Shieldmaiden

I recently wrote a new historical fiction piece about a young Norse warrior-woman entitled Shieldmaiden. After some awesome feedback from my beta readers, I’ve sent off the manuscript to my agent who is eagerly reading it now. Below is a brief blurb about the book. Let me know what you think!

Sonja, daughter of Hama, was born a commoner, but aspires to be more than a wife to some fisherman or herder. She wants to be a shieldmaiden, a Norse warrior-woman, free to come and go as she chooses without the need for a husband or father lording it over her. But when she joins an expedition of Rus Vikings journeying deep into the wild hinterlands, she soon finds out that being a shieldmaiden is more than she bargained for. Treacherous Wildlings, monstrous beasts, and rival Vikings provide new terrors at every bend in the river. But Sonja is determined to make her mark as a shieldmaiden, and to win respect and honor with a ship full of Vikings as courageous as they are dangerous. She hopes to make it to the fabled Kingdom of Kiev deep in the wilds, where the Viking Queen there is known to keep shieldmaidens in her royal household. But with so many leagues of trackless river and forest between her and her destiny, Sonja may soon face death both from without and within as her crew sails into the perilous unknown.

      

Nick's Cover Reveal

Title: A Change of Mind and Other Stories

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: Contemporary speculative fiction

Cover Design: Rebekah Romani

Release Date: May 25^th 2015

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

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The Kidnapping of Simon Ostrovsky

Last year when Russia invaded Ukraine, I started following the online videos of this great journalist, Simon Ostrovsky (an American born in Soviet Russia, both fluent and knowledgeable about the region). He often speaks to both sides of the conflict, getting himself and his cameras in places other Western Media have great difficulty doing. I really like his straightforward questions and his ability to get answers from people on opposing sides.

When I watched his online videos last year, I was surprised when he suddenly went missing for several days. No one could find him and many feared the worst. It turns out he was taken prisoner by the Pro-Russian rebels and was beaten and interrogated. Yet he did not break in the face of such inhuman injustice and was later released only to return to covering the story in Ukraine despite the danger to his life.

I find it truly inspiring to see someone fighting for truth and making such an effort to show both sides of the story in the ongoing propaganda war. If you have a chance, watch the interview about his experiences or some of his videos and judge for yourself. 

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Time for something tall, dark, and handsome…that’s right, a pint of Guinness! But just for my health, of course.

Just another fun day to sport some green, when everyone can celebrate being Irish. My little red head son told me the other day he wants to go to Ireland so that he can sing for “the little people.” So here’s a toast to everyone celebrating today, and may you have a fine St. Pat’s Day!

Slainte!   

Kaufman’s Hill

Last night, I had the honor of attending a book-signing session by my former professor, Dr. John Hampsey, as he read excerpts from his newly published memoir entitled Kaufman’s Hill. Sitting in the Book Passage bookstore inside the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, I got to listen to John Hampsey speak as he transported us to his childhood in Pittsburg during the early 1960s. Needless to say, it was both an entertaining and moving experience.

Chronicling his own personal experiences of a bygone era, Kaufman’s Hill is a heartfelt and insightful book that really enables any person of any generation to get into the mindset and world of 1960s America and what that meant to a young child. For me personally, it’s interesting to hear about what would be my parent’s generation and the many ways in which their upbringings were both similar and completely alien to my own childhood.

After his reading, I got a chance to reconnect with my former professor as he signed my copy of his book. It made me smile to see that he was still every inch the fascinating man I knew in college, and he remains as warmhearted and jovial as ever.

Kaufman’s Hill is a must-read for anyone who enjoys memoir or just a plain good story. You can order a copy online or look for it in a bookstore near you. I promise, you’ll enjoy it.