Hi there!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
Today, we're joining Rachel's Random Resources for a spot along their current tour featuring the work of Jo Johnson. It's a curiously titled book that tackles a variety of heavy topics in what sounds like a relatable, if not entertaining at times, way. So, let's get things started as we welcome today's blog tour guest and title in the spotlight...
Surviving Me
by
Jo Johnson
About the book...
Deceit has a certain allure when your life doesn’t match up to the ideal of what it means to be a modern man.
Tom's lost his job and now he's been labelled 'spermless'. He doesn't exactly feel like a modern man, although his double life helps. Yet when his secret identity threatens to unravel, he starts to lose the plot and comes perilously close to the edge.
All the while Adam has his own duplicity, albeit for very different reasons, reasons which will blow the family's future out of the water.
If they can't be honest with themselves, and everyone else, then things are going to get a whole lot more complicated.
This book tackles hard issues such as male depression, dysfunctional families and degenerative diseases in an honest, life-affirming and often humorous way. It focuses particularly on the challenges of being male in today’s world and explores how our silence on these big issues can help push men to the brink.
Tom's lost his job and now he's been labelled 'spermless'. He doesn't exactly feel like a modern man, although his double life helps. Yet when his secret identity threatens to unravel, he starts to lose the plot and comes perilously close to the edge.
All the while Adam has his own duplicity, albeit for very different reasons, reasons which will blow the family's future out of the water.
If they can't be honest with themselves, and everyone else, then things are going to get a whole lot more complicated.
This book tackles hard issues such as male depression, dysfunctional families and degenerative diseases in an honest, life-affirming and often humorous way. It focuses particularly on the challenges of being male in today’s world and explores how our silence on these big issues can help push men to the brink.
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~~~ EXCERPT ~~~
These are the
opening paragraphs of Surviving Me, a debut novel about two regular
men whose minds become unfit for purpose. This is written from the
perspective of Tom, the main character. He has been bullied out of
his job by a junior colleague and is too scared to tell his wife, she
is desperate to start expensive fertility treatment. This chapter
follows him to a café miles from home.
At this point in
time, I can accurately be described as unemployed, impotent, and a
liar.
It still puzzles
me that, just a few weeks after my first wedding anniversary, I am
sitting alone in a café for misfits, miles from my home. I found
this shambolic haven by chance. What does a man with a disintegrating
life do by himself for hours at a time? If you hang about too much in
the same street then other people get suspicious, and if you drive
around aimlessly for too long then your own internal darkness is
unbearable.
One day, just
into November, I’d been driving for an hour, passing increasingly
unfamiliar places, and felt confident I must be in a different
county. I took the first turning off the main road, and after a few
miles found an old-fashioned, largish vil- lage with instant appeal –
quiet; no one was likely to know me here. The sign said ‘Welcome to
Middle Priory’, and under- neath another sentence asked me to
‘Please drive carefully through our village’. I parked in a small
car park – one of the few remaining where you could park for free.
I spotted a woman in a heavy checked coat getting out of her car. Her
hair was pinned into a neat doughnut on the back of her head; she
looked old enough to be a local. I ran to catch her up as she was
walking out of the car park. She spun around so fast, I expected to
feel a thud from the umbrella she held in her fist.
‘I’m so
sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you. I’m desperate for a decent
cup of coffee. I wondered if you knew the area.’ Her mouth opened
into a warm smile that reached her eyes and removed ten years from
her face.
She pointed down
the hill to the opposite side of the road. ‘See that blue door?
That’s the Tea Cosy Café; it’s usually quite busy but our Dawn
will make sure you are well looked after. I recommend the jacket
potatoes.’
The high street
in Middle Priory was quiet. I walked past a gift shop, a butcher
boasting organic meat and a fruit and veg shop. The fruit and veg
shop had those old-fashioned scales with a silver bowl on the top,
and was the sort of place where they choose your produce for you. I
saw the shop assistant do that twirly thing to seal the top of a
brown bag, and it brought back happy memories of shopping with my
gran. I popped into the secondhand bookshop just to get a sniff of
the smell of dusty books and the owner reminded me of the shopkeeper
in the children’s TV series Mr Benn. It was the one programme my
father would tolerate and occasionally sit next to me and watch.
The café was
warm and still smelled of breakfast. It was empty apart from an
elderly couple sitting at a large rectangular table by the window.
They looked like they were having an argument, but when the door
closed behind me the sound of the half-hearted bell prompted them to
stare.
I wondered if the
décor was fruit of a brainstorm among drunken friends – vintage?
bistro? fast food? cosy? retro? The owner obviously felt worried
about offending any of the con- tributors. The walls were crammed
with ‘unique’ art. The prices were more than I paid for my first
car but the pictures reminded me of toddlers’ self-portraits. The
dark-haired woman behind the counter caught my eye and raised her
unkempt eyebrows. I noticed a smudge of something brown above her
lip.
Jo Johnson is a
clinical psychologist specialising in neurological disorders and mind
health. SURVIVING ME is her debut novel.
Follow this link
to read the reviews on Surviving Me or to purchase the book on
Amazon: amazon.co.uk/Surviving-Me-Jo-Johnson/dp/1789650615
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About author Jo Johnson...
I’m very excited that my debut novel ‘Surviving Me’ is due to be published on the 14 November. The novel is about male minds and what pushes a regular man to the edge. The novel combines all the themes I can write about with authenticity.
I qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1992 and initially worked with people with learning disabilities before moving into the field of neurology in 1996. I worked in the NHS until 2008 when i left to write and explore new projects.
I now work as an independent clinical psychologist in West Sussex.
Jo speaks and writes for several national neurology charities including Headway and the MS Trust. Client and family related publications include, “Talking to your kids about MS”, “My mum makes the best cakes” and “Shrinking the Smirch”.
In the last few years Jo has been offering psychological intervention using the acceptance and commitment therapeutic model (ACT) which is the most up to date version of CBT. She is now using THE ACT model in a range of organisations such as the police to help employees protect their minds in order to avoid symptoms of stress and work related burnout.
I qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1992 and initially worked with people with learning disabilities before moving into the field of neurology in 1996. I worked in the NHS until 2008 when i left to write and explore new projects.
I now work as an independent clinical psychologist in West Sussex.
Jo speaks and writes for several national neurology charities including Headway and the MS Trust. Client and family related publications include, “Talking to your kids about MS”, “My mum makes the best cakes” and “Shrinking the Smirch”.
In the last few years Jo has been offering psychological intervention using the acceptance and commitment therapeutic model (ACT) which is the most up to date version of CBT. She is now using THE ACT model in a range of organisations such as the police to help employees protect their minds in order to avoid symptoms of stress and work related burnout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHANCE TO WIN...
...two
signed copies of Surviving Me
& five Surviving Me fridge magnets!
(Open INT)
1st Prize - 2 winners each
winning a signed copy of Surviving Me
5 Runners Up - each winning a Surviving
Me Fridge Magnet
*Terms
and Conditions –Worldwide
entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box
below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter
from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email.
If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random
Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to
all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part
of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not
be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’
information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only
for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random
Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for
despatch or delivery of the prize.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Special thanks to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for the chance to bring this tour to you. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, this promotion, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above. Be sure to check out the rest of tour for more bookish fun!
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
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