Release Delayed until next week

All, as much as I wanted to get this out, today, there are a few issues that occurred which are going to hold up release until next week. I apologize for it, it's my fault. The book itself is finished, the cover is almost complete, but the holidays have created a few delays and I should have realized that would be the case and taken it into account earlier than I did.

I really hate doing this to you and making everyone wait until next week. I apologize. Sometimes unexpected events happen.

Waiting on Cover Art

That's the current status. Forgot to take the holiday into account when I ordered, so my bad.
Once I get it, 'When It Falls' goes up for sale.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone

I want to thank you all for making this a good year for me. I'd also like to let you all know that book #5 (When It Falls) is finished, and I'm in the process of doing the re-write and looking for grammar and other issues. The Beta readers all have it, and I hope they have the time to get back to me in a few days, with the holidays and all of that.

I need to do a minor re-write on a couple of scenes, I'll hopefully get to that tomorrow, as today will be too busy with company and making dinner (I'm the cook in the house and I make a lot for the holidays). The plan is to release it on the 28th. It won't be in pre-release for the simple reason that they lock the book down three days prior to release, and honestly I suspect I'll not be hearing back from my Beta readers until the 27th because of the holidays.

There will be a book #6, there's just way too much going on for there not to be.

Once book #6 is in the can, I will sit down and plot out the next arc in the story. I don't know if it'll be called 'The Valens Legacy' or if I'll give it a slightly different name, I don't even know how many books that arc will be, but it will continue on the story, as Sean and his wives move on to the next obvious goal.

I'm also hoping to write some side stories, I don't know if they'll be shorts, or if they'll be novella's. I have to see how the storyboarding goes for the next arc, and what the scheduling looks like, but I would really like to write a story for each of the girls, showing just how they got to where they are. There is a lot of back story on all of them. But most of it's either in my head or in the story bible and my notes. I think some of you would enjoy learning more about them.

So again, thank you for your patronage, I am humbled by how much you all like my stories.

If you're in Sacramento, I'll be at the ComicCon today.

It's off of Madison & I80, at the hotel at 5321 Date. Not sure how big it is, or what it costs to get in, I signed up to do this months ago. It'll be the 3rd one with the folks from Turlock, and the last two were actually fun, so hoping this one is as well.

An Update on 'When it Falls'

Okay, I've fallen a bit behind schedule on this, which I guess is to be expected this time of year during the holiday season, and with distractions that literally came out of nowhere to deal with. Currently the book is 2/3rds done, I'd hoped to have the first draft finished today. Tomorrow I'm going up to the claim to do some high-banking (I need to get away for a while) and Sunday I'll be selling at a local small venue comiccon, (Off hwy 80 in Sacramento, it's in one of the hotels off the Madison exit on Date ave). I signed up for that about five months ago, and again, it'll be nice to get away for a little while.

So, with any luck the first draft should be done Wednesday. Once I get it turned around by my beta readers, it'll be published. Unfortunately I don't think it'll be up for sale by the 22nd, so I don't know if it will be up before or after Christmas. But it will be up for sale before the end of the month.

Oh! And for those who have been following along, the series is back up to six books. I don't think I can cover the remaining events in just the fifth book. Once this series is done, I'm going to take about a month off (to write a book that others are bugging me about), then if folks are still interested I'll write the follow on series.

Thanks, and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Years, Happy Solstice and any other holidays I may have missed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. The turkey is in the oven, and my guests are on the way over. In a few hours I'll have to get to work on the side dishes. But for the next hour, I think I'm just gonna veg and maybe play No Man's Sky.

Have a good day everyone, and know that I'm thankful for all of you.

-Jan Stryvant

If you like my Valens Legacy series, you may also like these!

These two books go on sale for 99 cents on Thanksgiving day (Thursday, 23rd). Check 'em out, you may like them as well!



Portals of Infinity: Book One, Champion For Hire

Also on sale, the first book in the Days of Future Past trilogy:


Days of Future Past: Past Tense

Started writing 'When It Falls' today

So today marks the beginning of my writing 'When It Falls.'
I'd actually hoped to be about a quarter of the way into it by now, but Head Down took longer than expected, due to life intruding. My goal is to have this book done and out before Christmas.

We'll just have to see how that goes! :-)

A few notes here, because apparently a couple of folks missed a few things that weren't gone over all that clearly perhaps? Sean's phone is off almost all of the time. He only occasionally turns it on, because he doesn't want to be tracked via it. Also, he accidentally fried it in book 3 and didn't realize for a couple of weeks.
For calling the girls (and for them calling him) they have burner phones. John has messed with all of the phones to make them harder to track, but only by keeping those numbers private, can that be truly successful.
Sean's mom only left the one message, because it was his birthday. Otherwise, since she left, if he doesn't answer, she doesn't leave a message. As that phone is on only some of the time, that makes getting hold of him a rather chancy proposition.

It's been less than two months between the start of Black Friday, and the end of Head Down. Gradatim is very cut-throat in its intra-council politics. Asking for help never occurred to them, too early in the game, and they were planning on taking out the main leadership remember. So yeah, they're not gonna ask for help. The Ascendants just went through an attempted coup among the leadership. Asking for outside help wouldn't look good right about now, when you've just purged a bunch of people.

And Reno IS a 'small town' (Biggest Little City in the World, after all).

But now, now that's all going to start changing, because the Vesti's are the big boys. Sapientia is a big player too (Number Two World Wide), and didn't we hear Arthur Troy mention how he'd been talking to the other council leaders across the country? Oh, yeah, we did, didn't we? ;-) But Sapientia isn't in conflict. So they don't need to ask for help.

Morgan on the other hand, well, we don't know what Morgan's game is, yet. All we know is that he tried to frame the lycans (and right now, doesn't know that he may not have succeeded), and that he is obviously one very tough customer, who is perhaps a lot nastier than we thought Roger and Harkins were.

Guess you're all gonna have to wait until I get 'When It Falls' out to find out, huh? :-D

Here's the link for 'Head Down'

It's available for pre-order now, it will go on sale Saturday.

Pre-sales will start tonight, will go on sale the 18th

Paperbacks

So, started formatting work on the paperbacks last night, and I was rather bummed to find that CreateSpace, the folks who you pretty much have to use to do POD on Amazon don't do a mass market paperback size (4 3/8 x 7) 5 x 8 is as close as you can get. So I guess 5 x 8 is what I'm going to go with.

Hopefully I'll have them all formatted and submitted here in the next day or two, it's a tedious job because you can't just reformat the files, the need a certain amount of massaging. Then on top of that you have to do the covers, and there is no easy way to do that. Unless of course I pay someone else.

Maybe I should do that latter bit.

I'm waiting for the last bit of graphics to be put in the new cover. Sunday wasn't a work day for my artist (I honestly forgot yesterday was Sunday, it was a busy weekend). Aiming for release on this Saturday, the 18th for the new book. Hopefully all the paperbacks will be up not long after.

So. I just typed END on the new book: Head Down

Yup, the first draft and the first re-write are now complete, as of about 20 minutes ago. (10pm).
It's a bit bigger than I had planned on, I think it kind of got away from me there.

At this point, the next book will most likely finish up this story arc. Because book #4 sorta ran into book #5. But that doesn't mean that there won't be more in this series. There is a second story arc, as I believe I have mentioned before, for what happens next, after events in Reno are fully resolved.

Today really has been a long work day. I started like 13 hours ago, but I wanted to get this done :-)

The book will go on pre-order as soon as I get the finished cover. I suspect that'll be tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. Sale date will be either the 17th or the 18th. Not sure yet.

I will be at the Rancho Cordova Comic Con this Sunday (11/12). I won't have any print versions of the Valens series for sale there (I will be formatting all of those up soon, I promise). I will be selling all that stuff I've written under my slightly more mundane name. (if you want to know what that is, go check my web page :-)  ).

night!

Book #4 is on the way, soon.

Just finished the first draft. Will commission the cover tonight (Yeah, I'm a bit behind, apologies everyone!) Hopefully it will be up for sale on the 17th. Presales will go up the moment I get the cover back from my artist.

Thanks!

So apparently I was a topic of conversation at an Indy writing con?

I just heard that at the '20 books to 50K' convention in Vegas this last weekend, that I was one of the topics of conversations among a LOT of people. Apparently a number of them want to figure out how to 'copy me'?? so they can make lots of money.

Honestly, I checked out the 20 books to 50K group a while ago. Other than the list of 'rules' that someone put up there way back in the beginning, I don't think most of those people get it, or are going to do as well as they think.

Too many people view writing as a 'get rich quick' scheme. I've seen this in a lot of different jobs and hobbies I've had over the years. Yes, some people do get lucky, that does happen, though in most cases you'll see that there was a lot of 'work' involved in that 'luck.'

As for me? I don't really think I'm making the kind of money these people think I am. Maybe if I can keep up the sales for a couple of years I will be, but this is a job, like any other, and it involves a lot of hard work and long hours. It's taken me many years of hard work to get to this particular place as well. Just thinking that they can 'copy what I'm doing' and suddenly make lots of money?

In gold mining we have a saying: 'All the easy gold is gone.' Which quite simply means, that yes, there may be gold out there, but you're going to have to bust your ass to find it. Just writing twenty books is not going to earn you a 50K income. Just earning it one year doesn't mean you can stop and the money will keep rolling in.

You have to keep working at it, you have to keep writing, you have to keep publishing. Or you will just fade away. A book only has so many years of sales in it. Or in some cases, so many months. I write six or more novels a year. Every year. Gimmicks will not sustain an income. Only hard work can do that.

(But still, they were talking about me? Wow! I'm famous!!)

Goodreads is having a book contest

Yup, it's that time of year again: Goodreads is having some kind of book contest.
I'd appreciate it very much if you could take the time to vote for my books, Black Friday would probably be the one best to vote for.
Of course you have to type in 'Black Friday Jan Stryvant' for it to come up. I'm thinking Fantasy, and Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction. (But not too sure if it's really YA or not? These days, who knows!)\

Thanks!

Oh, Book #2 is apparently in so contest for book covers. Considering how much I appreciate Dane and the covers he does for me, I wouldn't mind a vote for that as well:

https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/1040/

Signed with Podium Publishing today (audiobooks)

I was quite surprised last week, when Podium Publishing, a leading audiobook producer and publisher contacted me. Podium is one of the 'big boys' in the audiobook world. The Martian is perhaps one of their better known audio works out there.

I had been in the process of looking for someone to do the Valens Legacy series as an audiobook, and I had even reached out to a couple of smaller houses that seemed to have a good product when out of the blue Podium contacted me. Yesterday we had a meeting to discuss everything, I'm familiar with the audiobook market and understand it a lot better now than I did even just six months ago.

They answered all of my concerns, and because they're a publishing company, they can do things that I can't, when it comes to dealing with Audible and ACX. Also, I don't have to deal with any of the many things producing an audiobook requires. Trust me, even if you go with most of the small studios out there, there is still a lot of work you have to do.

All I have to do with Podium is just hand them the manuscript. That's it. If there's anything that takes a special pronunciation, they'll ask me about it. But beyond that? Nothing. I don't have to audition people, chase after people, find time to listen to studio cuts and approve them, commission new cover work. None of that.

Most importantly of all: I don't have to do any marketing.

So, yeah, I'm a bit excited by this, and happy that I don't have to get involved with any of it. Just hand it over, and go back to working on the next book. The people I've talked to about them all liked them a lot. I have no idea how long it will be, before the books start showing up in audio. I'm sure we'll have that discussion once I pass over the manuscripts for the first three books.

I also like the fact that these people are very much on the ball. Correspondence is answered almost immediately. I don't have to wonder if they got it, what's going on, and when they'll get back to me. As a former manager and consultant working in tight deadline industries, nothing drives me crazier than sending an email to someone, and not hearing back for a month, when it's business related.

So yeah, excited that I've come to the attention of one of the big boys, and kind of interested to see where this goes. Now I just have to find the time to publish the trade paperback versions.

Book #3, Over Our Heads is now live!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076CHVDD3

Yes, I updated the layout. AND made a website

So, I got tired of the issues with the layout I was using. It was always in 'preview' mode and would horribly distort any images I loaded up. Also I wanted to add links for books. And I wanted something with a link that I could click on to make updates.

So I went with the very old 'original' style for blogger. It may be old, it may be plain, but it does what I need it to do, and very easily as well.

I was also in the grip of waaaaay too much caffeine and chocolate, so I updated and linked to the webpage for me and my books. There may have been a little alcohol involved too, I should probably go back and read what I put there at some point.

I am also thinking of adding some notes about the stories to the webpage, why certain groups are called what they are, what their names mean, maybe a little background on some of the past events in the world. Mostly because I read a very funny 'bad' review where the guy writing it really went off the rails on a number of things in the story. And while I suspect he's probably the only one making these strange connections, I'm thinking that maybe I should put up a little history to clarify a few things.

See, I know the story and I know all the history. I've got a couple of files full of notes. As well as a few pages in a notebook. Over the course of the story I try to bring that stuff out, but not everything gets brought out, and honestly I don't always recall what's been mentioned, and what hasn't. Also a character's recalled views on something may be a bit skewed by their own involvement.

There really is a lot more going on in the story than was first hinted at in the opening book. And some of those things are going to start peeking out as time goes on. You learn a few things at the end of book two that you didn't realize, and the end of book three gives you a few more. That's part of why I may move to a 4 week release schedule here after a few more books, instead of the 3 week schedule I've been using. The story is getting more involved, and yes, the books are slowly getting longer as well. Right now book four is kicking my butt and I really need to get back to work on it, and stop avoiding it by posting here :-p

Thanks all!

Finally created a web page

So yeah, finally created a webpage. It's all full of stuff you probably don't want to know :-0 

It does contain a little more info about how the Valens series and Shadow came about. Also a little bit about me. It's all part of an insidious plot. Really, I think it is.

I may update the layout of this blog today as well. Not very happy with the way it looks. Hopefully I won't fry the older posts in the process.

And if I haven't said it, you guys are the greatest. I honestly don't think that I think you all enough for reading me. 

Book #3 now up for Pre-Order!

Book #3, 'Over Our Heads' is now up on Amazon for pre-order. It goes live on the 20th, (next Friday).



Link

Allentown

I'll be in Allentown this weekend for a wedding. Flying into Philly and driving up (Joy! Pennsylvania toll roads!).

Because of that, the pre-orders for the next book, 'Over Our Heads' probably won't get set up on Amazon until I get back. The book is done, I just need to send it out to my beta readers and checkers and stuff. Probably do that tomorrow as I want to go over one last piece later tonight.

So, work on Book 4 will probably start tomorrow. Worked on the plot some today, listing all the important things I need to cover. Speaking of covers, I'll probably have that by Saturday.

But I'll be spending most of Saturday in a metal box, flying. Same for a lot of Monday. Flying really isn't all that much fun anymore. If the seats were at least big enough to type in I could get some work done, but I doubt they will be.

Take it as you will...

At this point I've had five different people (three since release) send me a list of typos (or grammar errors) that they have found in Perfect Strangers. There has been about 20 percent overlap, but not one of them found them all. Two of the people (at least) involved are pros.

Then this morning I get an email from Amazon with two new typos that none of the prior five found.

Plus I run the files through two different grammar / typo checking programs before they go out as well.

That's why some typos and grammar errors always slip through, even on books published by the best houses in the business. Then on top of that, there are changing grammar rules. The rules on apostrophes have changed, more than once, in the last fifty years. Think about that. I read a lot of old books (or I used to at least) and the grammar rules in some of them are way different than today. It used to be that if you pluralized a slang or abbreviation, you used the apostrophe, now you don't. And they're now talking about taking it away from certain possessives.

Part of the problem with it, is that it was invented by a typesetter a couple hundred years ago, all on his own. Yes, the apostrophe is the bane of my writing. Because some of the rules I was taught about how to use it, just don't apply anymore. And I think my pinky just loves to stick them in there when I'm not looking. '''''
Dammit!

And then there are the official grammar style books, the three biggest of which don't even agree with each other (much less use the very rules that they espouse).

Perfect Strangers is now out!

And, again, thank you all who have bought it. It's currently also a number 1 best seller on Amazon!
Book three should be out Oct. 20th. I'll let you know if that changes. I'm going to order the cover today.

Thanks Everyone

Thanks, all of you who've bought and read my book. Thank you all very much.
Can't believe I actually got this:

I finally got one!

My first ever #1 in a category tag. I'm very happy tonight.

Another #1 New Release Tag!

Wow, I got another new release tag today, for another category! That's -two-! I'm pretty damn excited about that. The book has also climbed into the top 200 overall on Amazon. Look out Steven King! I'm coming for you!  ;-)
(Hey, I can dream, right?)

Pre-order for the sequel to 'Black Friday' now available!

Perfect Strangers, the sequel to 'Black Friday' is now live. The book goes on sale the 29th (a week from this coming Friday).

Here's a link:

Wow! Got a #1 Tag!

Thanks, all of you! I finally got a #1 tag on Amazon. True, it's #1 New Release tag, I'm actually #2 in the category, because Steven King and his IT is number one (cause of the movie, people are buying it again).
Still, I'm happy with it!

May have picked a bad time for a book/series launch

So, I launched a book a couple of weeks after a major hurricane in Texas while another, smaller (but still large) one is going through Florida and heading for Georgia, Alabama, etc.

Apparently not a good idea, as a LOT of people really aren't buying or reading books right now. Honestly wondering if I should have delayed the launch of this new series until maybe November.

Oh well, kinda stuck on this train now, ain't no getting off it.

Black Friday

As I mentioned last night, I have a new book out, the first in a new series. It's now live on Amazon!
Black Friday

It's the story of a young man who thinks he's been living a normal life, going to college, working on his degree so he can get a job and live a life better than the one he's had since his father died.

Unfortunately for him, there are things and forces in the world about which he has no idea at all, and he's rather suddenly, and violently, come to their attention.

New book out!

Yes, that's right, I have a new book out. The title is 'Black Friday' and no it is not a sequel to 'Shadow' but is the beginning of a series.

As soon as I have an Amazon link, I'll post it (the book is currently processing).

<- Here's the cover.

The story is about a college student who unfortunately gets caught up in something that he had no idea existed, and is now being hunted by the five major magic councils, (for what he has no idea). Most of them do not mean him well either.

New book in the works

Okay, there is definitely a new book in the works. This isn't a sequel to Shadow, this is going to be a new story line, about Sean. Sean is just a junior at Nevada State at Reno (go Wolf Pack!) and well, lets just say that he's about to find out about some things that he never expected to. Or wasn't supposed to.

(And I definitely need to redo this blog layout, maybe when I get some free time (ha!))

Expect to see something by the end of the month, early September at the latest.

What is it with some people and lying?

So, was looking at the reviews on Amazon.ca for Shadow and one just recently popped up accusing me of not only putting a rape scene in the beginning of the book, but also claiming that I wrote that it was justified 'because the woman deserved it'.

I just have one question:  WHAT BOOK WERE YOU READING?

Because you obviously weren't reading mine. Oh, I think I know what happened, after the first 'fight scene' where Shadow is (rightfully) pissed off at the woman who set him up to be killed, it looks like he's going to do something nasty to her.

And then he doesn't. He just embarrasses the hell out of her, and leaves. He doesn't rape her, he doesn't even hit her. Because like he said, he doesn't kill women or children, etc. Oh, he does do something that isn't very nice, because he's not exactly nice, but he DOESN'T RAPE ANYONE.

So, either they didn't read the book at all, and just wrote that review to be mean, or they read a little of it and were so 'triggered' by some nasty dialogue that they had to accuse me of writing a rape scene that doesn't exist and then they ran away screaming.

Leopards and Panthers

In one of my reviews, someone seemed to be saying that leopards are not panthers.
That is simply not true. Leopards are panthers, and panthers are leopards. Some people even seem to think that panthers must be black, but then why would they call them 'black panthers', right?

Panther is a term that was originally applied to leopards that were larger, say those over two hundred pounds (yes, leopards can get rather big, though not as big as jaguars). You see, once upon a time, people thought that there were to species of African wildcat (black and spotted of course) and they called them 'Leopards' and 'Panthers'. Because there can be a large size difference in the breed, they thought that there were two distinct breeds.

This was later proven to be untrue. So black leopard = black panther. Leopard = panther.

Now you -can- distinguish leopards by where they come from (like they do with tigers). You have African leopards, Asian leopards (that's India and Asia), there are even Eurasian leopards from Eurasia. European leopards are extinct (along with European lions), you can thank the Romans for that, they pretty much hunted many of the big predators in Europe into extinction, because they needed them for the games and the extravaganza in the coliseums.

Just Hello

So, trying to set up a blog thing, in case people want to hear about what's coming up.
This is a test post, as I try to understand just how Blogger works.