Debbie Young's Blog, page 48

An Open Letter to Jamie Oliver Suggesting What He Should Have Said About Sugar and Diabetes

New post in response to ill-informed and offensive PR piece by Jamie Oliver, influential chef and campaigner for healthy food

NO, JAMIE OLIVER, NO!
An Open Letter to Jamie Oliver, Top Chef, Food Writer and Campaigner for Healthy Eating

Dear Jamie

On my Facebook timeline this morning, a friend whose child, like mine, has Type 1 diabetes, alerted me to this provocative photo of you on your own Facebook page, as part of your campaign to encourage children to drink water instead of colas and other sugary drinks:

NO, JAMIE OLIVER, YOU’VE GOT IT ALL WRONG!

Now, I have a lot of respect for you, because instead of coasting on your high income and national treasure status, you have stuck your neck out with a substantial and controversial campaign to encourage families and schoolchildren in particular to embrace a healthier diet. When I say controversial, most of what have said in your campaigns is a no-brainer to anyone who is not a hardened McDonald’s addict: avoid processed food, eat a balanced diet, turn your back on fast food. (Some misguided parents continue to shove BigMacs through school railings to kids averse to trying your lovingly prepared, home-cooked school lunches, for fear of the unknown.)

But Jamie, you – or at least your publicists – really should know better than to make the schoolboy error indicated by your photo. You may be self-made, but you surely have some qualified dieticians as part of your team. And as any dietician will tell you: drinking Coke instead of water does not cause Type One diabetes.

Let me expand upon that statement.

Contracting Type 1 Diabetes has nothing to do with diet. It is an incurable immune disorder that affects people at random through no fault of their own. The part of the body responsible for producing insulin – the hormone that enables your body to process sugar (and all carbohydrates) – stops working. Extensive research is trying to identify what triggers this malfunction, but it is definitely not consumption of sugary drinks such as the brand your photo clearly alludes to.

I should know: my daughter had never touched a drop of Coca Cola before she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 3.  My husband, diagnosed in his late 40s, can’t bear the stuff.

What I think you really meant and needed to say is this:

“Drinking sugary drinks, if done without being part of a controlled, balanced and healthy diet, increases the chances of becoming obese. Obesity carries increased risk of disorders which include TYPE 2 diabetes which is a completely different condition to TYPE 1 diabetes. Therefore it is wise to discourage drinking sugary drinks if you wish to avoid increased risk of obesity and its complications, of which there are many more, besides Type 2 diabetes. Sugary drinks are not great for your teeth either, due to the acid content, and fruit juices, though perceived as the healthy option, are also packed with sugar, causing unhelpful blood sugar spikes and a roller-coaster of energy levels.”

What you should also say is:

“I apologise to those with Type 1 diabetes for my error, which is likely to have added to the burden you carry daily of having to live with a serious condition requiring multiple daily blood tests and insulin injections to keep you alive.”

Full sugar Coca Cola and other sugar drinks a

You might also like to say (because you are very influential for the excellent work you have done in schools to date):

“Please, guys, do not confuse Type 1 with Type 2 , and do not accuse anyone of bringing this horrible illness on themselves by eating too much sugar. Please do not bully them or abuse them when they test their blood or take their insulin – they need to do this many times every day simply to stay alive. Please be supportive to them and watchful – and if they suffer a hypo (which means they do not have enough sugar in their blood – a condition that can potentially kill them), make them drink a sugary drink such as full-sugar Coca-Cola which is the fastest way to restore their blood sugar imbalance to a safe level. If they cannot drink it because they have fallen unconscious, immediately call the emergency services who will save their lives another way. Yes, sometimes sugary drinks will save lives, not threaten them. Don’t make the mistake that I did, and you may well one day be a lifesaver yourself.”

With the facts set straight in this way, Jamie, your campaign to encourage children to drink water – the first choice now of many children, thanks to campaigners such as yourself – will have much more credibility and will garner much more support, including from those with diabetes of all kinds.

Thank you for listening, and please continue the fine job you are doing to raise standards in cooking and eating, for the benefit of present and future generations everywhere.

With best wishes

Debbie Young

English mother and wife, lover of home-made healthy food, and carer for two precious people whose lives have been turned upside down by a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes through no fault of their own

Author of Coming to Terms With Type 1 Diabetes , “a lovely uplifting little book, full of insight, wit, and practical know-how” (Dr Carol Cooper, President of the Guild of Health Writers)

 

Filed under: daughter, diabetes (type 1 diabetes), family, health, husband, travel Tagged: Coca Cola, Jamie Oliver, obesity, sugary drinks, type 1 diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes

How to Be an Armchair Traveller

(This post was written for the January issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News)

January is traditionally the time when holiday companies’ commercials start popping up on our television screens. What better distraction from our post-Christmas overdrafts than sundrenched villas and beaches?

In the depths of the January gloom, these adverts tempt us to raid the rainy-day fund reserved for moments of crisis, such as when dishwasher gives up the ghost. (Now there’s a middle-class problem.)

The Budget Travel Option: A Good Book

With Helen Hollick, creator of the fabulous escapist Sea Witch adventure stories

I for one will be resisting the lure of travel agents and instead taking refuge in a good book. This time last year, through the pages of Helen Hollick’s excellent historical novel Sea Witch, I sailed away with her enticing pirate Jesemiah Acorne. After an interesting stop-off in South Africa, we headed straight for the Caribbean, where thoughts of palm-fringed shores and tropic temperatures helped me shut out the dark nights and icy winds of Hawkesbury Upton. It may have helped that I was reading in a comfy armchair by a log fire, with what was left of our Christmas bottle of Lamb’s Navy Rum.

My Little Free Library – offering armchair travellers an easy source of escapist books

Good books are much cheaper than holiday bookings – and you don’t even have to wait till the summer to enjoy them. And, as with radio, the pictures are so much better than on television. If your budget doesn’t run to a new book, check out the huge range of £1 books in the Hawkesbury Shop and Head Start Studio, or the free books available round the clock from the Little Free Library box on my front garden wall in France Lane.

Last January, my sorrow at ending my voyage with Captain Acorne was cut short when I realised that “Sea Witch” was the first in a series. I’ve been saving the sequel especially for this winter. So wish me bon voyage – I’m back off to the Caribbean via the pages of Pirate Code. I just wish I could bring back some duty-free.

OVER TO YOU What’s your favourite book for armchair travelling? I’d love to know!

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends!

And if you liked this post, you may also enjoy this anecdote that centres on reading a book on a plane, inspired by my avid travelling:  Flight of Fancy: A Cautionary Tale

 

Filed under: book reviews, Hawkesbury Parish News, New Year, reading, travel, winter Tagged: adventure stories, armchair traveller, escapist books, Helen Hollick, reading, Sea Witch, travel

Tiptoeing into the New Year (2015)

Welcome to my first blog post of the New Year!

Sometimes the pen is mightier than the keyboard

Well, did you miss me? Did you notice I’ve been offline for a bit? Probably not – if you’ve got any sense, you’ll have spent a lot of time offline over Christmas too.

But I have to say I’m greeting the first working week of the New Year with renewed energy and enthusiasm, after spending as much time as possible away from my computer during my daughter’s two-week break from school.

When I furtively dipped back into the internet now and again during the holiday fortnight, it was effectively under cover – I’d set up an out-of-office message to cover my two email accounts: the online equivalent of dark glasses.

In fact, if I hadn’t been part of Helen Hollick’s fabulous Christmas Party Blog Hop, I’d have spend even less time online. Reading the other participants’ fascinating posts was the main reason that I sneaked back to my computer at all.

Why Christmas Isn’t Over Yet…

Catch it before it’s too late!

What do you mean, you didn’t read the 25 fabulous articles on the blog hop, on different aspects of Christmas traditions and with plenty of festive fiction samples to enjoy?

Fear not, there’s still time to catch them with a clear conscience, because, as I’ve just discovered, Christmas isn’t actually over just yet. I’m not talking about waiting for Twelfth Night (today, 5th January, according to some people, or tomorrow, 6th, for others, including me). The vicar’s letter in the new Hawkesbury Parish News states that the festive season doesn’t officially conclude until Candlemas on 2nd February. Now there’s the excuse Laura was looking for to keep the Christmas tree up for a little longer.

In the meantime, I’m back in the room – and I’ve just been blogging about the benefits of going offline on the advice blog of Alliance of Independent Authors. You can read that post here, if you’re interested: Don’t Let the Internet (Tail) Wag the Author (Dog)

What’s the longest you can bear to stay offline – or indeed online?
Do you have a top tip to share on avoiding internet burnout?
Feel free to join the conversation via the comment box below!

Filed under: blogging, Christmas, creativity, lifestyle, New Year, work, writing Tagged: 2015, ALLi, blogging, Candlemas, Christmas, internet, internet burnout, new year, Twelfth Night

Festive Fun with BBC Radio Gloucestershire

A report on my appearance on BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s Chris Baxter Show yesterday

“I love this book! It’s festive, fun and a bit silly at times!” said BBC Radio Gloucestershire presenter Chris Baxter yesterday, when I was a guest on his excellent afternoon show. “It gets your imagination going, which stories at Christmas need to do.”

I’d been invited to talk about Stocking Fillers, my Christmas book of short stories, and I was thrilled to hear that Chris had been enjoying reading it on the train on his way to work that morning. We talked about the writing process, when I’d started writing them (high summer! – more about that here), and the challenge of writing short pieces.

After that, I was invited to read extracts from some of my favourite stories, which of course I was very pleased to do. I can now describe the book as “as featured on BBC Radio”, which is a terrific endorsement.

As ever, it was a joy to take part in a BBC Radio Gloucestershire programme, and I came away, as always, so impressed with what a great job they do bringing the community together and spreading goodwill throughout the county, not only at Christmas but all year round.

At a Christmas fair

And this time, there was also something else to take away: a request from Chris Baxter for some ghost stories for next Christmas. Hmmm, I’ll have to give that one some thought…

In the meantime, if you’d like to listen to interview, for the next month you can catch up with it on BBC iPlayer here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02dsf6d

(from 1 hour 10 minutes into the programme)

Stocking Fillers is in the left hand window, in the centre at the front

If you’re in Gloucestershire and would like to pick up a last-minute, er, stocking filler, the book’s currently stocked at four local independent shops:

The Cotswold Bookroom in Wotton-under-Edge

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (branches in Tetbury and Nailsworth)

The Hawkesbury Shop (general village store)

And you can download an ebook from online retailers at any time. (Paperback also available for online purchase.)

Merry Christmas reading, folks!

Julia Forster and me outside the Nailsworth branch of the Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, where we’d just delivered new stocks our the books we’re holding

 

Filed under: Christmas, seasons, short stories, special occasions, winter Tagged: BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Christmas stories, Cotswold Bookroom, Stocking Fillers, Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Good Christmas Housekeeping

Ok, folks, it’s party time!

Together with 25 other authors, today I’m taking part in a special Christmas Party Blog Hop, organised by the ever-generous historical novelist Helen Hollick.

Each of us  is running a party-related post on our blogs today. You’ll find mine below here, followed by a list of links so that you can hop over and enjoy all the others’ goodie too. Some of them are even offering virtual party bags – a prize for a lucky winner who will be chosen after the hop is over.

First stop is my free short story, one of the 12 lighthearted tales in my new Christmas collection, Stocking Fillers,  now available to order in paperback or ebook from all the usual retailers, online and on the high street. It makes gentle mockery of the supposedly perfect Christmas dinner, which somehow never materialises in my house…

Short Story: Good Christmas Housekeeping

Until this Christmas, I’d never believed that anybody really used the kind of fancy Christmas table setting that you see featured in every glossy magazine this side of September.

You know the sort I mean. They’re always pictured in rooms absolutely dripping with home-made swags of holly, gathered fresh from your vast and well-kept garden, of course. Enormous dinner tables for implausibly large family gatherings sport wildly impractical damask tablecloths, the sort of thing that would never withstand the onslaught of gravy, red wine and Ribena that accompany Christmas dinner in our household. There’s usually a breathtaking centrepiece, or even a whole series of little installations running down the table: bonsai’d holly trees; sculptures made from gilt-sprayed pine cones; exotic flower arrangements, each worth about as much as the turkey.

The dining chairs are festooned with gold bows or swathed with tartan. The vast array of cutlery promises at least five courses. Half a dozen crystal glasses suggest these will be accompanied by champagne, white wine, red wine, desert wine, sparkling water (probably Fijian), not forgetting the after-dinner brandy or liqueur.

As to the china, it’s either exquisitely simple, price rising in inverse proportion to the degree of decoration, or it’s a wittily mismatched medley of vintage Christmas designs, picked up for a song at a little market in Provence.

It goes without saying that in such a setting, the conversation among your most intimate friends and family would be no less than sparkling.

I’m never sure when the hostess is meant to find time to set up such an ornate display. After all, the same magazines usually implore us to start the day with a light but elegant spread of fresh home-made bread, croissants and smoked salmon, washed down with Bucks Fizz (not the sort that comes ready-mixed in a single bottle). They make us feel inferior if we’re not also rustling up the most complex combinations of vegetables to accompany our exotically stuffed turkey or goose. Now I’m lucky in that cooking comes easy to me, but I just can’t be doing with the rest of it. I’d rather spend more time relaxing with my family than handcrafting centrepieces for the dinner table.

In the odd spare moment, we hostesses are meant to style our hair to perfection, slick on this season’s show-stopping festive make-up, and slip into the elegant silk cocktail dress that our perfect husbands have surprised us with, alongside our Christmas stocking crammed with designer toiletries, none with a price tag of less than three figures.

Christmas looks rather different in our household. Even if I were to conjure up such a vision of domestic bliss, it would be lost on my husband Kevin and our ten-year-old son Ben, which is why I was pleased to accept my cousin Moira’s invitation to have Christmas dinner at their place. For once I’d be off the hook from feeling a failure for not matching the ideal trumpeted by so many women’s magazines.

We’d never been to Moira’s for Christmas dinner before, but as this year Christmas Eve coincided with her silver wedding anniversary, she and her husband Douglas had invited all the family to celebrate. What on earth possesses people to get married at Christmas, I wonder. Isn’t life complicated enough? It’s like choosing to have your birthday on New Year’s Eve. A normal person just wouldn’t do it.

 

Alarm bells started ringing as soon as we approached their front door, from which was suspended a picture-perfect wreath of real holly, heavy with clove-studded oranges and tartan-wrapped bundles of cinnamon sticks. Matching ribbons festooned the fairy-lit bay trees that stood sentry on either side of the front door.

“At least you don’t have to water plastic holly,” I said brightly, thinking of our own tatty wreath, which we’ve used for as many years as we’ve been married.

Moira shimmered to the door in a silvery silk sheath dress. Perfectly made-up and accessorised, she had not a hair out of place. As it was her silver wedding, I forgave her. Inside the hall, the banisters sparkled with elegant silver-dipped ivy. It looked as fresh as if it was growing there. Glittering above our heads were levitating silver stars, presumably suspended from hidden wires

Once Moira had taken our coats, she beckoned us into the lounge. On a snow-white tablecloth were dozens of expensive delicatessen canapés, displayed like high art on silver cake stands nestling among a forest of miniature potted Christmas trees and frolicking velveteen reindeer. I felt like we’d been asked to eat Narnia.

“Mum, why don’t we ever have stuff like this at home?” hissed Ben, seizing three cheese straws in each hand.

“Daddy and I haven’t been married 25 years yet,” I improvised, false smile plastered on my face like make-up. And there was me thinking I’d done well to buy Ben festive star-shaped Hula Hoops.

The dining room table was no less impressive. To the right of each place setting stood six frost-topped crystal glasses, which I knew from an article I’d just read was done by painting on egg white with a brush and rolling the glass in caster sugar. To frost so many glasses would require a labour force the size of Santa’s.

The centrepieces had moved up a notch from Narnia to focus on the openly religious. Silvery angels were doing some kind of synchronised flying beneath an ice sculpture shaped like a giant star. I could tell Ben was itching to break a bit off an icicle to eat, so I held his hand firmly in mine, hoping to look like an affectionate parent rather than a police officer carrying out a restraining order.

I was glad the metre-square silver gauze napkin provided concealed my less than glamorous denim skirt, though I knew I’d be wiping my hands on my skirt rather than spoil the napkin. But I admit I was looking forward to having my Christmas dinner cooked for me.

And that’s when things started to go wrong.

“I’m afraid the cream of chestnut soup is just a little scalded,” Douglas apologised as he circled the table, whisking away snow-white soup plates. The smoke billowing from the closed kitchen door suggested his explanation was an understatement. “So we’ll be moving straight on to the fish course.”

At that point a shriek came from the walk-in larder. “Bloody cat!”

Moira appeared in the doorway, fanning her slightly flushed face with a paper plate.

“I’m so sorry, everybody. Barnaby has been a naughty boy with the salmon. Let’s fast forward to the palate cleanser. Douglas, sorbet, please!”

Douglas obediently produced from the kitchen a silver salver filled with tiny tin foil tart cases. “Cranberry sorbet,” he explained when Ben picked one up to sniff it.

“What’s a palate cleanser, Mum?” Ben asked loudly. “Is it like paint stripper?”

“No, not that sort of palate, Ben,” I whispered. “It’s what you eat between courses to get rid of the taste of the last one.”

“But we haven’t tasted anything yet,” he replied at full volume.

Kevin sniggered.

“Please excuse me a moment while I go to carve the bird,” announced Douglas. “Or rather, birds. We’ve got a multi-bird roast. You know, a quail inside a pheasant inside a chicken inside a turkey inside a goose.”

“Does that count as cannibalism?” piped up Ben.

As I shushed him, Moira began to set down snow-white vegetable tureens. I wondered what magical mixtures of vegetables lay inside. She lifted the lids.

“Carrot and garlic puree with caramelised onion. Compote of sugar snap pea.”

Kevin, normally fond of vegetables, sniggered again. I tried not to gasp at the twin pools of orange and green slime. They looked like the stuff Ben plays with in the bath.

“Are you sure that’s not the paint?” Ben hissed. “For the palate cleanser?”

“Chestnut loaf!” said Moira brightly, placing a large red block in front of Ben.

“Is that a brick?” he enquired.

“Saffron potatoes.”

“They’re exactly the colour of my yellow Playdoh.”

Next Douglas bustled in bearing a vast silver platter. The concentric rings in each meaty slice made me think of the cross-section of a tree trunk. This impression was reinforced when I tried to cut into my serving with the only knife I’d yet had occasion to use.

When it came to the Christmas pudding, suffice to say that brandy wasn’t needed to set it alight. It had already clearly been in flames, accounting for the loud bang that came from the kitchen just before the microwave timer pinged. Shop-bought mince pies, hastily produced from packets in the absence of anything else that was truly edible, were the only things of any substance that we ate.

“Well, at least we’re tackling these with a clean palate,” said Kevin in a voice only slightly lower than Ben’s.

To be fair to Moira and Douglas, they did keep filling all six glasses, which is why, by the time we got home, Kevin claimed not to remember anything about the meal. I was glad I’d volunteered to drive and felt entirely virtuous raising a toast over the smoked salmon soufflé and tossed salad that I’d rustled up for tea when we got home.

“To the best Christmas dinner I’ve ever had!” I chinked my glass against Ben’s Ribena. “But maybe next year we’d better invite Moira and Douglas to ours.”

THE END

 _______________________________

If you enjoyed this story, you might like to read the other 11 in the collection. Stocking Fillers is now available to order as a paperback or ebook from all good retailers, on the high street and online. 

_______________________

Party Bag Time!

I’m pleased to offer a party bag to one reader chosen at random a week after the hop is over. It will include:

a signed paperback or ebook of any one of my books (choose from the book cover images on the home page of my website)
a packet of paper doilies fit for any party table setting

To enter the draw, just leave a comment at the foot of this post. The draw will be made on 1st January 2015. I figured that winning a prize on the first day of the new year would be a nice start to 2015 for somebody! Good luck!

_______________________

Now on with the Party!

Thanks for reading my party post – now hop on down the list to enjoy further festive entertainment! (I’ve tested all the links pre-launch, but if any don’t work for you, please let me know by leaving a comment.)

Helen Hollick: You are Cordially Invited to a  Ball  (plus a giveaway prize)
Alison Morton:  Saturnalia surprise – a winter party tale  (plus a giveaway prize)
Andrea Zuvich: No Christmas For You! The Holiday Under Cromwell
Ann Swinfen: Christmas 1586 – Burbage’s Company of Players Celebrates
Anna Belfrage: All I want for Christmas (plus a giveaway prize)
Carol Cooper: How To Be A Party Animal 
Clare Flynn:  A German American Christmas 
Derek Birks:  The Lord of Misrule – A Medieval Christmas Recipe for Trouble 
Edward James: An Accidental Virgin and An Uninvited Guest 
Fenella J. Miller: Christmas on the Home front (plus a giveaway prize)
J. L. Oakley:  Christmas Time in the Mountains 1907 (plus a giveaway prize)
Jude Knight: Christmas at Avery Hall in the Year of Our Lord 1804 
Julian Stockwin: Join the Party 
Juliet Greenwood: Christmas 1914 on the Home Front  (plus a giveawayprize) 
Lauren Johnson:  Farewell Advent, Christmas is come – Early Tudor Festive Feasts  
Lucienne Boyce: A Victory Celebration 
Nancy Bilyeau:  Christmas After the Priory (plus a giveaway prize)
Nicola Moxey: The Feast of the Epiphany, 1182 
Regina Jeffers: Celebrating a Regency Christmas (plus a giveaway prize)
Richard Abbott: The Hunt – Feasting at Ugarit
Saralee Etter: Christmas Pudding — Part of the Christmas Feast 
Stephen Oram :  Living in your dystopia: you need a festival of enhancement  (plus a giveaway prize)
Suzanne Adair: The British Legion Parties Down for Yule 1780 (plus a giveaway prize) 
Lindsay Downs: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree  (plus a giveaway prize)
Peter St John: Dummy’s Birthday

Finally, a huge thanks to Helen Hollick for organising this blog hop. If you need a good read to tide you over the dark nights of the Christmas holidays (or to read on the beach if you’re in the southern hemisphere!), I’d recommend any of hers.

With best wishes for a wonderful party season – and a happy and healthy new year.

Debbie Young

Filed under: Christmas, special occasions, winter, writing

Save the Date for an Online Party: Saturday 20th December

Come back on Saturday 20th December to find out more! (And if you’d like a reminder in your inbox, click on the “follow blog” button, if you’re not already a follower!) Big thanks to Helen Hollick for getting us all organised for this!

Filed under: blogging, Christmas, special occasions, writing Tagged: blog hop, Christmas party, Helen Hollick

What Sparks Stories?

Sharing my guest post on the author Jacci Gooding’s blog, where we’ve both talked about the inspirations for our writing

My author friend Jacci Gooding

Last week, I was delighted to receive an invitation to appear as a guest on Jacci Gooding’s author blog. She asked me to write on any subject of my choice, but when I read her recent post about what inspires her stories, I decided to respond in kind.

Fact Inspiring Fiction

Jacci’s post, running under the heading “You Couldn’t Make It Up”, demonstrates her classic authorly knack of spotting writing prompts all around her. Overheard snippets of conversation cry out for a back-story to be written, and friends’ anecdotes tempt an author to take poetic licence and develop them into a full-blown story. (Read Jacci’s post here.)

In my guest post, I share the observations that led to some of the stories in my Christmas collection, Stocking Fillers, in my flash fiction collection Quick Change, and my most topical story of the moment, “Lighting Up Time”, which is set at the winter solstice (21st December in the northern hemisphere). Read about what sparks my stories on Jacci’s blog here. 

But It Is Fiction, Isn’t It?

Many fiction authors are horrified when readers jump to the conclusion that their work is autobiographical, or when they claim to have spotted themselves as a character in a story, despite the legal disclaimers that appear in every work of fiction that any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental. My Canadian author friend Francis Guenette writes amusingly about that dilemma on the ALLi blog (of which I’m Commissioning Editor) in this post: It’s Fiction, People!

Can any fiction author ever really write a story that hasn’t been sparked by real life in some shape or form? I’m not sure – nor am I convinced that such a story would be worth reading – and what I’ve read of both Jacci’s and Francis’s work is very definitely worth reading!

For more information about my fiction, check out my fiction section.

EASY TWEET

Talking about inspiration for our stories with @JacciGooding on her blog: http://authordebbieyoung.com/2014/12/17/sparks/ ‎#amwriting #ww

OVER TO YOU

If you’re an author, what sets your imagination alight? And as a reader, does it matter to you whether fiction has its basis in fact? Please join the conversation!

Filed under: blogging, writing Tagged: fact vs fiction, Francis Guenette, Jacci Gooding, Lighting Up Time, what inspires your stories, writing prompts

When Fiction is Like Fashion

(This post was written for the December 2014 issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News)

Thinking of summer in midwinter

With the shortest day fast approaching, I’m already thinking about Spring. That’s because I’m starting to plan a collection of short stories due to be released at Easter.

As in the world of fashion, if you’re planning to write topical fiction, you have to think at least one season ahead. I therefore started writing my festive short story collection, Stocking Fillers, while soaking up the Greek sun back in August. At first, it seemed seem strange to be writing about Christmas while wearing a swimsuit. It got easier a couple of weeks later, when I spent a fortnight in Scotland. Although it was still only August, the weather was more like November. But as my daughter always likes to say, “We don’t go to Scotland for the weather”.

Now available to order in paperback from all good bookshops and online as an ebook

Available to buy as an ebook or in paperback from the start of December, Stocking Fillers consists of twelve short stories, all humorous, as various characters prepare for the big day. My favourites include a grumpy middle-aged dad penning his first Round Robin Christmas letter, a little boy wise beyond his years offering Santa time management advice, and a busy mum wondering how on earth she’ll fit in all of her chores before Christmas Eve. Not every character is loveable, and the stories aren’t all sugar-plum sweet, but I hope you’ll find them fun. If you’d like signed copies to give as gifts, just give me a shout and I’ll be happy to add a special message by hand.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas!

Filed under: Christmas, seasons, special occasions, winter Tagged: Christmas, fashion, seasons, short stories, spring, Stocking Fillers, summer, winter

Christmas Surprises

(This post first appeared as my December/January column in the Tetbury Advertiser, out now.)

Although we put so much effort into planning our festive celebrations, I often find the highlights of my Christmas are the moments that take me by surprise.

From the archives – Laura, aged about 3, enjoying her Playmobil collection. Note Father Christmas is just arriving in his very tiny sleigh.

One such occasion occurred when I was a child, growing up in an outer suburb of London. When I  was  about 11, the age my daughter is now, I was for the first time considered old enough to go to the midnight church service on Christmas Eve. We weren’t a particularly religious family, but the small, plain church in our garden suburb had special significance for us. My parents had married there, we children had been christened, my grandfather was its choirmaster, and the small, rotund, gentle-manner vicar Mr Daniels, was a family friend.

The night was grey and drizzly as we entered the church, which seemed bright, warm and welcoming after our chilly walk from home.  Though battling to stay awake, I enjoyed his service. I was especially impressed by the colourful model crib, but the most memorable moment was yet to come. When Mr Daniels threw open the heavy porch door for the congregation to leave, the churchyard before us lay covered in a perfect blanket of snow. Illuminated by the orange glow of street lamps, big flakes fell steadily as we gazed in wonder, never having guessed that the weather could change so much during the church service.

Yes, I know it didn’t really snow in Bethlehem, but that snowfall felt like a special Christmas blessing: deep and crisp and even, snow on snow. You have to admire God’s timing.

After serendipitous delights like this, I’m happy to leave much of my Christmas preparation to chance. An incurable last-minute merchant in any case, I know that nothing I could plan would ever surpass the wonder of the snowy walk home from church all those years ago.

For Your Christmas Stocking

My new collection of short stories for Christmas

My love of festive surprises influenced my latest book Stocking Fillers, a collection of twelve humorous short stories about the festive season.. Each tale follows a different character as they prepare for Christmas, from a small boy who tries to give Santa time management lessons, to an old lady celebrating what’s likely to be her last Christmas. Though not all the characters are loveable, I hope you’ll find them entertaining and memorable.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Just before writing this column, I received a lovely surprise – the first official review of the book, which describes it as follows: “A delightful celebration of all things Christmas, Stocking Fillers features 12 funny, thoughtful, surprising and heartwarming tales that will get you in the festive spirit. Debbie Young’s writing is thoroughly engaging. If you’re looking to put some of the magic back into Christmas, and rediscover the reason for the season, start by treating yourself to this lovely read.” Well, that surprise has made my Christmas already.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and may it be filled with wonder and surprises of your own.

Stocking Fillers is now available to order as an ebook online and in paperback from good bookshops everywhere. 

Filed under: Christmas, Life With Books, writing Tagged: books about Christmas, Christmas, Christmas presents, Playmobil, snow, Stocking Fillers

Another Story Inspired by Libraries

As promised in my last post, today I’m sharing the second of the two stories that I read aloud at the Indie Author Fair in Chorleywood last Sunday.

Both stories have been published in anthologies this year. The one I posted here earlier this week was included in National Flash Fiction Day’s 2014 anthology Eating My Words.

I was invited to write the second story, below, to appear in an interesting and unusual project that used flash fiction to promote positive expectations of local government services. Gosh!

I chose to celebrate the mobile library service in my story, because the village in which I live is fortunate to have a visit from one every fortnight. Mobile libraries are invaluable resources, storing an extraordinary assortment of fiction, non-fiction, CDs, DVDs and even jigsaw puzzles in their limited space, for the benefit of remote communities, free of charge. They are especially valuable to those who have no independent transport to reach their nearest public library, but they’re also welcome to those who can’t otherwise get out very much, such as parents with small children at home, or those caring for housebound relatives who do not have the freedom to leave the village often.

My preamble is in danger of being longer than my story (the required word count for submissions was 350 words), so without more ado, here we go….

Upwardly Mobile

Every other Tuesday, half way through my shift in the village shop, I’d watch the white mobile library bus trundle past on its way to park by the village school. On its return trip twenty minutes later, the lady driver would wave cheerfully to me. In our narrow lane, the giant books painted on the side of the van almost touched the shop window, making me feel the size of a Borrower, which was ironic, because I’d never borrowed any of its books.

Then at the start of October, my hours at the shop were cut. Our takings had been falling since the new superstore popped up a few miles away. After that, I was always at home on Tuesdays, alone in my cottage opposite the school. I’d watch the library van park outside my house.

As soon as its doors swung open, school children bearing books would bound up its steps. Older folk followed more slowly, cautiously gripping the handrail with their book-free hand. When they’d emerge one by one, they’d all be smiling, large print books a common bond between the very old and very young.

As the days shortened, I grew weary of daytime television. I wished I could afford more bus trips into town, or to anywhere that would make my life less dull. Then last Tuesday afternoon I finally found my courage. Once its regular visitors had dispersed, I slowly mounted the mobile library’s steps.

“Can I help you, dear?” asked the lady driver, now standing behind the counter. It seemed odd to hear her voice at last.

“I don’t know,” I faltered. “You see, I’m not much of a reader.”

When she ducked behind the counter, I thought it was to hide her scorn. But she popped up again with a library card application form and a pen.

“Ooh, everyone’s a reader, dear!”she exclaimed kindly. “You just haven’t found the right books yet. We’ve got something here for everyone. I’ll help you choose.”

But that’s all I have time to tell you now, because I want to get back to my book.

Self-satisfied selfie, snapped on the day that my paperback arrived in the post!

Change the Ending is an intriguing anthology which includes the work not only of seasoned authors but also of local government workers who had never written fiction before, but were persuaded to by the project’s creator Dawn Reeves, a powerhouse of energy and inspiration. It’s now available to buy here.

To read more of my short stories, you might like to try either of my single-author collections:

Quick Change , published in the summer to mark National Flash Fiction Day, featuring 20 flash fictions on the theme of change
Stocking Fillers, just published this month, to celebrate Christmas with 12 humorous short stories

Both are now available as ebooks on Kindle, but if you’re ereader-averse, you’ll be able to buy them in paperback very shortly!

Filed under: flash fiction, short stories, writing Tagged: Flash Fiction, local government, public libraries, reading, short stories, writing