Going Up: an interview

So, just who is Kriss Day?

I’ve had a bit of a Heinz life – it feels like I’ve done 57 varieties of paid and voluntary jobs!

After an unremarkable upbringing I studied philosophy at university and went from there to unboxing deliveries in a department store – it was the 80s. I got bored and went into sales and marketing, but felt a tugging in my guts when I saw an advert encouraging people to train as psychiatric nurses. I got my registration and worked in the UK and abroad, in both mental health and general settings.

That’s how I got involved in drugs work, although always in the back of my mind I remembered how the heroin trade had moved into the area I grew up in, which became a sink estate because anybody who could afford to move out did so. I’ve always been depressed by the phenomenon of drift, which is a mental health concept detailing how when people develop a serious mental illness they tend to fall out of education, jobs and relationships and gravitate (drift) into long-term unemployment, said sink estates and less rewarding lifestyles generally; this is often applicable to people with a problematic pattern of drug use.

I provided face-to-face drugs-word services and also contributed to training and strategic planning. From there I moved into student support services – not that the two are related! As happens to a lot of drugs workers, it got to the point where I needed a change.

In voluntary work, I helped set up a support group for the mothers of drugs users in my area when I was in my late teens, and after university trained as a counsellor. I later moved into an area where there were vacancies in the local housing association’s management committee, so got a place on that, and served as chair for a year. In between jobs I joined a Citizens Advice Bureau and was later voted onto the board of directors. I’m happy to now be working in a setting where I can draw on all of my experience.

What made you start writing ebooks?

I’ve always enjoyed writing short stories and poems, but have felt daunted by the print publishing process. I don’t think printed books will ever go away – thank God – but the age of the digital book is well upon us. There’s nothing like reading a book in the bath, but for searchability and options to link to resources outside the book ebooks have no competition.

What’s your first book about?

Going up: a social troubleshooter for people entering University in England is rather a short book, just over 11,000 words, hence the price. I’ve concentrated on school (or sixth-form college) leavers going to university in England, and tried to anticipate the advice they might need that might not seem to come from easily identifiable sources at university when it’s needed, with the person possibly being in a bit of a state. It will never replace person-to-person advice, but I hope that if people have a read they’ll know where to find resources in the first instance, and they’ll always have the book in digital form.

Isn’t the overall tone quite negative?

Ouch! Well, it is about the pitfalls people at university might possibly fall into, including serious issues in the “worst case scenario” section like drug use and sexual assault, and so it was never going to be a laugh a minute. But in the introduction I’ve emphasised it’s like a steward’s talk at the start of an aeroplane journey: you’re given comprehensive information about what to do in the event that something goes wrong, but you buy your ticket in the hope, if not expectation, that nothing will.

When does Going Up come out?

I’m hoping it’ll be out within the week.

Best of luck!

Thank you.

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