Previous posts have been about comments I get from people, most of whom have not read the book. They're reacting to an ad and simple description about the book. 

As George M. Cohan, Mae West, or maybe it was P.T. Parnum once said, (no one knows for sure who said it):

"I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right."

That might have been true back in the day, but not now in this time of instant mass awareness of people and the things they do based on "alternative facts" and outright lies.

Negative reaction to anything having to do with the Unlived books will hurt. So far, the majority of comments have been positive. But I do watch out for a "Mandela Effect" taking hold.

You'll find a good explanation here of what that is if you want details. For the rest of you, it has to do with a large group of people sharing a false memory based on facts, true or not, and/or events that never happened.

How might that relate to the Unlived ads?

A significant minority commenting on an Unlived ad inviting them to think about ('visit') their own unlived lives, assume that means they must first give up the life they do lead. A minority of that minority gets pretty heated, making it clear they want no part of that.

Fortunately, others defend Unlived ads pointing out that is not what they say. The book is fiction; no one can literally visit an alternative life whether or not they are willing to give up the one life they do live.

I write them. They come from my imagination. Those who read them can use their imaginations to decide what, if anything, they mean to them.

Just one more thing I never imagined I might have to deal with when I began writing the Unlived series.   

In 2013, I published "The 7 Keys to Change": a nonfiction account instructing readers how to deal with personal and professional change.

The book began with the results of a random survey of 512 people aged 18 to 70, asking how much they felt each of 20 statements relating to change described them.

Here are two of the 20 responses:

• "Too many things changing all at once scares me"---28%
• "I get anxious when things change"---27%

Sixty-two percent agreed that "Change is inevitable, you couldn't stop it if you wanted to".

All the Unlived Lives characters are given a choice.

They can choose to stay as they are, in which case whatever that is will become their eternity. Or they can choose to visit lives they would have lived had they made different choices, searching for something better.

The comments and private messages I receive regarding Unlived Lives indicate approximately 1 out of 4 people who have only seen a description of the book would not risk visiting an unlived life looking for something better.

When it comes to how most people feel about change, not much has changed in the twelve years since I wrote 7 Keys.

I feel for the approximately 1 out of 4 who fear change, particularly those who also feel there is nothing they can do about it.

Feeling powerless about something you believe is inevitable is never good.

I occasionally like to revisit explanations of the 'multiverse', now generally accepted as being what most mean when referring to all parallel universes together.

I don't do this believing I will finally understand the science behind the Many Worlds Theory debate. I won't. Mostly I do it as a reminder to stay out of that debate, leaving it to those whose science education progressed beyond mine (high school botany, college biology.)

Here's one fairly recent article, if you're willing to accept one written four years ago, "updated" March of this year, as being recent.

There's always at least one '...to simplify it...' statement in these explanations. You know, where the author believes they have dumbed down something complex to a level people like me can understand. Like this from the above article.

"No matter what the two did, they couldn’t rid the receivers of background radio noise that, puzzlingly, seemed to be coming from all directions at once. Penzias contacted Princeton University physicist Robert Dicke who suggested that the radio noise might be cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), which is primordial microwave radiation that fills the universe. And that is the story of the discovery of CMB. Simple and elegant." 

(A little off topic, but reading the above again reminded me of the Steve Martin plumber joke. Ok, where was I?🤔 Oh, yeah...)  

My blog posts, book ads, the books themselves sometimes incite sciencetifity types who believe I believe I have said something they know to be false. They correct me.

People, my Unlived Lives stories are FICTION! All of it, made up. Not a word of truth in any of it. There's nothing for you to correct. 😲

(Unless you're my editor or Paula, then there is a lot for you to correct, which you get paid to do so shut up! 😠)

Asking someone to explain how there might be an infinite number of all of us "out there" somewhere, existing in an infinite number of universes parallel to the one we live in, is a big ask.

I'll take a stab at it.

You begin life as the only 'you'. Initially, others make choices for you, but the older you get the more you make (or don't make, not choosing is a choice) yourself.

Who makes the choice does not matter. What does matter is that each choice creates a large to infinite number of possible outcomes now followed by an equally large to infinite number of 'yous'.

The multiverse theory assumes the universe splits when a decision is reached, an action is taken. Decide to go here not there on vacation, SHAZAM: a new you in a new universe each of you becoming something different from that point onward based on your different choices. All your 'yous' continue down paths different from each other and the one you, the original 'you', is on.

Still with me?

Your new 'yous' are not identical copies of the original you. Soon, the vast majority will be so different as to be unrecognizable having ever been you. Different choices will lead to exponentially different outcomes no matter how small the choice option differences appear to be. 

Kind of like identical twins at birth who grow up looking nothing like the other.

After the divorce, one raised by dad, the other by mom, each parent practising a completely different approach to raising their twin.

I know this is true, one of my 'yous' told me it is. 😐️