Corruption by Nick Wilford

Hi Susan! Thanks for hosting me as part of my tour. Today, we're going to go live to one of Harmonia's top investigative TV shows for an interview with the youngest member of the science team.

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I’m Mark Tangleford from Harmonia Happenings, and today we’ve got something exciting for you – an insight into the hitherto secretive world of the Whitopolis science labs through the eyes of its youngest member, Dr Daniel Carrickson.

Let’s introduce you to our viewers. Can you tell our viewers a bit about yourself and how you got started in the exciting world of science?

(Clears throat nervously) Well, sure, Mark. Um, let me see. I guess I was always fascinated by science, all the wonderful things around us that make our lives better. Most people take them for granted, like the food transmission units – they just produce a delicious plate of food out of nothing, and it wasn’t always like that. When I was eight I tried to take ours apart at home to see how it worked. My parents had to spend five hundred dollars on repairs, so they weren’t too happy, but when I was leaving school my dad – who works as a government adviser – heard about an opening for a trainee scientist and put my name forward.

Yes, under the old system it seemed to be very much about having connections if you wanted to get anywhere in government. Now it seems they’re trying to make things a lot more open. Can you tell me about how things have changed?

Yeah, well, I’d only been in about my job for about a year you see when Wellesbury Noon overthrew the Reformers. So I wasn’t too set in my ways, unlike some of my older team members who, um, weren’t particularly happy about it! I don’t want to say anything bad, so I’ll leave it there. But yeah, it does seem more open, transparent you could say. We get groups of visitors who come round to see how everything’s done. It doesn’t seem like we keep secrets any more, whereas before people didn’t even know where the labs were. It was like a fortress.

Now tell me what’s coming up in the world of science. I hear you’re going to be part of a very special mission to Loretania.

That’s right, we’re preparing mass quantities of the disease antidote to help all the people over there who are suffering so much. That’s another thing I’m glad is out in the open. Of course, all of us who were behind the scenes, you could say, knew about what things were like there, but it was kept hidden from the population. It was the biggest secret of all. So yes, I’m really excited about that. It’s going to make a real difference and I hope it leads to some sort of interaction between the two countries.

Thank you for talking with us today, Daniel. I’ll let you get back to your important work now.

Thank you. It was a pleasure!

Title: Corruption

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: YA dystopian Series: Black & White Series #: 2 of 3

Release date: 11th February 2019

Publisher: Superstar Peanut Publishing

Blurb:

Wellesbury Noon and Ezmerelda Dontible have found themselves in a position where they can make their native land somewhere that lives up to its name: Harmonia. However, they’re setting their sights further afield for their number one task: eradicating the disease that has plagued the neighbouring country of Loretania for generations and allowed the privileged Harmonians to live in a sterile environment.

After dispatching a team of scientists to Loretania, armed with cratefuls of an antidote and vaccine and headed up by their friend, Dr George Tindleson, Welles, Ez, and Welles’s brother Mal – who grew up in that benighted nation – start to worry when they hear nothing back, despite what they had agreed. Commandeering a fishing boat to follow the science team over the sea, they soon find that, while the disease may be on the way out, a new kind of infection has set in – the corruption they thought they had stamped out in Harmonia.

Can they get to the root of the problem and eliminate it before even more damage is done to an innocent people?

*** Warning – this book contains themes that some sensitive readers may find upsetting. ***

Purchase Links:

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks

Add it on Goodreads

Meet the author:

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those early morning times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. Visit him at his blog or connect with him on Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, or Amazon.

Nick Wilford, Black and White

Hi Susan. Thanks for offering to host me as part of my tour. Today I’d like to share some thoughts about the world I’ve created and engage your readers in a debate, if that’s not too heavy for a Monday!

How likely is it that we will end up living in a society like Harmonia?

I don’t often get political, but with Donald Trump in power, I don’t think we can really predict anything and we can’t rule anything out either. The world I’ve built might look very attractive to a lot of people. No dirt or disease, no need to worry about dying at an untimely age or – at a more everyday level – scrubbing your floor or keeping the dust under control.

On the surface, this is a utopia, the opposite of a dystopia. But that’s it – the surface is just about as far as things go. It’s the very definition of an insular society, cut off and without any contact with the outside world. Indeed, its near neighbour is painted by the government as a netherworld-type region populated by demons. In the current world, large swathes seem to be going backwards and becoming more distrustful of other cultures instead of more open. What if someone came along who promised to close the doors completely – the ultimate expression of looking after number one?

There are other ways in which Harmonia might be seen as an extension of the society we’ve got today. With the all-consuming rise of social media, families seem to spend less time just being together and we’ve got the problem of phones at the dinner table. In Harmonia, only one child is allowed per family and each member of the group basically operates as a self-contained unit. It’s a cold society in which people simply go through the motions. Apparently fair on the surface, with passes in school exams being guaranteed, the type of job you get after leaving school is determined by how many extra study hours you log. This is another thing that leaves children to spend long hours on their pads.

Divorce rates are very low, but at the same time there is very little affection between married couples. They are simply units that ensure the propagation of the species. The sex act itself has been genetically phased out – far too messy and too many diseases at play – but of course, this removes a level of closeness.

Where do you think we’re heading as a society? Is a world like Harmonia something that you could foresee in our future?

Title: Black & White

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: YA dystopian

Series #: 1 of 3

Release date: 18th September 2017

Publisher: Superstar Peanut Publishing

Blurb:

What is the price paid for the creation of a perfect society?

In Whitopolis, a gleamingly white city of the future where illness has been eradicated, shock waves run through the populace when a bedraggled, dirt-stricken boy materialises in the main street. Led by government propaganda, most citizens shun him as a demon, except for Wellesbury Noon – a high school student the same age as the boy.

Upon befriending the boy, Wellesbury feels a connection that he can’t explain – as well as discovering that his new friend comes from a land that is stricken by disease and only has two weeks to live. Why do he and a girl named Ezmerelda Dontible appear to be the only ones who want to help?

As they dig deeper, everything they know is turned on its head – and a race to save one boy becomes a struggle to redeem humanity.

Purchase Links:

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks

Add it on Goodreads

Meet the author:

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those early morning times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. Visit him at his blog or connect with him on Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, or Amazon.

Enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of my collection A Change of Mind and Other Stories or a $10 giftcard!

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Help Out

RWA shared some links last week where you can go and help out the libraries that were victims of the recent hurricanes. Funding libraries is likely not the first thing people or the government will think of as they rebuilt and recover. Yet, I think a lot of people may depend on the library for internet access until they get their homes up and running again. People need help first, but if you love your local library as I do, maybe you can spare them a dime also. Here is the link for the Texas libraries. And you can go here to help the Florida libraries.

While you're in the helping mood, C. Lee McKenzie could use your help voting for her book in the Go here and give the book a boost.
Readers Choice Contest. Her MG novel, Double Negative, could use your vote.

Next Monday, I'm turning my blog over to Nick Wilford next Monday. He'll talk about his book that is being released today. Black and White is the first in a dystopian series. One of my favorite genres of speculative fiction.

I have lots of good books on my shelf and on my Kindle to read, after adding Nick's today, and that's a good thing. Because TV sucks right now. I'll probably watch Scorpion when the new season starts and Once Upon a Time, but I'm not that excited about them. Supernatural had a great season ending in May, so I'll have to give that a try. But I don't even know the dates they return. Blah.

I need to pick up my word count on my current WIP. Only wrote around 2K this week. I'm only halfway through and I'd hoped to have it done this month. Not looking good at all.

I'm taking my daughter to her first story time at the library this week. It's for 0-18 months old. She's not a fan of noisy places or loud things so we'll see how it goes. How do you keep a lot of infants interested in a story? We'll see.

The leaves are turning though it's pretty warm this week. Fall is upon us this Friday. I'll have to teach that granddaughter to rake leaves.

Have you donated to the victims of the recent hurricanes? Do you love your local library? Is dystopian a genre you enjoy? Do you enjoy fall and raking leaves?

Memorial Day, A Change of Mind, and Summer Discipline

I wish a blessed Memorial Day to everyone. I hope your loved ones are safe and nearby. This is a vacation day for many here in the States and usually marks the beginning of the summer season if not the official calendar start. I also hope every takes a moment to remember the reason for the day and thinks of those who have served and given their all.

"When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." George Orwell

"One man with courage is a majority." Thomas Jefferson

I love the things summer brings. Outdoor exercise, swimming, taking care of my acreage, and sitting on the porch to read. My writing pace always slows down in the summer despite my determination not to slack off.  At the conference I recently attended, I sat in on a workshop about sprint writing. More about that in a later post but I'm hoping it is the answer to my summer slow down.

I'm pleased to feature Nick Wilford today and a blurb for his new release, A Change of Mind and Other Stories,  Speculative fiction published by Superstar Peanut Publishing

Blurb:

A Change of Mind and Other Stories consists of a novella, four short stories and one flash fiction piece. This collection puts the extremes of human behavior under the microscope with the help of lashings of dark humor, and includes four pieces previously published in Writer’s Muse magazine. 

In A Change of Mind, Reuben is an office worker so meek and mild he puts up with daily bullying from his boorish male colleagues as if it’s just a normal part of his day. But when a stranger points him in the direction of a surgeon offering a revolutionary new procedure, he can’t pass up the chance to turn his life around. 

But this isn’t your average surgeon. For a start, he operates alone in a small room above a mechanic’s. And he promises to alter his patients’ personality so they can be anything they want to be… 

In Marissa, a man who is determined to find evidence of his girlfriend’s infidelity ends up wondering if he should have left well alone. 

The Dog God finds a chink in the armour of a man with a megalomaniacal desire to take over the world. 

In The Insomniac, a man who leads an obsessively regimented lifestyle on one hour’s sleep a night finds a disruption to his routine doesn’t work for him. 

Hole In One sees a dedicated golfer achieving a lifelong ambition. 

The Loner ends the collection on a note of hope as two family members try to rebuild their lives after they are torn apart by jealousy.

 Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Barnes and Noble / Kobo

Meet the author:

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those rare times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. Visit him at his blog or connect with him on Twitter or Goodreads.

Does summer slow down creep into your writing schedule? Does Memorial Day seem like the start of summer to you? Are you purchasing Nick's book today like I am?