Conflicting Paths

As I look back upon my life-journey I see thousands and thousands of choices.  Have you ever wondered, "What if?"  I have.  It became one of my favorite episodic comic stories produced by Marvel...What if?  The writers would take a popular character and retell a story that featured a pivotal decision or event.  Only in this What if? episode, Marvel had the character making a different choice, thus altering his/her life.  It is the classic It's a Wonderful Life journey.  If you could go back and change one choice...alter the outcome of one event would you?

Choices I made as a child...a teenager...and an adult have helped make me who I am today.  Is that good or bad?  Could I have been better?  Could I have been worse?  Of course all we can do is ponder the question.  As of this moment there are no magical or technical devices that can take us back...give us the ultimate mulligan on life.  But we do have the future before us.  If we could go back and would, then how does that affect the decisions we are making right now?  How does this knowledge alter the journey ahead?

In my current book series which began with The Pact my characters will face those very questions...they may even get the opportunity to go back.  Would they?  Should they?  And, if they do, will their lives turn out better or worse?  Should we just leave "well enough alone"?  As of this moment, I plan to write four books in this series.  Book two, The Dragon's Pawn, is set to release on April 3, 2014.  I know what I want to do with the characters and their stories.  I have books three and four planned.  Will that change as I actually write the story?  Only time will tell.

Even the writing path upon which I now stand has its choices.  I have a detective series I am longing to write, but it is geared for adults and is quite a bit more graphic and edgy in its content.  I believe it has a worth while message, but does that justify a darker story?  Or should I just be content to stay with the young adult genre and crank out stories that are made for older children and younger teens?

It's a tough decision.  Both story-lines ebb and flow through my mind, my heart and my dreams.  If I had the time, I would write both...but I do not.  So, here I stand once again at the fork of two roads...two life-journeys...two conflicting paths.  Which way should I go?  I hope I don't look back many years from now and wonder, "What if?"

Mitchell