A note from the Author
Somewhere in time, in a parallel universe…
“Now is not the time to throw in the towel. This is the time to stay positive and stay in hope. At least learn the secret to overcoming fight and flight: rest – but being at rest in an animated state. Only then can you fight the monsters.”
---Ireu, Agenda 22
Hi everyone, my name is Octavio Claudio Salazar Rhodes. I am an author and writer of a first anthology series I have worked for 6+ years that I am about to release. It is an 8+ anthology volume series in the genre of existential sci-fi fantasy drama I’m very proud of, and beta readers have really been eating it up. But just like life now, the theme behind the story has taken a turn for the surreal.
For as you know now, in our real world, it is starting to feel like life on the planet itself seems to have taken a wrong turn. Perhaps you feel it too: like we appear to be living in a parallel universe now – as if we are facing a massive shift; a new age of reckoning on this planet.
You don’t know how ironic it feels for me to say this: the thing is, Agenda 22 is a story that focuses on the idea of the human condition during a time where the planet my two protagonists live in is undergoing a tribulation; a new season opening up that feels like it is really challenging the peace of humanity. My two main characters and their allies live in a world that is forcing them in a corner as not just their personal lives, hopes, and dreams, but the whole world becomes threatened by a physical anomaly never experienced before on the planet.
So, imagine being me and about to release a story like this: story involving the notion of the end of the world…while in real life we feel nature is playing tricks in our minds right now that lay us in a fight or flight feeling like – it’s the end of the world.
Considering the turmoil, I thought about withholding release of this story right now for a happier age. But then I realized screw it. The timing is what it is, and I accept it. And more importantly, this story may be just what the doctor ordered. The existential themes, struggles – and above all else, the hope…the hope…the hope this tale brings to the reader along with its spiritual theme are strong keys that resonate for a time such as this.
Enjoy the read – and keep strong!
“Do not let those anxieties get a foothold. They are not the same thing as prudence. They have never helped you before; what makes you think they will help you now? Whatever you meditate in abundance will eventually take over and consume your life. That’s how you overcome in a dying planetfall.”
--- ‘Wise’ Rae-Susan, Agenda 22
