The Lucky 10% Club

Words by Kay Wilson

Photography by Christopher Owens

This is a first. I’ve worked in PR all of my career and never written about myself.

I’m doing it now as my debut novel, ‘The Stand-Up Mam’, was released on the 1st of July.

My own story’s got all the ingredients of a good novel - a life or death experience, an unlucky for some 13th birthday trip and an unexpected result at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Let’s start with near-death. A few years ago, I took my daughter Freya to York shopping, on her 13th birthday. Just before we left to return home, I had a pain in my eye as if I’d been stabbed with an huge ice pick.

Next thing I knew my legs worked and my brain didn’t.

Next thing I knew my legs worked and my brain didn’t. It felt like I was in the giant robot suit from ‘Wallace and Gromit’, looking out at the world but not really part of it. I like to pride myself on having a good sense of humour and can remember thinking: ‘Well, this is a funny thing’ which, to be honest, was possibly the understatement of my life.

It turned out I had a burst brain aneurysm, which is like a blister exploding inside your head. The lovely birthday trip resulted in me getting home three weeks later after major brain surgery, with a stent fitted behind my eye and jumbled thinking.

The aneurysm had caused a subarachnoid haemorrhage so, as I hadn’t really understood what had happened, when I got home Googled it. Of course I Googled it! What I read totally shocked me. Most people who have a burst aneurysm die in the ambulance, the remainder have some significant disability and only 10 per cent live their lives as they used to. I had been, and still count myself, incredibly lucky.

These dramatic events really make you think about your life. It motivated me to crack on with my bucket list.  And my long-held ambition was not what most people expect from a middle-aged mother of teenagers. It was to do stand-up comedy which had come from my long-standing love of acting and making people laugh.

All my family, husband Steve, son James and Freya were supportive as long as I didn’t talk about them!

I did an Edinburgh Fringe Festival stand-up comedy course and was terrified, but also excited to learn about it all. Contrary to what I’d expected, in the North East comedy world, the other stand-up comics, mainly young people, were incredibly supportive. They included the now successful comedians George Zach and Nicola Mantalios.

For two years I did unpaid, five-minute gigs in the North East and learnt the true meaning of fear!

The culmination of that, and a desire to continue chasing my dreams, inspired me to write my first novel: ‘The Stand-Up Mam’.

Georgie Chancellor, the fictional main character, is the perfect wife and mother. What could go wrong? Nothing - until her family enter her into a stand-up comedy competition and she begins to tell the truth about them all on stage. And there’s plenty to talk about: her daughter’s unexpected teenage pregnancy and Georgie’s long-lost son, for a start.

Enter stage right, Jaz, her handsome stand-up mentor, who gives Georgie the self-belief to become a comedy queen with both, hopefully, funny and devastating results. The question in the book is whether Georgie’s journey puts a smile on everyone’s faces?

It isn’t autobiographical but the theme I wanted to write about was what can happen when mothers lose themselves to their families’ needs.

My heroine picks up her courage and lives her best life which is what I always try to do now, as every minute counts.

It isn’t autobiographical but the theme I wanted to write about was what can happen when mothers lose themselves to their families’ needs.

I’ve got to be honest, the path to getting this book out of my head and into the world has been a challenge. Having written thousands of words in my PR life I hadn’t expected to feel so daunted by the scale of what needed to be done.

When I had finished the first draft I was lucky to have a mentor, author Stephanie Butland, who gave me detailed feedback. There were some major changes needed to make the story as strong as it could be. And yes, it was hard. One character I loved had to go as she didn’t really fit with the main storyline.

After I had done this and reworked it several times Covid hit and I put it to one side with life pulling in many different directions as it did for us all.

A year ago I got stuck back into the draft with a renewed appetite for getting ‘The Stand-Up Mam’ out into the world. I had received some interest from two or three major literary agents over the years but for various reasons they couldn’t take the step to sign me, which I totally understood, even though it was disappointing.

Just like tackling life after my illness I decided to take the bull by the horns and self-publish. How hard could it be? Actually, extremely and brutal.

I had proof-read my writing for donkey’s years, usually up to 2,000 words for a detailed feature but nothing really prepared me for doing it for 83,000 words. My friends read it and a corrected mistakes. Then Steve read and corrected more mistakes.

When it was typeset, by the super patient Caroline Goldsmith, and ready to go to print I spotted more errors! I had said it took 10 hours for a character to get from Cornwall to Edinburgh and suddenly thought that can’t be long enough. Google said nearer 18 hour so another amend at the 11th hour.

The proofs are signed-off and it is printed so if anyone reads it and spots something please just keep it to yourself or buy me a drink before you tell me.

I always wanted my book to encourage women to be brave and live their best lives as well as learn from each other. On my website I’ll be doing regular features on inspirational women and their advice to others, with funny family stories which ‘The Stand-Up Mam’ would love. Women who will be included are the authors Laura Pearson, Roxie Key, Effie Merryl, the Bay Tales crime writing festival organiser Vic Watson and McBryde & Co PR director Kate Gresswell.

The reviews from book bloggers are starting to come in and I’m very relieved, as well as proud, if that doesn’t sound too much of a brag.

Here’s a flavour of what book bloggers have said in early reviews:

‘This book is a riot! Absolutely hilarious but with a dash of tenderness and warmth.

The brilliant mix between vulnerability and comedy plays on all your emotions. Wilson does a super job at making the reader feel for her characters, to care and feel involved in their fictional life. This book will have you crying no matter what either with laughter or sadness.’

‘It's a slow burn, but for all the right reasons. Georgie and her family go on a real journey, and thanks to Kays fluid, easy, funny, emotive, and relatable writing style, her readers are quickly immersed and heavily invested in the outcome of their story.’

‘The Stand-Up Mam’ is available in paperback from The Bound, Whitley Bay, Forum Books, Corbridge and The Accidental Bookshop Alnwick and from the Forum website.

It is also available on Kindle

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