Born into one of the three corporations that, between them, own Earth and it’s 700 million humans, Leila feels trapped. Her whole life has been mapped out, and even the things she can see and hear are controlled by a visor she is forced to wear.
Meanwhile, Zach - an orphan raised by a rival company - knows his place, and wants nothing more from his future than to become the best security investigator he can be: upholding the contracts of this shining, corporate utopia.
When a bomb goes off in Leila’s school, however, their worlds and ideals collide as they’re forced to face the reality of life both inside and outside the corporate system. If the pair are to have any chance of achieving the futures they want, they must put aside their differences and find out who was really behind the attack.
But with the truth likely to throw the world into chaos, there will be no shortage of people trying to stop them.
My name is Martin Sturrock, and I have long dreamed of being a published author, but only recently found the courage to pursue my dream. I love story-telling in all it’s forms, and prefer not to restrict myself to any one particular media, or genre. I enjoy the best entertainment on offer from TV, movies, books and games - and my writing, I hope, reflects this diversity.
I worked for many years as a teaching assistant for primary/secondary age children and, as I believe it’s vitally important to guide people during these formative years, I write primarily for a middle grade and young adult audience. I have been told I write in a simple, "un-flowery", fashion suitable for younger readers, but because I don’t shy away from tough subjects and hard choices, my work appeals just as much to adults.
I am, as yet, unpublished, but over the last few years I have written seven complete manuscripts, all of which fit within a "Pratchettesque" shared-universe. I have a particular love of trilogies, and most of what I have written, including The Lonely Pixel, have sequels in the works.
One of these stories, The Dogs of Legacy, was shortlisted for the Times/Chicken House 2015 competition, while The Lonely Pixel was long-listed in the 2016 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition.
During the recent growth of Augmented Reality technologies, I began to wonder how far companies would go to obscure the competition. Would an AR headset simply not recognise products from a rival, or could they go so far as to "blur out" or delete advertisements from the competition? What other things might these companies not want you to see?
These sorts of thoughts led to the world of The Lonely Pixel, where most of humanity is born into one of three mega-corporations; only able to see the people, products, and future their birth-company wants them to see.
I also wanted to avoid the usual dystopian future trappings that often leave me wondering "how did our world get in such as state - surely there would have been an uprising long before things got this bad?" So, while the Lonely Pixel’s world has little freedom and no privacy, to some it’ll seem a paradise, free from wants, disease, old age, and prejudices.
If I’ve written the book well, some people who read it will hate the idea of this sterile future, while others will be quite happy to live in such a world. The two protagonists of the story emphasize these contrasting viewpoints, falling at either end of the spectrum, with the truth somewhere in the middle.