Category: Author

Inside Fatherhood drafts: Stay-at-home-dad Dave Hollins

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Dave looks well. Lean and fit, there’s no outward sign of the accident that changed his life.

But, after talking with him for a few hours, I come to realise how struggling with epilepsy has impacted on family life.

Dave [pictured above] found a new role as a pioneering stay-at-home dad. But, with his three boys now growing up and an empty nest looming, what does the future hold for the dedicated dad?

Dave was my third interviewee for Inside Fatherhood, my forthcoming book to be published by BRF in 2018.

Here’s a taste of his experience of fatherhood:

“I don’t see why a bloke can’t look after the kids — if you’ve got the time. There’s nothing a woman can do that a man can’t,” says Dave of his early days in the role.

But he does rue the way the image of the Fairy Liquid mother is still engrained in our collective consciousness as a society, an image further reinforced by the media.

Dave was first reluctant to join the local toddler groups when Jack was first born as he was put off by the reactions of the mothers around him. “It was 2003 and I was the only bloke in the room,” he says.

Do you have an experience of fatherhood to share? Contact me if you would be interviewed for the book.

Inside Fatherhood drafts: how Scott turned his life around

Scott and Emily

I found Scott through a contact.

He clearly has an amazing story to tell and is very eloquent in telling it.

Scott’s story is of a recovered heroin addict, who found that faith and fatherhood offered him a new way forward after years of self-destructive behaviour.

But, despite getting clean, finding someone to share his life with and having a baby daughter [pictured above with Scott], the little voice of doubt inside is never far away.

Scott was my second interviewee for Inside Fatherhood, my forthcoming book to be published by BRF in 2018.

Here’s a sample of what he has to say:

“When you first try heroin, people say it’s like being kissed by God himself. I still remember the feeling — even now. It was like being wrapped in cotton wool. All addicts spent their lives trying to recapture the feeling of that first hit. But, that night, since the first time I’d used heroin aged 20, I experienced that feeling of enveloped in love. Looking out the window the next morning, I knew I had stopped.”

Do you have an experience of fatherhood to share? Contact me if you would be interviewed for the book.

A book contract and a request for 80 dad tips

Thumbs up: days out with dad over summer.
Thumbs up: days out with dad over summer.

I signed a book deal over summer.

It’s a work of creative non-fiction with a 2018 publication date for a small UK publisher. There’s a lot of research ahead before my deadline next spring.

But I don’t mind. It’s a project close to my heart as it revolves around a key topic: fatherhood.

As such, I’m now collecting stories from men with extraordinary tales to tell about how fatherhood has changed their perspective on life.

That’s where you come in.

I’m trying to compile a set of top tips for dads — bons mots  to inspire future fathers and share your wealth of experience.

Please tweet me with your 140-characater tips, using the hashtag #80dadstips. I’ll compile the best and credit your contributions in the final draft.

Over to you.

Follow me on Twitter @atkinsondavid.

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Flash fiction: Going Underground

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“Most men get a shed. My dad got a bunker.”

As she laughed, her epaulettes quivered like the top-lip foliage of a retired colonel.

The two tons of reinforced concrete had been decommissioned in 1993, leaving 135 Cheshire civil servants unemployed – stymied by Glasnost.

The family bought soon after it and parked the family tank out front. Lucy was four then.

“It’s my birthday soon,” she said.

“November 9, 1989. It’s fancy dress.”

She walked me breezily round the exhibition and we cupped our ears as the four-minute warning blasted over the PA in the decontamination room.

“I believe a second Cold War in my lifetime is a distinct possibility,” she said amongst the warning lights of the control room.

The epaulettes didn’t quiver this time.

She could see I was troubled by the image of my daughters leaving school and walking home in the acid rain.

“But we’re ready.”

* I’m thinking of entering this flash fiction in a competition organised via Cheshire Libraries for the Chester Literature Festival. Do you think it’s good enough? Share your view.