As I prepare my revised outline and develop my characters more, I’ve realized some of what makes us interesting is our quirks. Everyone, even those who are smart and seem to have everything figured out, may do odd things. A couple of my characters needed this added depth to their lives. For one, it might be a limp, for another it could be a way they speak.
For my current work in progress, I’ve taken the last couple weeks to interview my characters on paper. I’m trying to find out more about what drives their actions. In the process, I’ve really thought about the characters and what makes them strong, but these last few days, I’ve been more about what makes them unique. Everyone has flaws, and sometimes those flaws can reveal strengths that would otherwise be hidden.
My next book is going to be my best one so far. I’m having so much fun with my characters. I want to make this book different and better than my other books. To do that, I need my unique characters to really come alive in a world with steam power and diminishing magic.
Check out my other books on Amazon.
My last book, Collected Lives, takes place near the end of the twenty-second century, with vacations and tourism to Earth by off-worlders controlled by major corporations. The largest corporation, Collected Lives, has several enemies. The story follows the events as four people from different portions of Collected Lives’ process are thrown into the middle of a larger problem.
My fantasy, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, 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.
Malignance, my third book in my time travel series that began with Resonance and Dissonance, is on Amazon as a kindle and a paperback. That was a fun series to write, and for now, it is completed. I have also placed all three books from that series into one volume titled The Machina of Time.
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 