We Find What We Look For

The world is a busy place. The news seems full of negative stories. When I go to work, I’m surrounded by the stress of my day job. Lately, it seems so much is happening that it’s hard to see the good things. Is it possible that my approach to the day has blinded me to the good things?

It certainly isn’t easy to recognize the good things. In my day job, with so much happening, it seems that blindness is prevalent. But I think good things still happen. All around us, people are doing small and simple things that might only help one other person. Sometimes, they are so small and seemingly insignificant that we might miss them, if we don’t look for them.

This week, that is what I tried to do. As I wake each morning and get ready for the day, I’ve reminded myself that I would look for a few good things. I’ve been trying to change my perception of life around me. Then, at the end of the day, I’ve tried to identify three good things I saw. Maybe it is as simple as someone smiling or saying “hi.” But as I have done that this week, it has helped me calm my reaction to the stress my day job brings.

I’m kind of approaching this in the same way I think about my characters in my stories. As I develop certain characters, I try to identify how they see the world. Some may have a really dark view of the world. When they look at it, all they see are problems, and stress. They’re just getting through life. Others see the world in a brighter light. For a character to truly grow in a story, their view of the world needs to be challenged. If they see the world too darkly, maybe the story will bring some light in to challenge them.

As I write everyday, working to make each one of my stories better, I find I’m also seeing ways I can improve. When you think about it, in the best books, the characters grow. I’m like that. I’m still learning to get through my challenges. So far, this week, trying to see the positive things around me has helped me find them. I’m not saying I will ignore the bad that happens. I’m just saying that I will look for the good. We find what we look for.

I’ve written ten chapters of my next book. I carried on in the outline I started for Resonance and, Dissonance. I plan to have this third book done by January or earlier. Some of the items that were hinted at in the first two books will come to the forefront in this third book. Wyatt, the protagonist, will face his toughest choices yet.

Check out my other books.

My fantasy, 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 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.