Jude, welcome and thank you for taking part in this interview and for contributing to our cause. You have captured the exact essence of our chosen charity FIND with you story, ‘Marginalia; or If This Is Supposed To Be Levelling Up The Tories Need a New Spirit Level’. You also won longest title award! Some times you just know it’s a good one from the title and you certainly delivered. Can you tell us a little a bit about yourself?

I’m Jude Potts, a full-time carer for my increasingly frail mother since January 2020. Writing is an escape route out of what can be a lonely little bubble – not only do I get to create worlds and dramas and kick ass heroines, I’ve also connected with some of the loveliest, most supportive people through writing.
Before I was a carer I worked in housing support and community charities for many years – which is why this anthology appealed to me so much. I know how hard small community charities work, I know the good they do, I know the difference they can make.
I could tell you about my love for music and theatre and all those things that transport me and make me ask questions of myself, – all true loves, for sure. But honestly? Give me a bus journey where a woman gets on with a pram that turns out to contain a pug named kylieminogue and a couple ask her about her baby for ten minutes before they discover the truth and I am a happy woman.

Foodbanks have become a part of our life. What started as a means to support those in financial difficulty has now turned into a long-term lifeline for many. Do you think that we will ever be free of them, or do you believe they will be here to stay?

I wish I could say I believed they would one day go back to being a short, stop gap measure for people in very specific circumstances – but there would need to be so many seismic changes in our society that even at my most cockeyed optimistic I can’t see that happening. A massive change to benefits, to wages, to workers rights and employment contracts, to housing, to taxation, to the ludicrous attachment this country has to sinecure political roles for the Eton mess and its semi-religious belief trickle-down economics.
A revolution; more or less.
I’m up for it, I’m not sure the country is there yet though.

Do you think it is down to the volunteers and fellow man to keep food banks going or should the government be doing more to intervene?

Food banks plug one of the massive gaps left by government choice to put profits and shareholders above workers’ rights to fair employment contracts and wages that keep pace with inflation and citizens rights to welfare provision and social services that meet their needs.
People should be able to feed themselves on the wages they earn and those who can’t earn, either temporarily or in the long term should be supported to live securely on the benefits to which they are entitled. No one should need food banks long term. Yet in the news today is a report saying fifteen percent of the UK population experienced food insecurity in January this year.
As with any voluntary action, the access to foodbanks isn’t equal. If you are on a zero hours contract it might be hard to get to a foodbank during its open hours without losing wages, if you live out of town, if you are disabled, there are many reasons it can be more tricky for some people to be in the right part of town at the right time.
You need to get a referral, so the resources go to people who need them most – but that also means discussing your life with someone, the mental effort it takes to discuss stressful circumstances, even with kindly people. And someone else, however well intentioned and generous, is picking your food for you. I want to live in a society where people everybody is valued enough to be able to pick out their own flavour of soup, their favourite kind of pasta.
I think about some of the families I worked with in my advice and support work days, the patchwork of services some had to work with just to meet their basic needs. A dad with a serious heart problem, fighting to get PIP payments, being made homeless, placed in temporary accommodation nowhere near his kids schools, sleeping on the sofa because he was too sick to get up the stairs, too weak to get to the foodbank himself. So you need to find volunteers to deliver the parcels to him, available when the foodbank is open. I can think of dozens of equally complex cases, none of them the fault of the individual, just a system that doesn’t care enough to make things simpler.

Here at Urban Pigs Press we believe that the indie writing scene is an incredible place of support. From fellow writers to zines and indie presses. Who is your favourite writer in the indie community and why?

I belong to Writers HQ and they have a remarkable hit rate for talented writers – so there are many there I could mention. JP Relph’s (twitter @RelphJp) collection of apocalyptic short stories, Know That We Held, is brilliant – for someone to make me simultaneously laugh and cry at an abandoned glove puppet, and get me invested in the lives of fungi and insects, is quite some talent. Mairead Robinson (twitter @judasspoon) is another writer whose work I consistently find at turns moving and tender and funny and inventive. Sumitra Singam (twitter @pleomorphic2) creates characters with real depth of emotion, and writes about food in ways guaranteed to make you hungry.

Tell us about your latest work? Do you have any books you would like our readers to know about?

I don’t have a book out there yet – I do have a work in progress about which is a blackish comedy crime novel about a blackmailer with a conscience that allows me to poke fun at establishment figures we all love to hate. It’s kind of therapy writing it sometimes.
I’ve also just started developing a zine with a couple of writerly pals Jac Morris (twitter @JackieMMorris) and Terry Holland (twitter @terry_geezer) – who’ll be familiar to Urban Pigs readers with his short fiction piece The Knowledge. Our Editor In Chief is a taxidermied bear called Cap’n Dave and although the zine, Neither Fish Nor Foul, is in its infancy it should be a force for chaotic good – playful ,anarchic and a bit weird.

How did you first hear about Urban Pigs Press?

I kept seeing tweets about Life In Dirt and thinking it looked like my kind of thing, trying to ignore it because I’ve got a serious book addiction (like most writers). Then both Terry and another writer friend Heather Haigh (@HeatherBookNook) had pieces published on the site, and I came to explore and discovered a vibe that hits many of my sweet spots as a reader.

These answers are fantastic! It’s really interesting to find out more regarding the process to be referred to a food bank and to hear some first hand insight into the struggles those who use them endure. We certainly know Terry and his writing well. I was lucky enough to come across him when I was doing a feature editor spot at Punk Noir (I’m back there for April! Don’t be a stranger.). He’s a great talent and I’m very excited to learn more about Neither Fish Nor Foul. That is one hell of a team! I’m going to be keeping a keen eye on your novel’s progress. You basically just summarised my own novels so I know I’ll be getting my hands on that when it’s ready. Thank you again for joining this little family of oinkers.

‘Marginalia; or If This Is Supposed To Be Levelling Up The Tories Need a New Spirit Level’ When life in the margins happens to other people, how will you cope when life spirals and you end up as another footnote to the real story, in a tower block that no one cares about.

Read it from the 11th of March in the Hunger anthology.

Jude is a full-time carer & some-time writer working on a crime-comedy novel about beautiful lies, ugly truths and the extortionate cost of spa days. She dabbles in flash fiction, focusing on wry, dry and sly looks at human failings (usually her own)Social media links: X: 

@judepickledplum   Insta:  @jude_pickledplum

New release date for the HUNGER anthology!

11/03/24

We have slightly delayed the release date for the HUNGER anthology by a few days and have now scheduled it for the 11th March. We always expected a challenge and this beast has certainly been that. We think you’ll agree that it will be worth the wait and we look forward to sharing this fantastic collection with everyone on our new date.

Initial release will be through Amazon and Kindle but we hope to have physical copies in local book shops soon after. One place you can be sure to find this incredible collection will be Dial Lane Books in Ipswich. Andrew has been as much a part of this fantastic cause as all our contributors. We couldn’t be any more excited to share this with everyone. 23 different authors have given up their time and talent to help us make a difference to those in need and we are beyond grateful to each and everyone one of you. Jo Andrews has gone above and beyond to deliver us a cover that represents everything we set out to do. Cody Sexton has also contributed with an incredible piece of talent for our title page. We are both proud and humbled by the incredible efforts of everyone involved. Stephen J. Golds and Rob Jelly (BBC Suffolk) have also given their time to praise this darkly beautiful collection.

As part of our promotion for the anthology we will be posting interviews from the authors involved. Judging by some of the answers given already, I can confirm that we really have discovered a great bunch of humans in this anthology.

This book won’t put an end to poverty or hunger. Neither will it change the agendas of our politicians. But it will make a direct impact to a few of those we hope to represent. And for now, we’ll take it. So, please set that date in your calendar and help us to make that difference.

The Hunger anthology is a collection of 23 stories by 23 different authors. Tales of brutal reality, dark horror, gritty crime and dark humour sprawled out upon each page. Each story delivering a unique take on the prompt HUNGER. A true representation of some of the strongest talents within the writing community.

“A collection of stories that are as close to the bone in literary class as they are in their scathing analysis of a broken society.”

– Stephen J. Golds

Author of Say Goodbye When I’m Gone

“Part social commentary, part linguistic showcase, the authors of Hunger share such thought-provoking stories of a feeling that no-one is alienated from.
Some will leave you angry, some will leave you grateful and some will leave you with questions.
I would say it was a joy to read but more accurately, I am a more rounded-person for reading it.
You’re about to go on a journey. Where to? You will know when you get there.”

– Rob Jelly