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
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
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
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
Monday, November 20, 2017
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
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
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Monday, November 13, 2017
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.
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.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
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!
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!
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
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!
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!!)
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!!)
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
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/
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/
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