Big Issue Picture

Photograph by Julie Collins

The content of the article is also available here:

http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2010/09/big-issue-article-sep-6th-by-guest.html

And the panel of esteemed Koestler judges here:

http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk/exhibitionnew.html

Now that's out the way, The Blob can focus on uploading short romantic love stories of an uplifting feel-good nature! To be honest, rehashing all that dreary stuff was just like writing a character's history. The past is just that, if you let it be; somebody else's problems. It is almost like it is not attached to you any more, if you are determinedly preoccupied with the future.

I have a theory of my own, called 'Wipe the Hard Drive Theory', which means that one day you can wake up and totally change the way you are. It takes 4 weeks. I call this the '28 Day Principle'. I've done it 4 times! I changed, changed back again, changed, and changed back again....

* * *

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

Lesley P. Hartley

"The one charm of the past is that it is the past."

Oscar Wilde

"We need not destroy the past. It is gone."

John Cage

"I was so in the present moment the past was no longer part of me."

Terri Guillemets

2nd Printed Publication

HOMELESS WEEK

Today is the day I, host blogger Andrew Donegan, feature in The Big Issue, thanks to editor Kevin Gopal, who agreed to print an article about some of the more sober highlights of my life to date, with a focus on my writing. I know having one or more of my books published and available to rent in the local library won’t solve all my problems, but aims and goals aren’t always financially-driven, and don’t even always make sense. They are personal, like today’s article.

Soon after my submission was accepted, I consulted several people who had been there and bought the T-shirt when it comes to stressing about homelessness, to help compile some guidance for anyone finding themselves on the streets and shed some light on how daunting it can be (this will be posted tomorrow). Fortunately, most people don’t experience this, but spare a thought for those vulnerable souls with nowhere to sleep tonight.

I am reminded of something a foreigner once said on TV while visiting Manchester for the first time after living in a poor African village all her life. She said she couldn’t understand how such a wealthy country could have so many of its citizens sleeping rough on the streets. It was not the tower blocks, fine architecture, or department stores that struck a chord with her, but the many tramps and beggars she encountered on the pavement.

(Of course, tramps and beggars are stereotypes, but we won’t get into that just now. I am contributing to a website about such exact matters as that called BACK ON TRACK, specifically for homeless, which will hopefully be up and running soon.)

I am also reminded of a fellow in my home town of Widnes from way back when. He was thee local ‘tramp’ of all local ‘tramps’. He would sit on a town bench outside the old Kwik Save swigging cider from a green bottle. He was an old, loud, animated drunk who was always dirty and dusty. He sported a huge red boil on his forehead the size of a golf ball and one day resorted to wearing the BELT FROM HIS TROUSERS tight around it in order to reduce the swelling. We nicknamed him BILLY BELTHEAD and simply couldn’t believe how ridiculously funny he looked, but no one was laughing when he died.

That was my first impression of what a homeless man looked like. Plenty of the public still think that way.

(Another note on today’s article: It isn’t ideal reading for my friends and family and others who know me, because the cat is out the bag now, but, touch wood, a despairing teenager might read it somewhere and nod his or head at some point with understanding.)

A.D

Magazine Publication

ANDREW DONEGAN was paid for publication in NOT SHUT UP magazine recently with his 2000-word short story PROTECT THE PRINCESS. It is his first publication in print and he hopes every one of a possible 7500 people will read it, although if only a single person reads it and likes it then that will do him. His overriding emotion is relief that one of his best efforts has gained some exposure. It is a personal favourite for him and the added pictures were a pleasant bonus. He says "It is very nice seeing someone's interpretation of your work. It gave me an idea of how nice it must be to be a best-selling novelist who can sit back and watch movies adapted from their books."

For anybody remotely interested, the idea was a direct result of watching the climactic scene at the end of the movie BEOWULF. He doesn't usually watch 'animation-type' movies, but the action finale in this one touched him so much he had to translate his interpretation of it into words. From screen-to-page instead of vice-versa. He says again:

"I was heart-struck, and I knew I wasn't ever doing better than that. So I imitated the premise. And from that starting point, developing those emotions that had vibrated so potently within, from there could do no wrong."

Not Shut Up published by Hugh Stoddart (Thank you!)

Black& white Illustrations by Anita (Thank you!)

Top official Beowulf comic illustration coloured-in by Andrew Donegan