and taking care of our bodies, as Curly suggests, provides all of us with an easily applied set of life-changes that will not only make us feel better every day, but may help save our lives too.” Professor Angus McLeod, PhD

I believe that cancer can be the most powerful catalyst for change. I have deliberately written in a style which combines storytelling and facts with the hope to entertain you and educate you at the same time. “A very interesting, amusing, and thought provoking book.” Jackie Hammans.

Since the terminal diagnosis, I have become an international bestselling author of, The Coaching Handbook Series of books. I am a highly sought-after international speaker, a pioneer of life coach training and the founder of a very successful training company, Achievement Specialists Limited. I combine my personal experiences with accepted methodologies and cutting edge innovations, to create exciting, entertaining and effective approaches to living a healthy, happy and successful life.

“Her story is leagues away from being a ‘misery memoir’ and instead becomes a celebration of life, with hard earned insights which empower the reader to develop the resilience to tackle serious situations and overcome them to build a better life. In essence, this book is inspiring reading for anyone involved in any way with a terminal illness, as well a poignant reminder for all of us healthy creatures to fight the temptation to take the richness of life for granted.  Highly recommended”  Grant Willcox

Within the book I examine the need to be prepared for hospital visits, to expect to have some setbacks and what it is like living with early menopause. I plan a farewell party and raise money for cancer charities. I spend time on using humour as a healer, on drinking Ojibway Indian tea, visiting the neuro-linguistic programming museum of old beliefs, using lashings of fake tanning and removing mercury teeth fillings, to mention only a few of the topics. I cover a lot of alternative options all of which I have tried or explored. There is a lot of information in this book portrayed I hope, in a witty and laugh out loud style.

I'm delighted to host the Blog Tour for Cancer Free For 20 Years by Curly Martin, published in August last year.

Given 9 months to live, Curly found herself homeless, jobless and breaking up with a boyfriend who ‘couldn’t deal with her cancer’. She has an irrepressible spirit and energy – and her book is an unapologetic celebration of life. She shares the tips, tools and techniques she used to overcome cancer and turn her live around

Please join me in welcoming Curly to Random Things today, she's talking about the books that are import to her in My Life In Books:

My Life In Books ~ Curly Martin

Here’s my top five books – presented in no particular order. I’ve chosen these books out of my many favourites as they are the ones that still have an impact on me.


Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien.
I read this book during a summer break from College. I was serving coach loads of visitors in a road side café during the day and waiting tables at a restaurant at night to earn enough money to pay for my course and lodging fees. At every opportunity, I would read this book and since that first reading I have re-read this book nine times and watched the movie twice. I will not insult you by doing a description of the book. There is a parallel between Frodo’s carrying of a huge life or death burden and my journey of carrying cancer. Like Frodo I had moments of great despair and moments of love and joy. Both of us conquered our fears and faced down the challenge to survive and thrive.


Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Joseph O’Connor & John Seymour.
This book was required reading for my Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner and master practitioner courses. I have used so many of the techniques described in this book and from the study of NLP to heal my body and my mind.


Zero Limits: Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len.
The simple message within Zero Limits has had a profound impact on my health and healing. Simply using the power of love to heal my body and my mind whilst maintaining good health was beyond transformational. The overriding message of this book is to love everything. Sounds simple but in practice is one of the hardest things to do. Try it for a day and see if you can maintain love for everything!

I have proved to myself time and again that when someone or something has the potential to be harmful to me, if I concentrate on loving the person or the thing the harmful outcome is diverted. Sounds baloney, you bet it does! Does it work, you bet it does!

Can you do it? Well that is the lifelong challenge. I spent a good amount of my time using the power of love on my body over the past 20+ years during which I have been cancer free.

The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity: Catherine Ponder.
I am an atheist and all of Catherin Ponder’s books are about God. Many people find it hard to understand how an atheist can find inspiration in God filled books. I simply take what I can use in my model of the world and replace God with Universe where necessary.

There are loads of really powerful sayings in Catherine’s books which are elevating and inspiring. Here is an example where I have edited the saying to support my beliefs, ‘I consciously, boldly and deliberately take hold of my thoughts and feelings and redirect them towards prosperity and success with the universe’s divine help.’

I can adapt this simple sentence to suit my needs. For example, sometimes I replace ‘prosperity’ with ‘happiness and joy’ or ‘good health and healing’ the options are boundless.

Importantly, it is about stopping endless negative internal chatter and taking back control to heal oneself. I often share my adapted Ponder quotes with my life coaching clients to enable them to move towards their goals by reducing the negative beliefs which have been holding them back from being the awesome person they are meant to be.



Making Money: Terry Pratchett.
I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and have every single book he has written. What I love about this book and all of his disc world books is the clever parallel paradoxes he creates with disc world and our world. The books have the ability to completely relax my mind whilst also stimulating my curiosity. I love to laugh at myself and I love to laugh aloud when I read.

Finally, if you or your loved ones are suffering from cancer, I leave you with two thoughts, you control your thoughts, so make them work to heal you. And you can love your body back to health. Both these things require dedication and consistent application, you might not see immediate results but you will definitely be better for it.


I send you love and healing in equal measures.                           Curly Martin ~ September 2017

Curly Martin, is the author of Cancer Free for 20 Years. Given 9 months to live, Curly was homeless and dealing with a relationship break up. Twenty years on she has an exciting new career in coaching and is a best-selling author and International speaker. Her book gives guidance to others facing similar challenges.


Website www.curlymartin.com
Twitter @CurlyMartin  


Achievement: Cancer Free for 20 Years by Curly Martin is out now, available from Amazon, priced £13.48. 
For more information go to www.achievementspecialists.co.uk.

Bad Mommy, Stay Mommy by Elisabeth Horan @ehoranpoet BLOG TOUR @fly_press #RandomThingsTours #BadMommyStayMommy

Elisabeth Horan was in the grip of postpartum depression after the birth of her second son, 'red and writhing a salamander underfoot'.

 In this collection, Elisabeth finds the courage to survive.

Uplifting, guttural: Horan leaves her reader roaring for more.























Bad Mommy, Stay Mommy by Elisabeth Horan is published today (10 May 2019) by Fly On The Wall Poetry.
As part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I am delighted to share one of Elisabeth's poems from the collection here with you today.

A Son is Born, the Second

My son cannot remember the day he came to

lose his mother.

My son only knows I was sad before

and that now I’m feeling better.

I alone know the secret; the date of the day he lost me -

and I’ll tell you since I trust you:

It was the day my second was borne

came out shrieking - ghouls after me, the sinner;

A lion roaring in the night -

a mauled honey badger.

Ah yes, he was lifted right out of the smiling incision

and laid skin to skin, on my breast.

And I remember thinking he looked odd, like a football player

helmeted with hair -

Laying on the nurses table; red and writhing

a salamander underfoot.

And then I remember

my first-borne pointed at him and said... out.

Praise for Bad Mommy, Stay Mommy

“What strikes me most at the core of Elisabeth Horan’s Bad Mommy / Stay Mommy is the generosity of its voice. These poems share fears, criticisms, confessions, shortcomings, wounds, and hopes in full, honest throat because the poet trusts us to hear her. No matter how close these poems get to giving up, they face fault and self-loathing like a sandblast, coming away less diminished than polished by it. There’s pain, yes, and even unraveling. But there is also redemption in this telling, and even hope. Horan’s poems teem with the complexities of life. They sing even when the song hurts. Most of all, they are necessary because, as she writes, “Saying I’m sorry is not enough.””

Jack B. Bedell, author of No Brother, This Storm, Poet Laureate, State of Louisiana, 2017-2019

““I cower I cackle I burn”—and, yes, the riveting mother does just this in Elisabeth Horan’s heartbreakingly raw Bad Mommy / Stay Mommy. The notes of Sylvia Plath ring through the telling fingers of Horan’s sharp lines, deeply rooted in the body.

Horan adeptly takes us on the mental health tour, pulling no punches, describing the ride of postpartum depression after birthing her second son, “red and writhing a salamander underfoot,” unflinchingly. She bravely depicts the out-at-sea drift of antidepressants. One of the most amazing and gut-wrenching poems in the collection, “Basement Mother,” finds her brutally locking herself away: “dragging a stained placenta / Surviv[ing] on its nutrients, for years / in chains, with rats, eating shit / my own eyes, yellow slits, / my vagina locked, breasts defiled.” Bad Mommy evokes her suicides and calls them close: Plath and Woolf, naming herself as the third in the pack. But Horan is not quite ready to give into the pocket of rocks, the trauma of rape, the absent father—a trilogy quite terrifying in its own right. Stay Mommy enters just in time and claims, though tenuous, her place and her children. This collection exists to destigmatize the space where mothers are still shamed for postpartum depression and mental illness. Through her wild and wondrous voice, Horan allows so many of us to speak. And to survive.”

 Jen Rouse, poet, playwright, and visual artist. 

"Bad Mommy / Stay Mommy" by Elisabeth Horan is a blazing myriad of thoughts from her severely depressed mind. Written from the depths of a twirling stifling postpartum haze, Elisabeth's poetry her transcend the macabre. This book of poetry is a visceral, it speaks for all that suffer from mental illness.

While reading these epic gems, I thought "That's me!" But then I realized that no it could never be me, I am not brave like Elisabeth. I am not as self-aware as Elisabeth. I have yet to redeem my self from myself as Elisabeth has done in this collection.

Elisabeth has a true poet's heart, a writer's pain, and the unabashed honesty of a soul torn apart that will be reckoned with, studied, adored and admired for countless generations to come.

A must-read for lovers of works written by the likes of Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe, and Joan Didion.

Julie Anderson. Publisher of Feminine Collective

'A Voice of a Mother's Guilt'

This is a chapbook written by a woman, geared for women, yet eager to be read by men. If you want to get inside the mind of a new mother who has been going through post-partum, raising children, marriage, love, commitment, denial—then look no further. The poems in this collection are easy to connect to as a mother and a woman. Elisabeth Horan explains how she hates herself, especially how the world perceives her, but mostly how she sees herself as a “failure” as a mom—the guilt of being a mom and how everything you don’t do makes you feel guilty. As I was reading this book, I kept nodding my head; it is the true voice of a mother’s guilt of never feeling good enough or stable enough. Horan’s poems illustrate her self-loathing and hatred at how motherhood affected her life, family, and marriage. This collection is confessional, spiritual, and heartbreaking. It is equally, uplifting, and roaring with confessions. There are some brilliant lines throughout this book that make you go back to read over again. I find Horan’s poetic voice a much needed read that keeps you wanting more.

Christina Strigas, author of Love & Vodka

Elisabeth Horan is an imperfect creature advocating for animals, children and those suffering alone and in pain - especially those ostracized by disability and mental illness. Elisabeth is honored to serve as Poetry Editor at Anti-Heroin Chic Magazine, and is Co-Owner of Animal Heart Press. She recently earned her MFA from Lindenwood University and received a 2018 Best of the Net Nomination from Midnight Lane Boutique, and a 2018 Pushcart Prize Nomination from Cease Cows.

Elisabeth lives in rural Vermont with her husband and two young sons. When not being poet, she works as a secretary and loves riding horses & dancing the salsa---

Follow her @ehoranpoet  &  ehoranpoet.com