Welcome back to “The Story Behind the Stories.” A series in which I take you through the journey of where the idea for my stories came from, and why I wrote them. Some have a particular meaning behind them, while others were taken from a true-life event I experienced, with a little dramatic license added where needed.

Short stories are where it all started for me when I embarked on this writer’s journey. When coming up with ideas, I wanted to craft something meaningful. I didn’t want to just create a bland story that had nothing behind it. I wanted to make an impact with my writing. Either profound or for basic entertainment. I wanted what I wrote to matter.

This week’s post will be lighter than last week’s on the background behind the story of The Forgotten. I wanted to come back to a story that I had the most fun attempting to write. Although it does still tackle a moral, or at least something I wanted to highlight in humanity. The concept of its origin I wanted to bake into the story itself. Make it part of the story.

This is the story behind A Changing of Times.

Spoilers lie ahead beyond this point. I would suggest going to my site to read the story, or my YouTube channel to listen to a reading.

I’ve always had a deep love for animals — sometimes more than people. That may sound strange, but animals have never been the ones to disappoint me. They don’t betray trust, start wars, or leave scars that last for generations. They live with honesty, taking only what they need, while people often take more.

That’s not to say I don’t care about people. I just find the innocent nature of our animal friends to be more tolerable than the horrible things that people do to one another.

Yet despite all the things we do against each other, we still can show a boundless amount of sympathy and empathy for our species. Though in today’s current world I am seeing less and less of that. This story was written about ten years ago. Before the world decided to speedrun into lunacy.

I wanted to craft a story that highlighted that duality. Despite humans being pretty bad to each other, we give ourselves a pass. Though when it comes to the animal world, they be damned if their existence prevents us from “progress.”

This thought spawned the creation of A Changing of Times.

The story wrestles with “progress.” We’re told progress is good — new buildings, more businesses, the constant churn of growth. But for every new warehouse or shopping center, something else is lost. Woods are cleared. Fields vanish. Homes — for both people and animals — are torn down. Peter’s fight in the story is the fight countless creatures face in the real world: survival against the tide of human expansion.

A Changing of Times follows Peter and his effort to save his family and community from being shoved out of the only place they can afford to live.

Peter is a stand-in for you, me, or any other person we may care for and love. He is a reflection of the best of us. He fights and struggles to combat the evil, corrupt world of greed, all for his family and community. A noble cause.

However, Peter loses in the end, and he, his family, and the community are forced out. Often the “good” guy doesn’t win in the real-world. That’s for movies and TV shows.

I wanted readers to connect with Peter, Judy, and their neighbors before pulling back the curtain. By the end, when readers realize the residents were animals all along, I want them to pause. To sit with the unease. Because if we feel sorrow for fictional rabbits, owls, and skunks losing their homes, shouldn’t we feel the same for the living creatures displaced every day by human ambition?

The goal was to hold up a mirror to the human condition and simply ask the question. What legacy do we want to leave? One of continuation and coexistence with our animal friends? Or one of destruction, where convenience and growth come at the cost of life?

If it’s the latter, then I truly feel bad for our continued existence, because I think we are missing out on what makes us people. Our souls for all living creatures, because once the animals are gone, we are next.

The answer is an easy one for me. I’d rather live in a world that may not be as “progressed”, but one where we care for all living creatures, then a world that doesn’t.