A Change of Mind and Other Stories Cover Reveal and The A to Z Theme Reveal Blogfest

I have some big stuff for you today.  This double post will contain much excitement, so stick around.  I'm participating in the Great and Powerful A to Z Theme Reveal Blogfest, but before we get to that, I'd like to share something awesome from our blogging friend Nick Wilford.

Title: A Change of Mind and Other Stories

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: Contemporary speculative fiction 

Cover Design: Rebekah Romani

Release Date: May 25th

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.

Bio:

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. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. You can find him hanging out on his blog or on Goodreads or Twitter.

Preorder Links: Amazon US, Amazon UK

Add it on Goodreads

These stories sound pretty interesting to me, so I'd highly recommend getting a copy of this book when it comes out!

Now for the next part of my post.

Today I am revealing what you can expect from my A to Z posts this year.  For further details on the Great and Powerful A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal Blogfest, go HERE.

This year I'm doing fictional pieces again.  Sorry, I just love producing fresh material to share with my readers.  I'm going to try to mix it up a bit.  Each piece will be inspired by the letter of the day, and some of the words I've chosen are more obscure or interesting than others.  Some of the pieces will be flash fiction, some will be drabbles (a story of exactly 100 words), and some will be poems.

There is one big difference, though.  Once a week, I'll post a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.  I briefly considered the insanity of doing only Choose Your Own Adventure stories, but doing 26 of them seemed like a herculean task.  These CYOA stories will be short, of course.  In total, you'll get three sections to read, and the total word count will place it in the range of a normal flash fiction story.  I know time is precious during the A to Z Challenge, so I don't want to overwhelm anyone (or myself, for that matter).

For those of you who are interested in checking out my CYOA stories, here's a list of the dates when I'll be posting them.

Week 1:

Wednesday, April 1st (letter A)

Week 2:

Friday, April 10th (letter I)

Week 3:

Friday, April 17th (letter O)

Week 4:

Thursday, April 23rd (letter T)

Week 5:

uesday, April 28th (letter X)

I'm excited about another year of A to Z fun!