Stories Of Hope And Wonder: For The NHS

As the country moves into another week of lockdown, the pressure on our frontline workers (across all areas) is all-encompassing so when Ian Whates (a fine friend, who not only runs the writing group I belong to - the NSFWG - but also the excellent NewCon Press) asked me if I'd like to contribute to an ebook charity anthology he'd planned, I didn't hesitate.  This was last Thursday and the anthology is here, a 695 page collection of 53 short stories from some of the best names in sci-fi, fantasy and horror writing today.

Table Of Contents

Introduction by Ian Whates

Last Contact – Stephen Baxter

Slink-Thinking – Frances Hardinge

Gossamer – Ian Whates

The Feather Dress – Lisa Tuttle

The Man Who Swallowed Himself – Chris Beckett

A Fat Man in the Bardo – Ken MacLeod

Kings of Eternity – Eric Brown

Muscadet Kiss – Michèle Roberts

Dead Space – George Mann

The Trace – Christopher Priest

Golden Wing, Silver Eye – Cat Hellisen

The Golden Nose – Neil Williamson

On Ilkley Moor – Alison Littlewood

About Helen – Tade Thompson

Iphigenia in Aulis – M.R. Carey

Just Watch Me – Lesley Glaister

The Family Football – Ian R. MacLeod

The Grave-Digger’s Tale – Simon Clark

The All-Nighter – Mark Morris

Her Seal Skin Coat – Lauren Beukes

A Conclusion – Paul Cornell

Liberty Bird – Jaine Fenn

The Ki-Anna – Gwyneth Jones

Scienceville – Gary Gibson

The Sphere – Juliet E. McKenna

An Eligible Boy – Ian McDonald

The Quick Child – Jane Rogers

Trademark Bugs: A Legal History – Adam Roberts

Working on the Ward – Tim Pears

During the Dance – Mark Lawrence

Out of the Woods – Ramsey Campbell

Trick of the Light – Tim Lebbon

Roman Games – Anne Nicholls

44: Digits – Robert Shearman

The Fox Maiden – Priya Sharma

Roads of Silver, Paths of Gold – Emmi Itäranta

All Deaths Well Intention’d – RJ Barker

Epilogue: England, Summer 1558 – Jon Courtenay Grimwood

The Christmas Repentance of the Mole Butcher of Tetbury – Aliya Whiteley

Gulliver’s Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The World, Part V: A Voyage To The Island Of The Wolves – Jonathan Palmer

Barking Mad – Ian Watson

Lady with a Rose – Reggie Oliver

Missing – Blake Morrison

What We Sometimes Do, Without Thinking – Mark West

Events – Stan Nicholls

Wars of Worldcraft – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Fixer, Worker, Singer – Natalia Theodoridou

Witness – Kim Lakin-Smith

Unravel – Ren Warom

Like Clockwork – Tim Major

A Million Reasons Why – Nick Wood

The Road to the Sea – Lavie Tidhar

Ten Love Songs to Change the World – Peter F. Hamilton

As the anthology is digital and the writers have contributed their stories freely, every penny NewCon Press receives will go straight to the NHS.

All politics aside, our wonderful NHS is clearly straining at the seams at the moment.  I have three dear friends working at the frontline (my best friend of 44 years - Nick Duncan - is a fireman who's also now volunteering with the NHS) and the Roberts, David & Julia, who are nurses.  David, who helps me plot the thriller novels as we go for 8 or 9 mile walks weekly with his dog Pippa, is currently recovering from Covid-related symptoms (though hasn't been tested) and it's been frightening to see how hard it's hit him, my friend who's fit and healthy and got me into Park Running.

My personal faces of the pandemic (I daren't include a pic of Julia, she'd kill me):
(left) with Nick in Bristol, August 2019 - (right) Irchester Park Run January 2020 with David (photo by John Woods)

We're in unprecendented times and people are doing what they can - rainbows and toys in windows, making PPE, helping friends and neighbours - and most of it restores your faith in the wonder of human nature, giving us all a chance to help.

On the subject of that, I'll take a moment to point you towards the Just Giving campaign for Captain Tom Moore, the 99 year old war veteran who aimed to raise £1,000 by walking 100 laps of his garden and achieved that on Thursday 16th April.  As I write this, he's managed to raise over £26m for the NHS.

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My contribution, What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking, was written in 2010 and came about directly because of Ian.  I'd just joined the writing group and he told me NewCon was planning to put together an anthology so, if I wanted to contribute, I needed to get a story to him within a week.  And I managed it.

Even better, the story was good enough he accepted it which led me to attending the launch party where Alan Moore (a rather famous writer and Northampton resident), who'd written the introduction, was in attendance.  I remember thanking him for his kind words and he shook my hand heartily and said "keep it local, boy!".

The story features fictionalised versions of me and Nick and an actual location, the bridge at the end of the Headlands in Kettering, from where Dude & I did used to go train chasing (I wrote about it here).  I like the story a lot and I'm proud to be included.

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The book, all 695 pages of it, is listed at the NewCon site here



Captain Tom Moore's Walk For The NHS