Giveaways from Nick and Carole Anne, Insecure Writer's Support Group Day, and a New Short Story

elcome to Nick, stopping by on his blog tour!

Thanks for hosting me today, Deniz. I’d like to share with your readers a flash snippet from my MC, Reuben’s childhood.

***

She was the girl he longed for, longed to touch. To take her away from all the tormentors and tell her everything would be alright. But how would she believe him, when he couldn’t stand up to any of the kids who bullied him?

Today he had almost done it. Almost helped, out of the goodness in his soul, which no one else in this Godforsaken school seemed to have.

They’d been sitting at the usual table in the canteen at lunch. The outsiders’ table, the freaks’ and weirdoes’ table. A gang only by virtue of having no one else to share allegiance with. Some of them talked and commiserated with each other over their misfortune, but Reuben didn’t find talking helped. He listened. Hester sat at the other end of the table from him, and they had barely spoken.

She sported thick NHS glasses, like the bottoms of milk bottles, and her greasy black hair was pulled back in a scraggly ponytail. At the front was an uneven fringe, maintained by her mother. But Reuben could see past all that. She was beautiful.

She had gone to get herself another beaker of juice and was heading back to the table when she was confronted by three of the popular girls who formed a human barrier in front of her. After some general taunting, one of them snatched the glasses off her face and the three of them went back to their table. Hester was left to grope her way back to the table, a wonder she didn’t collide with anyone else. Reuben had heard she was as blind as a bat without her glasses. But he remained seated. It was too deep-rooted, the fear of humiliation and rejection, even from someone who should be a kindred spirit. She would want to keep her shame to herself. He knew all too well what that felt like.

Her eyes were squinting against the harsh light, but without her glasses, she was even more beautiful. She managed to get back to her seat and after a few uncomfortable glances, the girl next to her started to speak, but then the popular girls were back.

“Hey, loser. Thought you’d want these back.”

The lead girl put Hester’s glasses in front of her. The lenses were completely filled in with permanent black marker, which Hester only discovered when she fumbled for them and put them back on.

“Smile,” said the girl, rubbing Hester’s shoulder in an imitation of affection. “You look pretty cool in your new shades!”

Reuben kept quiet as always. He didn’t care what was done to him, but some day he was going to make those girls pay, and everyone else who made his intended’s life a misery. He just didn’t know how yet.

Title: A Change of Mind and Other Stories

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: Speculative fiction

Format: Ebook only

Page/word count: 107 pages, approx. 32,000 words

Release date: 25th May 2015

Publisher: 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 behaviour under the microscope with the help of lashings of dark humour, 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.

Purchase Links:

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / BandN / Kobo

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 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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Another author having a giveaway is Carole Anne Carr!

Book one in the Ironbridge Gorge series

Via her newsletter, she "has a free paperback offer for those on the list of subscribers. I have five, signed, paperback copies of Candle Dark, my historical fiction children's book.

If you are interested, pop along to my website and you'll find the information about the book there.  Then go to the Contact Page on the website, add your details, and write Candle Dark on the comment form. If you know anyone who might be interested, they can sign up for my Newsletter on the Blog page of my website. I shall have a 'lucky dip' at the end of June and the names of those receiving copies to be added to the July newsletter.

River Dark, the sequel to Candle Dark, to be published at the end of June."

I'm happy to feature both these authors on Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. Nothing better than being inspired by hard-working authors in our blogging community!

The unexpected is always a treat, too. I had no idea when this round of A Round of Words in 80 Days started that I'd be nearing the end of a short story with three weeks left in the round. I've already got 3,000 words, and need less than 1,000 to complete the story. Already, I can see where editing is needed and where cuts can be made.

One thing I'm slowly realising, though - editing a short story doesn't fill me with the same dread as editing a novel does. I'm not sure if it's the length, or the fact that a short story needs to be tighter in terms of theme, research, overall point of view, or even the fact that economy of words means only the barest and most significant descriptions are required, but whatever it is, I'm excited to dive in to edits!

Now I just need a title... Something like "The Alien Snow Storm", maybe (yes, that was a teaser!).

Then there's Camp NaNoWriMo... I doubt I'll hit 40,000 words on this one. For now I'm simply going to ease into it with a "discovering the story" mindset.

Congratulations to Nick and Carole Anne on their releases!

Hope everyone's writing and other goals are going well!