Writing The Unlived Lives trilogy required imagining the unlived lives of the characters I created. Not always an easy task.

I would wake up at one or two in the morning, unable to fall back asleep, stuck on how I wanted Raymond, Shelly, and the others’ stories to go. 

Very frustrating; if I didn’t know what it should be while writing during the day, why would I suddenly be able to figure it out, sleep-deprived, in the middle of the night?

Raymond and Shelly would certainly want to be the couple riding a scooter on a beach. And if that were one of their unlived lives, the dialogue between Raymond and Asian in the video would become obvious. 

“What do you want, Ray? When you know, make it happen.”

Do you want to live a life different from the one you currently live? Start by imagining what that would be. List the steps you need to take to make it happen. If you find yourself thinking it could never happen, it never will. 

To make better choices in the future, Raymond, Shelly, and all the other Unlived Lives characters were given the opportunity to explore the lives they could have lived had they made different choices in the past. You can too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPGSCX1K

“The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War” is about a group of doughboys, slang for US Army soldiers in WWI. It includes a quote from Orson Warren, the father of Bill Warren, who served in Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. 

"Orson Warren, born in 1860, seems to have had as little luck achieving professional success as he did in controlling his oldest child. Orson would admit in an autobiographical sketch he wrote in 1934: “The fact is, I have during my career lingered near the bottom rung. Then, too, my life has been so full of blunders it isn’t pleasant to think of having them paraded.”

The last sentence is highlighted to emphasize what is true for most of us. We list our regrets, not our accomplishments, including the author of this book, when talking about someone else.

More often than not, most readers commenting on my books do the same, talking about their unlived lives. I tell them to look for what they are pleased they did and said, along with what they wish they hadn’t. We need to do both to do more of the former and less of the latter in the future. I tell them that’s what they should do, though I don't always do it myself. 

Orson Warren found his “blunders” being “paraded” to be unpleasant. He graduated from college, became a teacher, married, and had a family. There was good he could have cited as well if he'd only looked for it.

​Don’t do what Orson did, or me, for that matter. Examine your life, but do so looking for good and the bad. You will find both.

The Unlived Lives trilogy reminds readers of other books addressing similar themes, particularly The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. But the concept of lives not lived is not new or unique to Matt or me.

An exact match for a Google search for “unlived lives” returns approximately 21,000 URLs. Remove the quotes, and Google finds 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 matching URLs globally.

I started writing The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn a little over ten years ago. No plan for what I would do with it; just something to occupy my time. I’ve since added The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett and The Unlived Lives Reckoning, completing the Unlived Lives trilogy. 

​That’s enough “unlived lives” from me; we’ll now see what others interested in the concept might have in mind.

In the meantime, take some time to contemplate the lives you might have lived had you made different choices in the past. As content as you are with where you are today, there’s always room for improvement. 

You’ll never know for sure what might have been, but you could change what happens tomorrow if you choose differently today.

Hardly a day goes by without emails, texts, and messages from readers of the Unlived Lives trilogy. The majority are about how the books prompted them to examine their life choices. That wasn't my intent; I was just writing fiction. But I understand why it happened, because it did for me as well.

But you don't need to read a book about past choices to wonder how different your life would be if you had acted differently. The Unlived Lives trilogy just makes it very hard not to think about it, in most cases, leading you to conclude that your regrets outweigh your happiness.

Examine your life, but do so with an eye for what you got right as well as what you didn't. Learn from it, remember it when making that next important decision. 

We all get second (third, fourth, etc.) chances in life; apply what you've learned from the past to improve your future. It’s never too late to change.

All three books in the Unlived trilogy are now available in print, digital, and audio formats. Total sales for each are running about as expected, except for audio.

To date, Raymond has sold the most total and audio because:

• It has been available a year longer than Shelly and a year and a half longer than Reckoning.
  
• I've encouraged those interested in the trilogy to first read or listen to Raymond, then Shelly, and, if they're still interested, Reckoning, to follow the trilogy storyline. 
  
• Raymond has benefited from far more financial marketing support than Shelly and Reckoning to this point.

As of today, audio accounts for 13% of Raymond's total sales, 15% of Shelly's, and 17% of Reckoning's, not enough on its own to justify the cost of producing an audio version.

That doesn't mean I regret offering audio, but I do question whether it will ever become part of the "cake" or, at best, remain a thin coating of "icing" on the "cake".

I don't control audio pricing; ACX does. Without a subscription, audio versions cost two to three times as much as print or digital editions.

What percentage more than a digital copy, the least expensive of the three formats, would you be willing to pay for books you read or listen to?