I find myself thinking about people a lot as I interact with them throughout the day. Part of that comes from the way I’m constantly thinking about my next story and trying to make my characters come even more alive. As I pay attention to the people I interact with each day, I’ve noticed a few things.
Some people seem to have it all figured out, and some others seem to struggle with many things. What I’ve realized lately is that some of those people that seem to have it all figured out, still struggle with things, but are better at keeping their problems in the background. When I think about this with my characters, or characters in most stories, they begin the book having a decent understanding or expectation of what should happen.
The stories really begin once that world of the character’s expectations and understandings falls apart. Some event or change forces them to react. If they don’t adapt, they’ll constantly react to the situation. If the character adapts to the situation, they shift from reactive to proactive. It’s the same with real people. By adapting to changes, real growth can come.
I enjoy writing and working on making my writing better. Check out my books on Amazon.
My latest book, For All the Stones, takes place in a world that is coming to terms with the rising technology and the waning magic. Even though the magic has faded, some are still after the ancient glories of the mages who once ruled the land.
My 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 ancient technology where sacrifice of lifeforce brings magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical energy generated. The Forty mages controlling the empire 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 