Andy Cash was the winner of the Hysteria 2020 poetry competition with his poem The Poets Meeting published in the Hysteria 7 anthology. Andy writes about love, hope, human insecurities, death, our needs, mental illness and weaknesses, strengths, deep desires to be part of a fellow brethren and the lusts of life in an everyday world. He is anti-post truth and a fighter for freedom of the mind. Each poem he writes is about the truth, real people and real events.
Linda Parkinson-Hardman
The space between thoughts
The role of ‘thought’ in our experience of life and the world around us has been a defining understanding over the last few years for me. But it’s never been in such sharp relief as in the last 17 months. I am bemused by the observation of myself seesawing between different worries, concerns and misunderstandings as I try (along with the rest of humanity) to make sense of how we’ve got to where we are.
Exercising your happiness muscle
I believe happiness is always ours. What I mean by that is that it’s always there, lurking in the background, but sometimes for some of us, it’s been so covered up with sadness and the circumstances of life we’ve forgotten it exists for us, always.
In conversation with Jane O’Connor, winner of the Hysteria 2020 short story competition
Jane O’Connor was the winner of the Hysteria 2020 short story competition with her story The Flower Box published in the Hysteria 7 anthology. Jane is a writer of short stories and novels, as well as a researcher and reader in Childhood Studies at Birmingham City University. Her latest novel,’The Trial of Gwen Foley‘ is out now, July 2021 and published by @Bloodhoundbook
I identify as ‘human’
If I were a rabbit I would wear a rabbit fur. I’d hunker down on all fours. I’d nibble grass and would hide in my burrow at the first sign of danger.
In conversation with Gillian Scholey and Michelle Christophorou
Michelle and Gillian are two of the reader team for this year’s Hysteria Writing Competition. In this episode we discuss the finer merits of entering writing competitions, what they are looking for and their own work as award winning writers themselves.
Programming your IPS – inner positioning system
We all have a perfect internal compass, one that consistently and accurately guides us in the right direction as we navigate this journey called ‘Life’. I like to think of mine as my IPS (I work in IT so acronyms are a by-product of the way I think :-)), also known as my Inner Positioning System.
The one perfect notebook to rule them all
I love a good notebook and I’ve been looking for the perfect notebook for many years. Even though I work in IT and have done for several decades, there is something about the feel of paper and pen. The act of writing words out is soothing and has helped me hugely over many years. But it has to be the right notebook and the right pen.
In conversation with Ben Mears
Born in Cornwall, Ben Mears first began writing high fantasy as a hobbyist, later working on a series of early-medieval whodunits before self-publishing the young adult Tyler May series. A Sock Full of Bones is the first of his novels to be traditionally published.
I have a dream
I have a dream.
No this is not the start of Martin Luther King’s famous speech.
Instead, it’s my take on a similar principle. I have a dream, I’ve had it for many years, to give everyone the opportunity to change their life if they want to. The method is simple and effective and it works every time, but first, you have to see me as I really am.