Numbers

A blatant ask for help

First off, thank you all for showing up with such incredible kindness, generosity and love since I published “Shattered”. I was conscious of the delicate line between asking for witness and flinging a dead cat on the table, and I hovered over the need to speak for sometime before pressing publish. The threat of indulgence is a constant in my British mind, as are the dysfunctions of story as identity and pretending there’s no hole in my bucket; I recognise the latter particularly, that however much public attention I get, it’s not enough, and to deny this while holding it out for more is to deceive those giving. So I’ve been plugging that hole with every day love, and my bucket has filled up with gratitude, and I’ve you all to thank for that. Thank you. It’s meant the world to me and I’m happy to say I feel a whole lot better.

I’m working up a post about sex and love addiction, all that has come into focus in the last few weeks, but first I need to do something which doesn’t come naturally, makes me feel slightly sick, but is a necessary part of publishing. I need you all to help me with numbers.

I’m holding my nose here, so please bear with.

Here it is:

Fallout is coming out next year, and I need to get my Subscriber numbers up to 10,000 so that the Substack Gods, and those affiliated, promote it. It’s completely free to subscribe, and you can think of it as activism (that’s how I’m thinking of it). Fallout isn’t just a novel about a teenage girl running away to join a peace movement, it’s the story of Greenham Common, an iconic protest written out of history.

photo credit: Sue Say (pictured)

My aim has always been to put the story of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp on the educational map where it belongs. It’s up there with the Suffragettes, and Fallout is the first work of fiction to be set there. The novel highlights the point of political activism, why we do it and must keep doing it, the impact of non-violent direct action, and most especially the power of being annoying. The persistently disobedient women of Greenham Common changed the world, and we can never stop learning from them.

From the moment I began Fallout, the urge to raise Greenham to the visibility it deserves became the driving force behind its creation. It doesn’t matter who wrote it, anyone could have done it, what matters is that the persistent energy of Greenham Common is heard by another generation. So, please tell your friends, recommend, restack and sing, help me get The Literary Obsessive above the 10,000 subscriber watermark so that the women of Greenham can be remembered, celebrated and their actions go on to inspire another generation. Once Fallout is up and dancing, I don’t mind if you all quietly slope off. It will have been a ride.

Oh, and pre orders are a massive help, too. Here are the links:

Okay. Brrrr. *shakes off the discomfort of asking for numbers. I’ll be posting a proper Obsessive Diary post on Friday. Meanwhile, join me today for LIVE with Heather Bartos for all things sex and menopause….

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