I find myself still thinking about goals this week. I think part of that was from a conversation I had with a coworker last week. My coworker runs marathons, but he only started that later in life. How did he complete his first marathon? He started out small. He started out running three miles, which he slowly increased. There were also adjustments to his diet to get ready. The changes he made, started out small, but keeping them consistent helped him reach the big goal.
Goals don’t have to be lofty, but it is good to have goals that make us stretch, as long as we don’t burn out. Sometimes, breaking larger goals into smaller pieces makes them more achievable. For me, that means that rather than focusing on becoming a full time author, I focus on my next chapter. I focus on making that character one of the best I’ve written, or making the dialogue a little better, or describing the next scene quicker and more fully.
Like I said last week, we all have goals, even if we don’t realize it. Think about the main character in the last story you read. Would that story have even happened if that character had not had a goal? Maybe the character’s goal was merely survival, or improving some aspect of his or her life.
In my next book, Dissonance, my characters each strive to reach their goals. Time travel is tearing the world apart, and only those that sense the resonance can feel the changes. It is a sequel to Resonance, which has surprised me with how many pages are read on Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Dissonance is available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle until September 3, 2021.
Check out some of my other books, which are available on Amazon Kindle and paperback.
My most recent book, an epic fantasy titled, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, was a fun book to write. It is set in a world with limited technology, but where sacrifice is a necessary element to magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical power generated. The few mages in power use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.
If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.
If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.
If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.
DANIEL R. BURKHARD 