Shropshire student sees her holiday photograph chosen for new book cover

A Whitchurch teenager, currently training to be a teacher, is over the moon after one of her holiday photographs was chosen to be the cover of a new blockbuster paperback.

Chlöe Edwards, 19, who is studying for a BA in Education at the University of Chester’s Riverside campus has developed a hobby in photography. And her candid pictures caught the eyes of Wolverhampton based editor and publisher Nic Outterside.

Now her photo of an old rural red telephone box, taken while she was on holiday in Devon, forms the stunning cover for Nic’s latest book Contacts.

After 28 years in newspaper and magazine journalism, Nic, formerly of Whitchurch himself, took early retirement in 2013. During those years he scooped more than a dozen major press awards and had an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons praising his work.

In 2015, Nic set up his own publishing house – Time is an Ocean – and his new book Contacts – Collusion, Cover-up, Conspiracy and Corruption is his 12^th paperback publication. Two earlier books – Death in Grimsby and Bones both became Amazon best-sellers.

Contacts pulls together 18 of Nic’s newspaper investigations in series of eye-opening stories from radiation contamination to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Nic said: “The idea for this book came to me last year while sorting through old newspaper cuttings and I suddenly realised just how many investigations I had broken over the years.

“The book is a culmination of 30 years research, 30 consecutive days writing and almost six months of editing, revising and proofing. It is titled Contacts because every good journalist relies on his or her contacts to break front page stories.

“But I needed a strong picture for the cover… then I discovered Chlöe’s work on Instagram and saw the red phone box photo and immediately thought Wow… that’s the picture.”

Chlöe is a former school friend of Nic’s son Nathan while both were students at Sir John Talbot’s School in Whitchurch, which makes the book tie unique.

Chlöe said: “This whole experience has been amazing from start to finish. I couldn’t believe that a quick edited snap could go so far. It has been a real confidence boost and has shown me what an amazing tool social media is too.”

One of Chlöe’s other photographs has already been selected for the cover of another of Nic’s books Western Skies, scheduled for publication next spring.

Contacts is available as a large format (6”x9”) paperback priced at £10.99 (Free Delivery) from Amazon.

A Kindle e-book edition will be published later this summer.

Award winning writer’s tenth release now available in Kindle e-book edition

SEVEN years after suffering a career ending nervous breakdown, an award-winning journalist-turned-author has now published his tenth paperback as a Kindle e-book.

The book Hot Metal – Poems from the Print Room draws its genesis and inspiration from his years in the newspaper and magazine industry.

Multi award-winning writer Nic Outterside quit his 28 year career in journalism following the breakdown in June 2013.

He began the slow road to recovery under the watchful eyes of his doctor and the support of his family. Part of the suggested therapy was for him to begin writing and talking about his life experiences.

His first paperback book The Hill – Songs and Poems of Darkness and Light, published in November 2014, was met with international acclaim and the first 1,000 print edition has almost sold out.

In 2018, he published its sequel Another Hill – Songs and Poems of Love and Theft.

In between time he also found time to write and publish a slim volume of poems in homage to the songs of his favourite album Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan.

Then at the helm of his own publishing house Time is an Ocean, Nic started editing other people’s books, including a magnum opus Asian Voices and a widely acclaimed Luminance – Words for a World Gone Wrong.

He also wrote and published two Amazon best sellers: Death in Grimsby and Bones.

Now, while completing a huge book of investigative journalism tales (to be published later this spring), Nic has returned to poetry with his new book: Hot Metal – Poems from the Print Room.

He explains its genesis: “In 1993, during my early years in newspaper journalism we would take time out every Thursday afternoon after that week’s paper hit the presses.

“I was chief reporter of an editorial team responsible for putting together the news, sport and features for one of Scotland’s most highly regarded county newspapers: The Galloway Gazette.

“This was our two hour sojourn before we began planning the following week’s edition. It was a time to escape from “Cow Halts Traffic on A75”, “Young Mum Guilty of Shoplifting at Woolworths” and similar stories to find solace and creativity in my self-centred pastime of poetry.

“So I would sit, with a mug of coffee in my hand and scribble some ideas, a few lines, and if I was particularly creative maybe a whole poem. The poems would never be read by anyone else… it was my secret hobby.

“Then by the end of last year, I suddenly realised I had more than enough poems to fill yet another book!

“They reflect the real me that has emerged seven years on from that breakdown and 27 years since those first doodles on a Thursday afternoon at the Galloway Gazette.

“The book is a litany of love, loss and angst fermented with the ideas that swam around my head all those years ago.”

Hot Metal – Poems from the Print Room was released as a large format paperback from Amazon priced £7.99 ($10.42) on 20 January.

www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Metal-Poems-Print-Room/dp/166168064X/

www.amazon.com/Hot-Metal-Poems-Print-Room/dp/166168064X/

Now nine days later it is also available as a Kindle e-book priced just £2.99 ($3.90) (279IR)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Metal-Poems-Print-Room-ebook/dp/B0848R591F/

https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Metal-Poems-Print-Room-ebook/dp/B0848R591F/

https://www.amazon.in/Hot-Metal-Poems-Print-Room-ebook/dp/B0848R591F/

Notes:

1. Nic Outterside is an award-winning editor, journalist and author. Among more than a dozen awards to his name are North of England Daily Journalist of the Year, Scottish Weekly Journalist of the Year, Scottish Daily Journalist of the Year and a special national award for investigative journalism. He was twice editor of Weekly Newspaper of the Year. In 2016 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in written journalism.
2. During his career, Nic was editor of The Argyllshire Advertiser, The Buchan Observer, The Galloway Gazette and the Denbighshire Free Press.

Writing by design for all your research, writing, design, publicity and publishing needs

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All My Tomorrows

REGULAR readers of my blog may have noticed that I have been an absentee blogger for the past few weeks.
And more avid readers may realise that exactly one year ago, after a full 28 years, I bowed out of a successful career in newspaper and magazine journalism.
For much of the past 12 months I have been flexing my muscles as a freelance writer, blogger and author. I have found escape, refuge, solace and excitement in my WordPress blog, my poetry and my most recent teen novel: Poison (The Adventures of Nathan Sunnybank and Joe Greenfield). The period has also been therapeutic and cathartic as I recovered from the breakdown of last June and dealt with some crippling life demons. I have been supported by my gorgeous wife Gill, my youngest son Nathan, my mum and some very dear and life-long friends – you know who you are!
So now I have reached the new tomorrow.
Today I am launching my new company writeahead, from its base here in Shropshire. For my US and Australian friends, Shropshire is a long county bordering Wales in what is known as the English West Midlands.
My company writeahead is a completely new way forward in marketing and publishing for small and medium sized businesses and for individual clients. Drawing on my 28 years’ experience in newspaper and magazine journalism, I provide a one-stop tailor-made service to research, write, design, print and publish:
* Business cards
*Flyers
*Leaflets
*Brochures
*Menus
*Publicity material
*Press releases
*Annual Reports
*Strategies
*Programmes
*Magazines
*and much more…
I also offer a unique service to interview, research, write and publish memorial and celebratory publications for individual clients. Whether it is a one-off eulogy in the local press for a departed loved one, a fuller memorial for a funeral service, a This is Your Life type magazine for a 40th, 65th or 80th birthday or a full bound biography, I will meet your needs.
If you are a single person enterprise, a busy retail premises, a thriving community business or a large public or private sector organisation, writeahead will exceed your expectations.
Please check out my website now at: http://www.writeahead.co.uk
If I can help you or your business in any way please feel welcome to email me (nicoutterside@writeahead.co.uk) or message through WordPress for a chat.
This is tomorrow!

I’m down on my luck and I’m black and blue

OVER the past six months I have written a series of introspective pieces about my own life trials and tribulations. It was been necessarily therapeutic and cathartic but at other times just navel gazing!
Yes, I have become a bit wrapped up in myself.
Then last week I received a surprise email from an old friend and colleague which snapped me out of self-pity and allowed me to focus on someone else.
It was the shock I needed.
I have known Mark for about eight years. We worked alongside each other and I respected him as a bright and intuitive journalist and a razor sharp writer. But more than that, he became a good friend and personal confidante.
He moved away in 2009 to work for another newspaper group in the south of England and our contact sadly became sporadic.
He had almost dropped off my radar until last summer.
Following my break-down and decision to quit newspaper journalism, Mark was one of the first people to offer to write me a personal reference.
His testimonial was amazing. His words made me believe in myself once again, when my life was at its lowest: “Nic Outterside is cut from a different class when it comes to editors. Meeting and working for Nic gave me a strength and inner-belief that few could ever manage. I will never forget his presence in the newsroom, his advice or guidance, all of which are worth more than gold.”
I was humbled, gobsmacked and thanked him profusely.
He told me he was no longer enjoying newspaper journalism and was looking at other options. We promised to keep in better touch with each other.
But once again he quickly seemed lost from my radar.
And I have only just found out why!
I will let Mark’s own words tell what happened; the trauma he has endured and thankfully survived:
“The last eight months have been a bit of a blur. Things had been going downhill for a while with work, in that they were flogging me to death and I just took more and more on. It was 12 hour days, no breaks, abuse, all sorts. People around me were having breakdowns, ill health, just plain walking out, and I did what I had always done and simply absorbed as much as possible.
Given that I could do the job, more got piled on me, and one Saturday September morning at the local magistrates’ court, picking up the first appearance of an alleged rapist, I suddenly blacked out, collapsed down a flight of stairs, shattered my collarbone, lacerated my face and was knocked clean out. Initially the doctors thought I had brain damage due to an episode from the force of the fall.
I spent a week in hospital having all sorts of tests, scans etc. Then I had surgery on my shoulder and four pins and plate inserted. I wanted to go home so they eventually relented and let me out about a week later, went back to my folks, I’ve never been in so much pain in all my life. My shoulder, back, and god knows what else that was battered as a result of going down something like 20 metal steps was excruciating, every single day.
Nightmares about falling were waking me up, then waking up and crying out in pain because I was rooted to the bed. It was horrid. Had to go back to the hospital for months and months of tests, CT scans, sleep deprivation analysis, physio, trauma, polytrauma, speech and language therapy – I was unable to talk properly, and have had severe memory problems.
The day itself was wiped clean from my head, I can remember very little, even from before. Except for the fact I hadn’t slept the night before, which was pretty much the pattern of the prior six months, no sleep, little food. Not being able to remember life events, words, my vocabulary was shocking, and I was shaking as I was walking. It was horrible, and must have been quite scary for the people around me – I recall very little, and the process of recovery has been akin to waking from a bad dream.
Meanwhile I was applying for jobs. But nothing really happened. The doctors obviously didn’t want me anywhere near work given I was going to hospital still two/three times a week.
Then I launched myself into a period of rehab, started doing whatever I could at home, weights, running etc. It was painful at first, but really did help me mentally start to recover. One by one the hospital classes stopped, and now it’s just a case of going back every so often for checkups.
I was at the end of what I could take with newspapers, the old paper is still driving people into the ground, with two or three people leaving every month, shocking stuff.
I wasn’t sure what the future held, but have moved into an area where I can still investigate stories, still dig into things, and it’s interesting. I went for several interviews – including a press officer job at the Home Office – while still in the sling, with my face still a mess of bruises and swelling, that’s how desperate I was to get out.
Then this job came up, I had to go for three interviews, but they seemed to not really care about the obvious injuries, just that I seemed the right man for the job, and they had plans for me.
So now I live and work in London for an amazing online publication. I find it very interesting, the pace is slow, but I am working on some very big stories, with a lot of time to properly research, there’s travel, and I seem to have landed on my feet. Whereas I was being screamed at for six or seven leads a day, and then told they were all shit, I now have time for a break, work on one investigative piece a day, and leave work behind at the end of each day.
I have gone from one of the worst lows of my life, I didn’t think I would be able to walk properly, talk properly, I had no idea what happened to me to be honest, it was terrifying – to now being in a place where things have completely turned around.
Never thought it could happen – and each day is a blessing. I am sure people look at me like I’m daft, scars over my eyes and can’t fully extend my arm, but I couldn’t be happier. So when you are in the bottom of a very bad funk, in time it will pass.
I never had a news editor that could match your brain for a story, or someone who could make a front page sparkle. Considering I ended up working for three decent regionals I never forgot the man whose hand guided me early on and who looked beyond face value to see there was actually a reporter in there -so believe me, your story isn’t done, and I hope that things start to turn around for you soon.”
Mark, I want to embrace you and tell you that you will always be a special friend. Your story is uplifting in its own right. Your courage and friendship has forced me to look beyond.
Thank you.