About Me — Jonathan Townend

So far anyway…

Hi to everyone for visiting my ‘About Me,’ page.

Now the owner of four publications here on Medium, and an editor for another.

After leaving school in 1986, I had a firm idea that I wanted to train as a Mental Health Nurse, mainly because from an early age I had lost my dad to suicide. I needed to understand the reasons why this occurred. What could have been done to help & support him (in what was undoubted) was a very traumatic period for him. So, the hope was that mental health would be able to teach me more about the complexities of why ‘someone does what they do,’ maybe providing some hope that there was more available to support people when in crisis today because life is precious to us all.

Ever since then in addition to nursing, I started writing. But as time went by and work got busier every day, my writing began to nosedive. For years I never wrote again, becoming so inherently self-absorbed in working and caring for others.

In 1998 I met a lovely young lady who as our first short year went by, we married one another just a year later. That for me was the beginning of the end of my old life. For many of the years to come my wife never stopped trying to get me back into writing, pushing me to strive for better things in life.

In 2020 when my life changed rapidly, I contracted Covid-19 ending up in hospital on oxygen therapy. I developed physical disabilities which, thanks to my wife for her undying love & support, have never stopped me from progressing, but now in a very new and exciting direction in life today.

Ill health grounds meant my nursing days were over. I now write full-time on both Vocal and here on Medium, picking up my old hobby of writing science fiction books too, aspiring to publish with Indies United Publishing House later in 2022.

I feel satisfied with my new life of writing. I use my nursing knowledge to try to help others by writing about aspects of mental ill-health, we all have mental health (after all it is part of being human) so it is important to become aware of this, balancing out both sides of this to stay healthy both in body & mind.

My old confident self has resurrected itself now. I love to tinker with computers once more. I used to build them from their bare components (I actually recall the exhilaration of building my nephew his very first computer) from the ground up; this is a skill I had completely forgotten about until now.

Twenty years on from then and I have happily picked up from where I left off:

Although, my God, building a computer is a damn sight more technical than it ever was 20 years ago 🤣!

I used to have a total abhorrence for nature and our gardens at home, but that is another story in itself. Gardening itself has become my no.1 way to combat my ‘down days’ and allows me to use and focus on mindfulness skills when I need a ‘pick up’ for the cycle of my mood & negative thoughts that can unexpectedly rear up. A particular article of mine that I wrote can be found by clicking on it below.

So, this is me, and I look forward to sharing so much more with you. Join me in this world of self-discovery. You can read more about my articles here on Medium Jonathan Townend.

I have also begun a new publication right here on Medium too called Creative Passions. This publication is aimed at talking about True Life, Fiction Stories, LGBTQ+, and all things promoting & supporting Mental Health. My ideas are that stigma around mental health is not talked about enough. So, give me a shout-out and become a writer for the publication. You can email me @ [email protected].

Also, to my delight, as of March 2023, I became the owner of another publication here on Medium — The Shortform. Should you like to become a writer for The Shortform, then do please send me an email to this email @ [email protected].

In helping to bridge the gap between the stigmatizing and discriminating world that we all live in, I also run No Shame, which is a publication set up to offer you support and provide a safe place for your mental health stories. If you have a story to share about your individual experiences involved with mental healthcare services wherever you live (good or not so good) then this is the publication that wants, you.

My point of contact email for new writer requests is: [email protected]

Ever since becoming a member of Medium, I have noticed that fiction (flash fiction or longer-form fiction) does not seem to get a fair crack of the whip when it should be getting far more coverage and a warm acceptance.

World of Fiction is set up to bridge that gap. There are many genres in the world of fiction. This publication is open to accepting all types of fiction such as

• Mystery / Crime
• Suspense or Thriller
• Romance
• Action Adventure
• Science Fiction
• Horror
• Western
• Inspirational
• Historical fiction

So why not find out if you have what it takes to write an inspiring and imaginative fiction story?

Length does not matter, short or long, I look forward to reading your engrossing fiction submissions.

Do you want to come and write fiction for the home of fiction? Then please email me and ask to be added as a writer to: [email protected]

And if you fancy writing stories for children, teenagers, and us adults, who don’t like swearing, or reading/writing with any explicit or offensive content, then why not write for The Chocolate River for a nice refreshing style to stories?

Or why not follow me on Twitter even and help me to cheer up my social life more 😄!!

But most of all, I would love you to follow me here on Medium and see what I write about:

Support me throughout my writing journey. You can subscribe to my emails too and see when I’ve next published.

See you around here on Medium soon, I hope…

After reading, perhaps you might want to Buy Me A Coffee☕ even?

Who Knows😊?