The Stigma

About the Book

James Billingsly grew up watching television. Every night he would have celebrities into his home, millionaires as his unwitting guests in his young life. As the years went by, a feeling grew inside of James; a feeling that he would one day be on the other side of the screen, that one day it would be he who was the unwitting guest in the home of some other young boy or girl, giving false hope to the next generation. As they years drifted by, James grew aimless, disenchanted even, too caught up in the luxurious gleam of his mind's eye to bother with such mundane rites of passage as college and career preparation because when he made it big it would be then that he would be rich enough to finally be happy. Although his present job, bagging groceries at a grocery store, was a far cry from where he thought, and hoped, to be in his early twenties, it did afford him the one chance to get where he always thought it would be. Pete Wilsher is a rarity in the year 2011, a junkie. He grew up watching stories of celebrities with addictions and figured that if he could just do enough drugs than he could make it to that super elite level. Even in the grips of a devastating heroin addiction, he still believed that there was light at the end of the tunnel. If he could just get enough cash to get his next score, without having to actually work for it, then he would be okay. These two lost souls comprise but one of the infinite stigmas. Both of their lives forever changed on one night, sending them in vastly different directions while remaining held within the confines of the stigma that will forever bind the two together. America in 2011 is a different place as well. Rampant pregnancy by teens has dissolved what was once the middle class, forming an upper and lower class, the haves and have-nots. House mortgages are adopted by lower class families like children once were adopted by upper class families. And if one cannot make the mortgage payment then a lower upper class person will find themselves subject to incarceration. The ills of the current day are disguised by The Enlightenment; a government run positive propaganda campaign aimed to keep the have-nots from worrying about their lives.

About the Author

J. Floyd King was born in the southern California city of San Diego. He received his primary and secondary schooling in that city then sought to find a smaller, more serene place to live his life. He, his wife and their dog moved to Flagstaff, Arizona where he began writing full time and continue to do so to this day. His recreation time is spent reading all forms of written text. Some of his favorite authors are Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway and Arthur C. Clarke.