While writing over the last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about missed opportunities. While writing my protagonists story in the current book I’m writing, the protagonist has missed several. Some of them, he intentionally missed, and some were thrust upon him, and he turned the other way. Those events needed to happen to show how that character suffers, struggles, and grows through the book. I think we’d have to be perfect not to miss some opportunities and the main character in my story hasn’t missed everything. But there are some small events that shape how the rest of the story will play out.
That’s sounding a lot like life. Looking back, I see many times I’ve let good things slip by because I didn’t want to put in the effort or maybe I was scared. In the process of building the protagonist of my next book, I envisioned some of the events that led to the opening scenes of the book. These are all part of the backstory, but they were important for me to flesh out to know how he would react with certain new challenges. My protagonist is a little older and hardened by his life experiences, which blinds him to the opportunities he doesn’t expect to see. Some of those, had he chosen them, would have changed the entire course of the story.
I’m sure many others may feel the same way when they look back at their experiences. It’s easy to look back at my mistakes or choices and imagine how different my life might have been. That’s the same type of thoughts that my protagonist may struggle with, but for the story to work, he will have to get through that and focus on what he can do now.
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 