It's time to leave Earth and cross over to the other side... it's not as far away as you think!!
Megan Thomason is here today to talk about dystopias. This is continued from Little Library Muse. . .
I’ve
encountered a lot of extremes in my life and have always been fascinated by
them, which is probably why I enjoy dystopias so much.
What
makes for a good dystopia?
The
dystopia category is pretty broad these days. By definition a dystopian world
must have:
Extremely
bad living conditions due to deprivation, oppression, or terror
By
that definition my kids probably think our home qualifies. There’s a whole list
of pets they’ve asked for that we continue to deprive them of (yes, they’ve
asked for sharks, ferrets, alligators, more cats—you name it…if they had their
way we’d live in a zoo/aquarium). In a terribly oppressive move, we ask the kids
to help with the occasional chore. And well, with five kids they pretty much
terrorize each other, so that’s covered too.
Brad: You
should have your kids take the SCI Test. They could put all that energy and
enthusiasm to use helping other people.
Megan: I’m
going to ignore that suggestion. I think they’d prefer our home dystopia to your
seriously messed up one. As for books, I personally prefer dystopias that
explore interesting societal and moral dilemmas to catastrophic
conditions/survival stories (though, if the entertainment value is high, I’ll
still read the latter).
The
very best dystopias, in my opinion, have a well formed government enforcing
extremes. A well written dystopia will explore, without
belaboring:
-
What events drove them to shift the way they governed?
-
What results are the dystopia looking to achieve?
-
What methods do the governments use to achieve the desired result?
The guest post continues at Red-Headed Bookworm. . .
Megan Thomason lives in paradise aka San Diego, CA with her husband and five children. A former software manager, Megan vastly prefers writing twisted tales to business, product, and marketing plans. When she isn't typing away on her laptop, she's reading books on her phone—over 600 in the last year—or attending to the needs of her family. Megan’s fluent in sarcasm, could potentially benefit from a 12-step program for road rage, struggles with a Hot Tamales addiction, loves world travel & fast cars and hates paperwork & being an insomniac. Daynight is Megan's first published novel, but fourth written one.
Find & Follow:
daynight
by Megan Thomason
Paperback, 324 pages
Published November 26th 2012 by Creatspace
Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance™. Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving—forced lifetime union between two people who have sex. Punishment for disobeying SCI edicts? Immediate Exile or death.
Meet Kira Donovan. Fiercely loyal, overly optimistic, and ensnared by the promise of a full-ride college scholarship, Kira signs the SCI Recruit contract to escape memories of a tragedy that left her boyfriend and friends dead.
Meet Blake Sundry. Bitter about being raised in Exile and his mother’s death, Blake’s been trained to infiltrate and destroy the SCI. Current barrier to success? His Recruit partner—Miss Goody Two Shoes Kira Donovan.
Meet Ethan Darcton. Born with a defective heart and resulting inferiority complex, Ethan’s forced to do his SCI elite family’s bidding. Cleave-worthy Kira Donovan catches his eye, but the presiding powers give defect-free Blake Sundry first dibs.
Introducing... the new Novella: FREE for the Tour!
On Smashwords!
clean slate complex
by Megan Thomason
Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Worldwide non-profit and do-gooder organization. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Life(TM). Reality: hidden behind every kind act is a dark agenda designed to gain control and force societal and moral extremes. Currently, the SCI’s pushing Project Liberate, a program to woo the poor and downtrodden into their Clean Slate Complexes—where “everything is provided” from jobs to food, shelter, clothing, and education. Unfortunately, as with all things that sound too good to be true, there’s a catch…
Meet Alexa Knight. Feisty, tough and currently homeless in Los Angeles, Alexa agrees to help the SCI in return for medical care for her sick mother. When she starts to suspect there’s more to the SCI than meets the eye will she believe Adam—the boy who saved her life and the SCI’s biggest champion, or Joshua—the attractive enigma who sings about conspiracy theories and pretends to be someone he’s not?
Full of action, humor, romance, twists and turns, clean slate complex is a companion story to the highly-praised dystopian novel, daynight. It can be enjoyed before or after readingdaynight.
Doon (Doon #1)
