GW COOK

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New Zealand Industry-Based Careers and Training

Here are a selection of some articles I wrote between 2019 -2021 when I worked as a Content Writer/Developer for the New Zealand Government careers website (click on the article titles below to go to the online version). Articles about careers and training in the New Zealand Building and Construction sector: Great pay for jobs in the Construction Industry Why you should consider a career in Building Science Turn heads with a Tiling career Skills you need for Building and Construction apprenticeships Building a new career Articles about careers and training in the Food, Fibre and Forestry sectors: An exciting future is yours in the Food and Fibre sectors Improving Forestry through innovation Another article I wrote about a company who won a Skills Highway award: Bespoke training leads to personal growth at HEB Construction Miscellaneous articles I wrote about career-related things: Staying positive through redundancy How to have a successful remote job

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Review of Wellbeing app - Groov by Mentemia

Living in our increasingly stressful world, many people have difficulty coping with everything that life throws their way. COVID, job losses, increased cost of living, and family health concerns are some of the main sources of anxiety in our society. Despite these extra burdens, there are things we can do to reduce our stress and anxiety levels and improve our mental wellbeing. Every other day there seems to be a new wellbeing app or mental health initiative announced and it can be difficult deciding which one is the most useful or relevant. One stands out amongst the crowd – the New Zealand-created app/website ‘Groov’ (formerly Mentemia). Since its inception back in 2018, Sir John Kirwan has been the brains behind the development of the Mentemia/Groov app, which is designed to improve users’ mental health and wellbeing. This tool is very easy to use and has up-to-date information, advice and exercises that can help most people navigate their way through difficult times. John Kirwa

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Jacques Lacan's Mind F*#k 'Mirror Stage'

Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 - September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. His yearly seminars, conducted in Paris from 1953 until his death in 1981, were a major influence in the French intellectual milieu of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly among post-structuralist thinkers [1]. Lacan's ideas centred on Freudian concepts: e.g. the unconscious, the castration complex, the ego. He also focussed on identifications and the centrality of language to subjectivity. His work was interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistics, philosophy, and mathematics, amongst others. Although a controversial and divisive figure, Lacan is widely read in critical theory, literary studies, and twentieth-century French philosophy, as well as in the living practice of clinical psychoanalysis. Lacan's first official contribution to psychoanalysis was his theory of the 'Mirror Stage.'

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Stanley Fish and Political Correctness

In his book, Professional Correctness: Literary Studies and Political Change [1], Stanley Fish argues against the epistemological and political agendas of cultural studies, as being without justification and understanding in their treatment of the discipline of literary studies and ‘interdisciplinarity’. The strength of his critique is apparent in his internal knowledge and defence of the discipline of literary studies, as being essentially different and distinct as a discipline, from that of cultural studies. While there is great strength to his critique, there are also weaknesses. One of those weaknesses, I will argue, is his refusal to acknowledge the growing influence of external forces outside and inside the discipline of literary criticism. Fish argues in favour of a return to the practice of literary criticism in and for itself, free from the political concerns associated with cultural studies. The political or cultural studies approach, in his opinion, is founded upon the mi

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Because the world needs poetry right now (and always)

Annual Commemoration of the Divine Passion You eclipse me & I have stained the Sun with black love . . . death from a bottle cools my ardour for a while, until I see you again. The damp distance is bleached then blackened with shadows & flocks of shrill birds, screaming for blood Bound hands grow swollen body – silently numbed a bed on fire I laid upon now reddened with burning life In these blistered hours of insomnia objects are like lead I believe they are other things & less than they are as if fewer of them would create a stillness like sleep — if only to dream of her again . . . The cushions beckon in the mirror white & summoning, judicious the bed reflected in that fantasy land, that round pool of hope Why stir dust on a sacred tomb as I lay down with a prayer for darkness a snowflake melts on her virgin eyelids somewhere & now, together again we drink every breath of poisoned air she asleep, I awake . . . Not believing in resu

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Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors

The following is a review of my book Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors , from www.imlovingbooks.com. Any authors out there who have hit the 'best-seller' lists who would like to be featured and interviewed in the next volume of this book series, please contact me via my contact page . SECRETS OF BEST-SELLING SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS – A SELF-PUBLISHING NON-FICTION GUIDE In Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors, William Cook, author and entrepreneur, shares a selection of interviews from his popular online interview series, alongside an analysis of the interviews and two fresh essays: ‘Self Published Author VS Successful Self-Published Author’ and ‘Growth Hacking for Authors.’ Along with the interviews and essays, a very helpful and inspiring list of ‘Indie Power Tips’ is included. OUR SUMMARY Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors is a self-publishing non-fiction book. It features tips, interviews, and essays that will help aspiring

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You need this book – A Sanctuary of Sorts & Other Stories

A Sanctuary of Sorts & Other Stories is a chronicle of dreamers, lost souls, and the downtrodden. GW Cook stakes his claim as a writer of edgy literary fiction with this debut collection. His deceptively simple prose portrays a broken world, where the banality of life and the intrusion of The Western Dream is the disease, and the merciless response of nature, is the cure. The tragically failed characters that populate the pages of A Sanctuary of Sorts & Other Stories are vividly infused with Cook’s signature blend of domestic tragedy and farce, dark existential themes, and a bitter sense of irony Writing about the profundity and despair of urban existence, love, relationships, work, despair, life and death, Cook takes an unflinching look into the abyss of modern life. These stories deal with the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into what it is that makes us good or evil and, ultimately, human. A Sanctuary of Sorts (Kindle single) is a

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