Welcome to
Tom's Voice Magazine...

and to Issue 9.

Thank you for your patience, especially those writers who had to wait for responses to their submissions this time round. I usually try to get back to writers within a week or so. This time I must have broken several records for discourtesy.

And thank you to those I accepted early, who had to wait until their hair went grey before their work appeared!

What are my excuses? Well, fairly big personal upheavals in the last six/seven months, both writing-wise and in my family.

Onwards and upwards. I am delighted to bring you a lovely selection of prose and poetry from my pick of the submissions this time round. Some old faces, and some new. But all, as ever, supporting and sending good vibes out to those who are struggling with addictions of any sort, either their own or those of people they care about.

It is ironic. Since the last issue, and as part of the upheavals alluded to above, I have discovered that in my own extended family links to addiction are far stronger than I ever knew. There are theories that say a tendency to rely heavily on any prop, is genetic. I could provide the scientists with a fascinating case study. But I won't be doing that any time soon!

I will just keep doing my bit here. And thank you as ever, to Zoë King, who finds time in her increasingly busy schedule to create this place.

Vanessa

Why ‘Tom's Voice'?

Because one of my first students, a good guy called Tom, tried hard to overcome heroin addiction in 2003. He battled through three months in a tough rehab. and while he was there discovered that he could write wonderful wacky poetry and prose poems. Tom died not long after he finished at rehab. and beside his body was a poem. His own version of 'To everything there is a season'.

He Had a Voice

Addiction is a cruel enemy. To fight it you need some strong weapons. But sometimes the weapons to fight the cruellest enemies seem to be the smallest things. A pencil. A scrap of paper...