We are fully funded so what happens now…?

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Guide Dogs, Writing Leave a Comment

CULL is fully funded so what happens next?

An very thick A4 sized thesis bound with black along the spine and with clear acetate over the title page.

The original tome with added thesis!

The first thing I have to do is reread my original manuscript. It’s been several months since I did this and so it seems fresher with all rot, blots, clutter and shoddy bits now fully exposed. It’s my job to prune, clip, zapp and add compost. I have promised this will be done by 20th September, whereupon I shall send it post-haste to the Unbound production team in London. They will read said manuscript and get back to my agent and I with a plan for final editing, design, proofs and eventually printing and potential launch dates. Right now I have absolutely no idea on the timescale but will let you know as things progress.

I am editing slowly but enjoying it. Indeed, I had some fun tweaking a sex scene today, adding back the line ‘…more potential cystitis than sensation…’. 50 Shades it ain’t.

In other news, I am still dog-less and rather lost without my honey, Grace.  I have received wonderful snaps of her having a fabulous time on various holiday trips with her lovely new family which makes me feel much better but I am still waking with the cold sweats in the dead of night worrying that she thinks I abandoned her.

Beware of VI hiker!

During the day, I keep busy and try not to dwell. In between editing and waiting to hear about associate lecturing work, I have started doing rather fool-hardy and exhilarating hikes on my own around Corsham and out into the country-side. I take risks I would never do with a guide dog: ducking under fallen trees, clambering over bramble covered stiles and wading through thigh-high nettles, using my cane as a walking stick, weapon and depth detector for gullies.  This is not just me losing the plot. I am actually in semi-training for the Bath SkyLine walk to raise money for Julian House on the 25th September. Twenty miles with short legs and flat feet?  It will be a doddle, surely? Worth it though for such a great organisation!

Creating literary medicine from Nazi poison

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Disability, Writing 3 Comments

I write this to celebrate the wonderful news that we have hit 91%

…and have 207 beautiful, brave, clearly remarkably intelligent and compassionate supporters. I want to thank you with all my heart!

I also write this because it is the 21st August and Deaf and Disability organisations from across the United Kingdom will today highlight the Government’s ongoing human rights violations and evasive behaviour towards a major United Nations committee.

This is happening today because the UK government has to date ignored all questions, recommendations and reports about the grave and systematic abuse of the rights of disabled people put forward by the United Nations and other bodies.  Their apparent refusal to acknowledge our human rights is frightening – more so when we see swastikas being waved openly in America and fascism rising across Europe.  As disabled people, we cannot help but feel under attack. We are reminded of the Nazi’s destruction of their own deaf and disabled community,  T4 Aktion Plans.

I wrote CULL as a way to counter the fear and importantly, to make some noise!

I do NOT believe that people would condone the mistreatment of deaf and disabled people if they first knew about it and secondly understood how it felt.

I have talked before about my use of plot and humour in crafting the novel but, and in view of all this grimness, I want to tell you another key secret behind CULL’s construction. Initially for authenticity and then also for characters and motivation, I extensively researched the T4 Aktion Plans perpetrated by the Nazis. From forced sterilization programmes, Hitler moved to killing of disabled children in 1939 (5000 suffocated, tortured, starved, poisoned and gassed by 1940) before moving on to disabled adults. An aggressive propaganda programme made it possible hardening society to the ‘useless eaters’, the ‘parasites;, or , as Ian Duncan Smith would call us in 2010, the ‘economically unviable.’

And still we rise…! 84%!

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Disability, Guide Dogs, Visual Impairment, Writing 2 Comments

CULL has hit 84% of total and is on a roll!

A woman is lying on her back, hair curling out around her head. She has a big grin on her face and her eyes are shut. She is covering her face with one hand.

84%! Yikes!

For those of you unsure about what this is all about, what the hell kind of novel it is and why on earth you should pledge and become part of this wonderful project, please allow me to shed some light!

CULL is my second novel,  a literary fiction set in ‘another England’ where austerity has set the country’s teeth on edge. Hate crime is on the rise and the government has just passed The Protect and Care Bill as a cost- cutting method demanding the elderly and vulnerable, no longer able to afford care, are housed in huge residential centres for their ‘own good’.

Alex, a hard-bitten journalist, has fallen on hard times and is struggling to find enough work to pay her bills and keep her off the street. She is visually impaired and lives with her wonderful and compassionate canine companion, her guide dog Chris.

Whilst looking for potential stories, Alex and Chris stumble upon two things; one, the possibility that the newly opened Grassybanks Residential Home may be a front for state sponsored euthanasia of the disabled and vulnerable. Two, that their new found friends at the Ladies Defective Agency (LDA) may be undercover activists.

However, Alex and Chris’s snooping puts them directly in the line of danger. Who can they trust and what can they do to make things right?

CULL is an important novel, engaging readers from the very opening of the Dog’s Prologue to the final chapter.  Its dark charm makes it more than just a thrilling read.  CULL is a polished mirror reflecting back to us a cold truth about discrimination, about what happens when we let things slide and where that might just lead.  This is a ground breaking, original novel with a bold new perspective and a razor-sharp take on what it feels to be a disabled person in the 21st Century;  how insecure, fraught and disturbing life can be.

And why now? Why does CULL matter now?

The Creative Writing Laboratory!

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Poetry, Writing Leave a Comment

What on earth is a ‘Creative Writing Laboratory’ and why should I try one?

A stormy grey sky with light breaking through the clouds.

Waking creativity!

Research has shown the incredible benefits of the arts on health; both mental and physical.  In the last couple of months alone I have come across new research providing greater scientific evidence of the powerful effects of expressive arts.  I heard, for instance, at the Culture, Health and Well Being Conference in Bristol this week, that changes occurring in the human genome, ‘turned on’ following severe trauma and resulting PTSD, are seen to be resolved ‘turned off’- through a holistic approach to healing that includes poetry and other forms of expressive writing. There has been measurement of cortisol changes in saliva to evidence stress reduction, heart rates and breathing have been monitored alongside ability to focus, levels of energy and more, much more, and all point to further evidence of how effective the creative arts can be as a tool for healing.

If only a GP could prescribe a course of poetry, a packet of short stories, a spray of salsa dances, a dose of fiction!

The idea for the Creative Writing Laboratory came from my experience of writing a novel about things that scared me and made me angry – and how the writing of it released me from feeling helpless and stuck. That novel was CULL  (more about that in next blog.)

White words on a dark blue background read keep calm and write on. My idea was to create a safe space for people to explore a multitude of creative writing techniques and find ones that they could employ that would also increase their feelings of well-being, of hopefulness and curiosity. In my Creative Writing Laboratory, everyone is a researcher, a lab technician, exploring their own process.

(Guide) Dog Lovers Should Not Vote Tory

Tanvir Naomi BushDisability, Guide Dogs, Visual Impairment 2 Comments

Are you a dog lover?  Do you support Guide Dogs and other assistance dogs? Then this is why you should NOT vote Tory.

The snap election is nearly upon us. Some of you may even have your postal vote ready but if you are thinking about voting for the Conservative Party and call yourself a dog lover, I suggest you read this and reconsider your vote.

It is VERY simple.

Guide Dogs and other assistance dogs are trained to work alongside disabled people and people with chronic conditions like diabetes and epilepsy etc. Yes?

Well, are you aware of what is happening to disabled and vulnerable people under the current government? It’s bad. In fact it is VERY bad. Don’t take my word. Instead have a look at the UN report published last November which found evidence of “grave or systematic violations of rights of people with disabilities.”

Blue United Nations LogoThe UN report warned that cuts and changes to disability support under the Conservative-led government had “hindered disabled people’s right to live independently and be included in the community”.

Disabled people were also routinely portrayed as being “dependent or making a living out of benefits, committing fraud as benefit claimants, being lazy or putting a burden on taxpayers”, the report found.

Other policies such as the bedroom tax and benefit sanctions had also disproportionately affected the disabled, while work schemes had “no visible impact” in helping disabled people find work and were sometimes counterproductive.

Should you choose to disregard that, as the government tried to, then there is the even more detailed and upsetting report from the Equality and Human Rights commission

The report, which covers six key areas of life, finds that disabled people in Britain are experiencing disadvantages in all of them, and sets out vital areas for urgent improvement. Despite significant progress in the laws protecting disabled people’s rights, they are still not being treated as equal citizens and continue to be denied the opportunities and outcomes non-disabled people take for granted.

So what has this got to do with dogs?

Grace Still In Da House

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Disability, Grace, Guide Dogs 2 Comments

A black labrador- retriever cross is sitting staring into the camera with bright warm brown eyes and a grin on her muzzle. next to her, looking a little more serious, stands a younger golden labrador. They are on a path in the middle of some woods. They look very happy.

Grace and Maisie, Grace’s young buddy,  ‘living it large’ Photo (c) L. Purling

For those of you who are asking about the wonderful hound…

Yup, Grace is still with me at the moment. The re-homing process is longer and more complex than I had originally thought. There were many wonderful people wanting to take her on and yet there are so many issues when it comes to re-homing an older guide dog that, in the end, we decided to hand all things over to the re-homing team. This means I can just pretend it isn’t happening for a wee bit longer.

Grace meantime has happily settled deep into her retirement and…well… gone ‘dog’.  In the old days of just a couple of months ago, I would wake up, feed us, get my sh** together, harness up Grace and head out the flat and up the hill. Boom! There, wherever ‘there’ happened to be that day,-and back again. Work? Done. Supermarket? Done. Gym? Done.  I had NO flippin’ idea just how much I had taken Grace for granted. Have you ANY idea how hard it is,  for any dog,  to walk sniff-less and in straight lines whilst hefting a talking monkey? Perhaps our equivalent would be being always prepped for a full triathlon whenever and where ever we got a text from our boss.  What now? But I am in the pub…awww..maaaan. Okay. As it’s YOU.

Two labradors, one yellow and one black, are heading away down a track in the middle of some beautiful green woods.

Seven years of sniffing to catch up on! Back laters! Photo (c) L. Purling

Now, Retired Grace is making all that painfully clear. She has seven and half yeas of sniffing to catch up on. If we can get 20 metres in 20 minutes it is a result.  She won’t get out of the car if she can’t see green fields and grass to run in and, should I convince her, with promises of fishy teats the size of a pillow,  to come into town with me at all, she is liable to lock legs,  pause and lick up any dropped ice cream, chips, bread crumbs in the street, looking up at me with Clint Eastwood glintiness and a grin on her chops that says,

‘Payback is, quite literally in this case, a bitch’.

Damn, I LOVE this dog!

On another note, this week is Mental Health Awareness Week.

I actually heard some Tory apologist on the radio this morning saying that their response to the financial cuts to care and services was not to put more money in. Oh no.  Money was Not Needed.  They would, however, ‘ensure there are more resources than any other party.’  What? Do you mean Tories would fund resources from the teary dreams of babies and the light from the eye of a unicorn?   Seems Trump-Speak is contagious.

Back in 2012 I came across an excellent piece of research by Kay Garthwrite called Fear of the Brown Envelope.   Only a few months before, I had nearly been evicted due to an administrative error by the DWP and was cringing every time the post came. I had gone to look after my Dad for a few weeks as he was very ill with multiple myeloma. He was in Zambia. I had sent my dates and passport details before I had left the country and when I returned but the DWP had ‘lost’ them.

You are still abroad and taking money off the state. You are sanctioned! the Brown Envelope screamed.

A Weekend of Dance with Touchdown Company.

Tanvir Naomi BushDisability, Photography, Visual Impairment, Writing Leave a Comment

Into the dance studio we go!

A sunny dance studio space. To the foreground a dancer in an orange t-shirt is on all fours whilst another dancer slies over their back. behind them another couple are doing the same exercise.

Excellent way to make friends! Photo T.Bush (c) 2017

My eyes are finding it hard to adjust to the dark shadows of the wide dance studio space interspersed with occasional dazzling pools of sunlight. I am, however, prepped and perky and I am wearing ‘gear’ for the unknown, i.e. doubled sports bra/ tank top combo (experience has shown it to be almost as effective and certainly less painful to remove than duct-tape), track suit bottoms and huge cotton knickers. (All ladeez understand why we don’t do anything thong or nylon when unsure about potential sweat levels.)

I am already nervous-sweaty. I can feel my underarms slickening. Please don’t make that farting noise when we do pirouettes, I beg them. This is my first dance workshop since those  Jesus Christ Superstar try outs in Zambia over  20 years ago. My armpits were younger then…

Change the Narrative with ‘I, Daniel Blake’

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Disability, Film, Writing 2 Comments

It was a packed auditorium..

A middle aged man in a dark donkey jacket and black wool hat pulled low stands defiantly with fist raised. Behind him in various black and red texts are a list of accoldes for the film

‘I, Daniel Blake’ (2016) film poster

… for the first screening of the award winning film, ‘I Daniel Blake’ at the Pound Arts Centre, Corsham last Thursday.  We had planned a full day of events around the Arts and Social Change,  part of our joint SenseAbility themed programme.  It had been months in the planning but finally the day had arrived!

Notes on Leaving from Grace

Tanvir Naomi BushDisability, Guide Dogs, Writing 11 Comments

The Leaving

A rugged coastal path on the South West Coast with a grey boulder on the right of the frame and a white fence post on a bank to the left. A black dog is running down the path towards the camera, ears flapping and dust flying. Big frin on her face!

The Leaving is Arriving!

Hey TanviLove, I should be blogging about ‘re-tyre-ing’ but I don’t really smell that concept.

Me: Okay, what do you want to talk about?

Can I explain the Leaving instead,  as we Guide Dogs go through and past and through it a few times a life-long.

Me: That sounds great. Go ahead and I’ll type.

Should we eat something first?

Me: You just had breakfast.

Did I? But I am faint with hunger.

Me: Hmmmm, look here is a treat. Now come on.  The Leaving…?