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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Psychologists Write: Nick Wood

4/4/2017

 

I recently had an article on
The representation of clinical psychologists in contemporary literary fiction published in Clinical Psychology Forum. Needless to say, was delighted when Nick Wood got in touch to tell me about his own fictional psychologist. Here’s what he has to say about combining clinical psychology and fiction.
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What kind of psychologist are you?
 
I am a chartered clinical psychologist who trained in South Africa during the State of Emergency under apartheid. I worked in various settings there, both community and old style psychiatric state hospitals - and mainly in designated ‘black’ areas, until after the demise of apartheid. I came across to the UK (London) to do a PhD in Child Psychology and thereafter have worked as a consultant CP in CAMHS and Child Development centres both here and - for several years - in Aotearoa New Zealand. I have also been involved in training CP’s at both the University of Hertfordshire and East London.
 
My main modality is CBT, Systemic and Narrative approaches and I am particularly interested in the intersection between the personal and the political.

What kind of book have you published?
 
An alternative history set in a current South Africa but where Mandela ends up dying on Robben Island and apartheid has never ended. A dystopia really, but I had no idea when writing it, that we would all soon be living in an alternative world, with BREXIT and Trump taking centre stage.

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In a modern day South Africa where Apartheid still holds sway, Sibusiso Mchunu, a young umZulu man, finds himself the unwitting focus of momentous events when he falls foul of the system and comes into possession of a secret that may just offer hope to his entire people. Pursued by the ANC on one side and Special Branch agents on the other, Sibusiso has little choice but to run. 

Azanian Bridges is a truly ground-breaking book from South African-born author Nick Wood. This, his debut novel, is a socially acute fast-paced thriller that propels the reader into a world of intrigue and threat, leading to possibilities that examine the conscience of a nation. 

The book has done pretty well so far amongst the Science Fiction community in Britain and has featured in The Guardian’s Best Science Fiction of 2016. AZANIAN BRIDGES has also been shortlisted for a British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, the winner due to be announced at EasterCon on April 15th 2017.
 
What was the impact of being a professional psychologist on your fiction?
 
I’ve been publishing for a while now in parallel with my career – finding time to write wherever I can, with Nick Wood being a very thin nom de guerre for Dr. Nicholas Wood!

This is my first use of a clinical psychologist as one of the main characters and the book was precipitated by finding an old case study I’d written while training, in which I’d been asked to do CBT on a young black man with PTSD, but the more I worked with him, the more I realised the entire societal structure needed changing.
 
So one of the book’s central themes is, can ‘normality’ exist within an abnormal society? And if not, what else can we do as psychologists to change things for the better? Having qualified thirty years ago now and having worked in many different places and contexts, I felt comfortable writing this conflicted character.
 
AZANIAN BRIDGES is available in various formats through Amazon, as well as
directly from the publisher NewCon Press. One big thrill I had was getting an endorsement from Ursula K. Le Guin, who has been a favourite SFF author of mine since I was a boy!
 
Fingers crossed for the award, Nick! You can find out more about Nick Wood on his website:

http://nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz/

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
Charli Mills
5/4/2017 06:54:27 pm

What a fascinating author and book! I'm so glad you met and interviewed Nick Wood.

Annecdotist
8/4/2017 03:14:32 pm

Thanks, Charli, I was so pleased Nick got in touch. Hope to be able to tell you more about the book at some point.

Norah Colvin link
7/4/2017 01:09:25 am

Hi Anne,
Congratulations on the publication of your article. How nice to nice that at least one person read it and thought enough of it to contact you and share his own fictional psychologist. I wonder if he would match your criteria.

Annecdotist
8/4/2017 03:13:19 pm

Ha, Norah, I know that he wasn’t the only one who read it, even if he was the only one who’s contacted me about his own fictional psychologist.
It might be a bit sci-fi for my taste, but I like the concept of alternative histories and of course the politics of South Africa are important and interesting to know about. I’m hoping to read this novel before too long.


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    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
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    author of three fiction books.

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