The Universe of Tokorel

The Universe of Tokorel

By Drew Bankston

A number of years ago, while writing some short stories with a friend of mine just for the fun of it, I developed the universe of Tokorel. You might wonder what exactly this universe is and why it’s different. If so, I’m about to tell you. So, sit back and get ready for a trip to a place that will make you smile, laugh and question everything thing that you believed about reality and fantasy!

The universe of Tokorel started with a character named Permac. Permac was a handsome and rugged young man from the world of Tokorel. His home world is an interesting one. Each person has the unique ability to sense and influence the emotions of others.

The Tokorellans were descendants of people from the planet, Khizara. It had been 200 years since the Tokorellans and the Khizarans had been in contact with each other, when Permac and a woman archaeologist from Khizara, Linsora, met. Still with me? Perhaps I should go back that 200 years and tell you why they, the Khizarans and the Tokorellans, split.

So, 200 years ago a man named Tokor, a botanist, had received permission from the Prefecture on Khizara, to explore some other planets and look at the possibility of bringing back foreign plants to enhance the local food supply. After exploring, Tokor brought back a plant that he called, Tejina. This plant yielded a fruit called Chikara which was very sweet, juicy and made a wonderful addition to other fruits on the planet. But Tokor wanted to be sure that this foreign fruit was going to be safe from others as well as being safe for others to eat, and so he kept it to himself while he tested it.

Eventually, he discovered that after eating the fruit, he started to develop some interesting abilities; the abilities to sense and influence emotions. That, is another story. Over time he learned to control his powers and started feeding a chosen few the Chikara fruit, teaching them how to control their abilities as well. But secrets are not things to hide on Khizara and eventually word spread. The population of Khizara thought that Tokor’s powers were demonic. After he and his followers were threatened with death, he was allowed to flee the planet, banished forever. When his travels led him to a new and abandoned planet, he formed a society where his followers could learn to cultivate the new plants that gave them the amazing powers.

When news got back to the people of Khizara, they were horrified that the demons had escaped with their lives and actually thrived somewhere else. Rumors spread that the new race would eventually come back and exact revenge on their brothers. That day never came. Eventually, the Tokorellans, at least a few of them, left Tokorel and tried to blend in as Khizarans. That’s where Permac enters the picture. You see, Permac was one of those who left Tokorel. He ran into a Khizaran woman named Linsora, and did his best to become her friend. Eventually, however, she discovered who he really was and 200 years of fear, superstition and distorted stories culminated in her attempts to kill the demon, There’s much more to this story and I hope that you’ll check back week to learn more!

Successful You in 60 Days

Successful You in 6o Days

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a “60 Days to Success” program.  It’s something that I’m working on and creating for myself, developing it into something that everyone can use. (If you’re attempting to build a Battleship, this might not work for you!) The success won’t necessarily be to complete a project, but instead will be a way for a person to prepare to be successful in reaching goals and aspirations. Right now, I’m three weeks into what I hope will be a revolutionary approach to reaching success, and I’m very happy with how things are progressing. Tomorrow, I’ll begin taking my notes and putting them together and into a short book because I want to share my techniques with you. I firmly believe that I’m seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and I want you to see it in your life too!

When I first decided to embark on this amazing endeavor, I wasn’t sure that 60 days would be enough time to reach that stage where success would be drawn to me. Now that I’ve reached 21 days, I’m certain that 60 days will be more than enough time. I’m seeing some major changes in my life already, and I’m sure that by following what I’ve been doing, you’ll see big changes in your life as well after only three weeks. I can’t wait to see where I am when that sixty-day point arrives.

So, please check back with this blog as I post more about my progress, but also follow my Twitter feed (@drewbankston1) as well as my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDrewBankston/). I’ll post updates frequently in those 2 places. Don’t let failure take over your life. Success can be yours in 60 days. I’m going to be living proof and I’ll share that success with you. Are you ready?

A Rainy Day in Alternative

A Rainy Day in Alternative, CO

Depending on the time of the year, people either love or hate the rain in Alternative. At the beginning of spring, people tend to not like it so much. It’s a flood or drought situation, and so the residents here watch the winter to see how much snowfall there is in the mountains before making their decisions on how they feel about the spring rains. This year, there’s been a lot of snow in the mountains but not so much here in the plains areas around Alternative. Since the Big Richardson River flows right through the heart of town, a lot of snow in the mountains and a lot of rain in the spring is a very bad combination, creating the possibility of floods in town.

The flooding only occurs in the center of town, but at the outskirts where many of the farms are, it doesn’t flood, but it just becomes a great and muddy mess. Harvey Johnson owns one of those farms and when he comes into town to buy supplies, he spends hours complaining about how his plows are just going to end up with either large clumps soil on the blades or furrows that fill in immediately after the plow passes. He’d sit at the table by the front door of the Farm and Ranch Supply store and talk to Gill, the store manager. Gill would listen patiently but then point out that his house was one block west of Center Street and in the flood plain.

When he first bought his house, no one told him about the floods. Of course, it had been dry for a number of years and perhaps people forgot about the flooding. Gill was thrilled about the location of the house and loved the fact that he could see the river and hear the babbling from a few blocks over. It wasn’t until he had lived in his home for two years until he found out about the flooding. He found out when a storm moved in the first week of April after a snowy mountain winter. The snows were melting with above average temperatures. The river was swelling and the rains made it overflow its banks. So when Gill took a step out of his front door, it was at the edge of the river. Fortunately, the waters didn’t get any higher than that, but Gill was spooked and now never knew when to expect a repeat. When he confronted Bart Gilmore, the original owner of the house, Bart would only shrug his shoulders and smile.

Bart really didn’t think about the flooding much. But it was such a coincidence that after selling his house to Gill, Bart ended up moving three miles to the west on a great lot by the lake where he could see the fireworks every July from his back yard while bar-b-queuing for his friends.  His backyard was the place to go in July as he had plenty of parking and always provided great food. His wife, Justine, was one of the original settlers of Alternative. She loved the little town and hoped to see it grow in her lifetime. And it did. She loved it. She loved seeing and meeting new people. She had seen the floods come and go. She’d seen her share of drought. She looked at the springtime as a change. She loved the new flowers and the warmer weather. She would listen to the residents, new and old, voice their opinion of the weather, and she would only smile and nod, knowing that the weather is what it is and will do what it will each year.

But regardless of how the residents of Alternative felt about the rain in the spring, they all agreed that the May flowers were the best in the country, and that would make them all smile.

That’s what’s going on this week in Alternative, Colorado, where people do things just a little differently.

Tokorel

Tokorel

Several years ago, I teamed up with a wonderful woman named Deb Alverson. We found that we both loved to write. We both loved science fiction. We both loved conventions. We both decided to start writing together. We both decided to put our ideas and characters together and develop a universe that I created. The universe of Tokorel.

Now, several years later, this universe is beginning to be noticed. So, over the next few months I want to write about this universe. I want to give you stories and back stories and more stories about this universe and the characters within it. So today is going to be short. It’s going to be brief. Beginning next week, the stories will begin. I’ll give you stories about Tokorel and links where you can find more stories about the universe and Khizara. Get ready to be amazed, addicted and astonished. Tokorel is something that you’ll never forget.

Drew

New Year in Alternative, Colorado

New Year in Alternative, Colorado

Where the People Think of Other Things to Do

It’s New Year in Alternative. Actually, New Year’s Eve in Alternative. I asked my kids how they wanted to ring in the New Year and their response was, “What can we do?”

With that question, I decided to do some investigating and had the kids walk with me through the town this evening. We would have just Goggled to see what was going on, but Alternative is pretty much off the grid. There is no town website, at least nothing that’s kept current. Rick Marcus was the local IT guy who decided to give it a go by putting a website up for the town. He did his best, he really did, but when he would get something up about the town, the town would change what it wanted to do, and the webpage would immediately be out of date. Rick tried to talk to the Mayor about it, but the Mayor would just scratch his head and smile awkwardly and shrug his shoulders, which would frustrate Rick to no end, and he would throw up his hands and walk away.

The mayor, of course, would smile slightly after Rick would walk away and turn to his assistant, Beth, and tell her how he really didn’t want the town on the internet and how much he was certain that others in town felt the same way.

Beth, of course, would head off to the Women’s Winter Gardening Club where she would ask the group if they wanted a website up and receive a mix of yes and no from her group, in between all of them trying to figure out the best ways to grow herbs indoors and which ones were the very best for healthy living. Then the group would talk about what plants to bring to the New Year’s Eve celebration at the local high school, where there would be a dance, refreshments courtesy of the city and a live local band. Brad Corbet and the Ski Masks were going to be playing. When they first started they actually wore ski masks but then realized quickly how difficult it was to sing and be understood in ski masks. So I mentioned to my kids that there was going to be a gathering at the school to which they nodded and smiled and asked what else was going on.

We happened to run into Mary Jo Sylvan, whose husband, Grover, named after Grover Cleveland and not the Sesame Street character, belonged to the local Elks Club. Most of the time, Mary Jo didn’t talk about what was going on at the club, but tonight she had to talk about the gathering that they were putting on for ringing in the New Year. She said that it was going to be a family event with a big screen TV tuned to whatever station had the very best coverage of ringing in the New Year and probably the ball drop from New York. Jake, down at the local cable company was actually planning on having a special on channel 17 that would run all day and show how countries around the world celebrate the New Year arriving, and the Elks wanted to show that. After hearing that, my kids actually decided that they wanted to celebrate ringing in the New Year in the last place that I thought, at our house. So, we pulled up the local cable special, had sparkling cider, made tons of finger foods and laughed, smiled and realized how lucky we were as a family. Alternative was the best thing we’ve done, and I can’t wait to see what adventures are coming this new year.

My New Year!

My New Year

Monday, December 26^th, is my New Year. That’s right. It’s not the same as everyone else. It doesn’t begin on January 1^st but it begins on December 26^th. That’s when I make my resolutions. That’s when I begin planning for the next 365 days. That’s the day when I decide how I’m going to work each day, to get myself to that point in life where I become the person that I want to be in the eyes of my fans, friends, family and loved ones.

Monday is my new year. My birthday. The beginning of my new year. I’ll probably take December 31^st to reaffirm the resolutions that I make on my birthday. I’ll take the month of January to decide if I made the right decisions. I’ll decide if I need to tweak anything in order to reach the goals that I want to reach. I’m going to do the things that I need to do, to be successful this coming year and be the best person, the best writer and the best businessman that I can be.

I know that no one can change overnight. I understand that change, no matter how well intended, needs to be planned out, prepared for and executed in such a way as to ensure success. If you don’t do that why even bother? I’ve seen so many people who decide that tomorrow is the day when they will begin a new behavior. They do so without any preparation, and they end up failing in their efforts.

I’ve taken this past year to try different things just to see what would work, and what wouldn’t, and now I’ve come up with a plan. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be the most difficult year of my life, but in the end, it’s going to be worth it, and every year after this will be the best, the most fun and the most wonderful years of my life.

I want each of you to come with me on this journey. I will keep you updated on my progress and I would love to hear from you with your thoughts, suggestions and comments. You can post your thoughts here, or feel free to Email me at author@drewbankston.com.  If you go to my website (drewbankston.com) and sign up to be on my mailing list as part of my team, you’ll most likely have the opportunity to get free books, free other stuff and help me get this year underway. So, yeah, tomorrow is the first day of my new year and a year that’s going to be incredible. Tomorrow will begin the best of all years that I’ve ever lived. Come. Join me. Let’s make this year the very best, together.

Preparing for 2017

It’s really interesting to me, that at the end of 2015 people were saying what an awful year it was and how 2016 will be the best year ever! Now I’m seeing posts on social media echoing the sentiments of last year. People are talking about how 2016 was terrible and how 2017 will turn lives around.

For me, 2016 was an amazing year. No, I didn’t win the lottery and I didn’t inherit millions of dollars. But, I did decide to make each day a wonderful day, and I was able to maintain that thought everyday. I started each morning by encouraging others to have the best day ever. In doing that, I feel that I was encouraging myself to do the same. It worked! Even though, as with every road, I encountered bumps and ruts and daily discouragements, for some reason they didn’t seem as bad as they might have been. I found myself focusing on the solutions to the problems rather than the problems themselves and looking for answers rather than dwelling on the difficulties in finding them. This type of attitude made each day, when the day was over, a joy and a blessing. Life became something that I looked forward to each moment of each day, and the next day was anticipated with great zeal.

At the end of the year, just like the end of each day, I’m able to look back and say that this was an incredible year. I can see where my shortcomings cropped up and the parts of my life that need work for this coming year so that I can make 2017 even better than this year has been. I can honestly say that 2017 will be amazing. I can already see it coming. I know where I want to be at the end of the year and I know how I want to get there. Will I make it? I hope so. I want to be a well known author. I want to be even more successful than I was this year. I want to be a better person. These are big “wants” and will only be realized through hard work, daily evaluations, goal setting and ever changing action plans. I believe that I’ve laid down the foundation to bring it all together. 2017 will be a year for change. This will be a year of progress. This will be a year of realizations. Better than 2016, which was amazing. So yes, 2017 will be a better year, but 2016 wasn’t bad. It wasn’t bad at all. It built a runway to launch my dreams to new heights and from there, I’ll be able to see for miles. I’m prepared for 2017. Are you?

Drew~