Life is tough some times. In my experience, however, focusing on the negative around me, doesn’t make me any happier. I find that taking the time to notice the good helps me be more cheerful. Some of the most joyful people I’ve met seem to not notice, or at least not focus on, what they don’t have. I have to work hard, amidst all the stress of my day job, but I’m getting better.
This has been a great week. I’ve read through my next book for the second time, and have made quite a few corrections. It is almost ready, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Dissonance will go live on Amazon Kindle on September 3, 2021. The paperback and hardback copies will go live about that same time. With all the stress in my over forty hour work week at my day job, it feels good to be this close to reaching another writing goal. I wish I had the ability to time travel, like my characters in that book, but as far as I know, time travel is still fiction. It’s probably better that way.
Writing every day is one of my goals. I’ve been doing well, pushing myself to get up earlier or stay up later to accomplish it. I want to write 4,000 to 5,000 words a day (about four to four and a half hours on a good day). With a good outline, I can write at that pace, even though I’ve had to carve out an hour in the morning, almost an hour at lunch, and two hours in the evening. I’ve done well with that goal, but haven’t always reached that word count.
On top of writing, I also read and listen to books. I love good stories. Science Fiction and Fantasy are my favorites, but I will read any good story that catches my interest. Both writing and reading books are my means of escape from my stress.
Life is not always easy, but looking for the good things helps me be happier. Setting goals gives me purpose. Writing gives me an escape. They all help me to deal with the stresses of life.
I’d love some more preorders of my next book, Dissonance, out as a preorder on Amazon Kindle until September 3. in that book, 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.
My most recent book, an epic fantasy titled, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, was a fun book to write. I just recently lowered the price of the ebook. 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 tidally locked 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 