The Year So Far... (and the year coming)

 (excuse the blank space at the top but Google Added a 'tool' that unfortunately obscures that area)

 

For all that I didn't get much work done for a couple of months due to shoulder surgery (and struggled a little at first when I was working due to having to run out to physical therapy twice a week) I still got a lot done. I completed four series: 

Wolfhounds, which ran to six instead of the planned five (book five also came out this year).

Valens Heritage, which I wrote book ten for.

Dan's Inferno, which I finally got to write the originally intended book five.

And Currently, the third and final book in Valley of Fire (book 2 was written earlier this year). 

Then of course there's the on going Ghost Warrior Serial, and I'm trying to also get another Portals of Infinity book in this year as well. I started it, but stalled out, so I'm now writing Valley of Fire #3, so I can still be productive.

So I've been switching between Five different stories in Four different worlds. And I still need to write the next book in Seasons of Change which will be the book following Sometimes In The Fall, for Baen Books. 

That much context shifting has not been easy, or exactly fun at times. It can get quite confusing. POI and SOC (Seasons of Change) are First Person narratives. The others are all Third Person. And part of what made working on POI #12 hard was trying to switch back to 1st, when I hadn't used it in a while. 

I've realized that going forward I'm not going to do that many different series in a year. I'm going to try and keep it to Two or Three different story lines at a time. Right now I'm looking at a new story in the Wolfhounds universe. It may be about Chase and Claire, or it may not. I'm looking at a new Jan Stryvant series (How to Become a Werewolf or maybe a shorter series version of that title). It will probably only be four or five books, yes it'll be men's adventure with a harem theme.

I also want to write the next Seasons of Change book, and I'd like to write another story in that universe as well. (SOC is going to be four books, obviously). The title for that other non-SOC story is Agents of Fortune. (I also still want to write Angel of Mercy in that universe as well). 

So those are the only three major projects I want to be working on. I have a couple of side projects I will continue with, Ghost Warrior which is every other week and I pretty much only work on, on weekends. And another side project that would be a series of 40K length stories written under a pen name for some dear friends of mine. Something I can bang out in a week or two.

Now one of the things I'm considering is writing several, or all, of the books in these projects in a row, then switch to the next one, so I don't end up doing a lot of 'context' switching. Cause that's a bit of a pain at times to do. It's truly easier to just write a series nose to tail with no interruptions. Especially if it's shorter (versus the 28 book monstrosity that Valens Legacy / Heritage became - I still can't believe I wrote all of those!). 

I want to get VOF #3 done 'quickly' as in before Thanksgiving. I still want to get POI 12 done before years end as well. But I'm hoping to spend some time in December trying to put together some sort of Plan. For what I'm going to write, an outline for each of what I'm going to write (if I don't have one already) and then try and execute on it. There was a lot of chaos this year, some of that was due to the surgery, and some of that was due to some major repairs we had to do on the house and property. 

I'm hoping for a less chaotic 2026, and I want to try and get my plans into some sort of organization so I can be a lot more productive than I was this year. So for those of you who are curious as to what's coming, that's what I'm looking at. 

Valens Heritage, Book 10 : Pay Backs, is now live

 The tenth and final book of the Valens Heritage series (and the 28th Valens Book by me - 31 if we count Peter's three) is now up for sale on Amazon:

Pay Backs - Valens Heritage #10

This will very much be the final Valens book that I will write. The series had an amazing run, seeing as it made it to 28 books (18 first series, 10 follow on, plus some anthologies). But the truth is that sales have gone incredibly soft in the last couple. 

Part of that was my fault, Amazon was pressuring people writing in a 'certain genre' with fears and rumors of being banned. So I slow rolled the last couple of books in the series as I watched to see how things played out. Apparently that pressure was from individuals and not corporate, because the threatened bans never took place. In fact the genre is far larger now than when I first helped to create it.

(I know some folks claim I was the sole person who created it - but I think there's two people who definitely were there with me at the beginning).

I am hoping to write a new series, totally unrelated to this one, once I get caught up on the work my surgery caused to be postponed. I do hope you enjoy this book. I also hope you tell all of your friends to read this series, if they haven't already.

Valley of Fire, Book Two - To Hand is now out in full Novel Length.

 Valley of Fire, Book Two : To Hand

 

 In a fractured galaxy ruled by AI-powered ships and their interfaced crews, ex-privateer Wolf and his enigmatic partner Mariella join the King's Navy to secure their future. Wolf's rare interface, a clue to his heritage, fuels his unmatched piloting skills, while Mariella grapples with her noble past. As interstellar war looms, they navigate alliances and cunning enemies. Reunited in the heat of battle, their bond faces the ultimate test. With battleships rising and unlikely allies emerging, Wolf and Mariella stand at the heart of a galactic storm.

In this thrilling sequel to MISPLACED, love, loyalty, and hidden powers collide in a saga of cosmic intrigue and valor.

To Hand is out, in Serial Format (first)

 I just realized I hadn't posted this here, but it's everywhere else. 

To Hand book #2 in the Valley of Fire trilogy is now live. 

Raconteur press is publishing it first as a three-part serial - just like they did with Misplaced.

After all three parts are out, they will follow with a full copy of the book, which will be in KU as well as paperback.

I don't have the picture or the link for the final full book release yet, obviously.

To Hand - Valley of Fire Book #2 

There's the link to the first book of the 3 book serial.

No, I have no control over how Raconteur Press publishes their books. If you have issues, please talk to them, not me. I'm on a contract on this series. One I'm quite happy with too, if I'm being honest. 

Wolfhounds Book 6 - End Game is now Out!

 Wolfhounds Book 6 - End Game is now live!

(Paperback to follow soon!)

Wolfhounds End Game 

 

 

Book Sale!

 

I'll be running a sale from July 30th to Aug 4th in conjunction with another group.

 

Black Friday (Jan Stryvant) will be 99 cents

Portals of Infinity - Champion for Hire (bk1) will be 99 cents

Stand Alone (Wolfhounds BK1) will be $1.99

 

https://basedbooksale.substack.com/p/based-books-for-male-readers-sale

I'm serializing Ghost Warrior

 I've decided to try something a little different, as I've mentioned in a past announcement. I'm going to serialize the Ghost Warrior story. What that means is I'll be putting one to two chapters up per month. As for where I'll be putting them?

Patreon

SubscribeStar

Substack

So I will be turning on Subscriptions on Substack. I will be setting the rate there as low as they'll let me. On the other two services, the story will be available to all Paid subscribers. I've already started on this, the first chapter is now up.

As for why I'm doing this, two reasons. The 1st is that I got asked by a lot of people to continue Ghost Warrior, as I did have plans for several more novels in that series. While the first two books did poorly, enough people asked that I thought I would give it a try. I am not currently planning on publishing the following books on Amazon - though I do have a contractual obligation on book 3 for an audiobook. That may or may not come to fruition based on what the audio sales of the prior two books were. Especially if I decline to publish book 3 on Amazon. Being as I'm not planning on putting them on Amazon, that allows me to be a bit more creative or strange, with the story telling. There are things that Amazon doesn't care for Indy authors writing.

The 2nd is that I've been dealing with a fair bit of writer's block the last two months. I'm hoping this will help me get past it. This is more or less how 'Shadow' came about. I'd work on it in small pieces when I was just not able to write.

So if you're interested, you can subscribe at the lowest paid tier on any of the services listed above. Comments will be more than welcome.

The first post will be a brief synopsis of books 1 and 2 of the series, so you have an idea of what's going on if you haven't read them. That will be followed almost immediately by the first chapter, which has already been written. Oh, not of this has been proofread or copy edited. So expect typos.

Also, this will definitely be R rated. Maybe even a soft X in spots? Just Fair warning.

Shoulder Surgery

On April 18th at 7am I had my right shoulder joint replaced. I have mentioned this elsewhere, but I think I neglected to mention it here. Ten days later I'm starting to type with both hands again, and I'm hoping to be out of the sling by the middle / end of May. But we will see.

I'm now doing Physical Therapy (PT) and most of the time the shoulder hurts less than it had before the surgery. I've yet to have had it hurt more. Yeah, I really needed it. Doc told me the arthritis in there was really bad. I got that from an accident over 20 years ago, which started that whole process, it just took time to get to a point where I didn't want to live with the pain anymore.

So yes, my schedule is once again messed up, but I'm going to spend the rest of the year working to catch back up. I can't type for long periods, yet, but I'm hopefully I'll be back to being able to do that soon enough.

It's not a lost prince

Someone is a bit confused about Misplaced which is the first book in the short Valley of Fire series. Eric is not a lost prince. He's possibly a lost member of the extended Imperial Household.

Chase was the lost prince.

Not Eric.

Is there a difference? Of course. Or I wouldn't be Writing this obviously.

Mariella believes Eric to be a very strong duke, perhaps an Arch-Duke. These were mentioned in passing in the Wolfhounds series. Her family is an arch-duke House. Marrying in another Arch-Duke House would be good for the blood, as well as possible alliances.

This will be discussed in the next book. The King may suspect Eric is more, that he may in fact be an Imperial. In either case this is a win for him, a big win, as it would mean closer ties to Solaria either way. A lot of the royal politics in this series are based on the historical politics of Europe back in the days of tall ships. Inter-marrying his arch-duke house to an imperial house would be a huge boon to the future of his house and kingdom. Because of genetics and again, trade and alliances.

But it's only a win with the imperial house re-established. Without it, it would have had to be kept secret -if- they could even have figured it out. If it was realized he might be an imperial, a very large and nasty war would have quickly occurred wipimg out Iraklis.

Now I can understand if people don't wish to read about these kinds of things. But it is most definitely not the same story.

Dan's Inferno, Book V & Preorders for Manifest Destiny in AudioBook!

 Hello everyone! We've got a couple of things on the grill here this morning!

First is the 5th book from the Dan's Inferno Series. As many of you may not know, Dan's Inferno had been intended to be a five book series, but with the lock-downs and associated BS, sales on Book IV took a hit as all of that stuff ended and everyone had to go back to work and get their lives back in order.

However, over time the sales on Book IV came back, and when a number of people asked about Book V, I decided to put up a KickStarter to see if there was still an interest. Well, there was! So now that it's been written and everyone on KickStarter has their copies (I'm waiting on the paperbacks so I can sign and send out those, sometimes Amazon is slow - like when you make a big order) the rest of you can see it too!

Dan's Inferno: Book V - Dominance

Sorry, it's not in KU and won't be. There are a couple of reasons for that, but at $4.99 I don't think it's that big of a hardship to buy a copy.

Next up is the fifth audiobook in the Wolfhounds Series: Manifest Destiny. That is now available for pre-order on Audible! 

Manifest Destiny on Audible

So yes, there's a lot going on this week. Enjoy!

The Full Un-Serialized Version of Misplaced is Now Live!

 Yes! That's right! For those of you who wanted to buy the ebook as a single file, or wanted to read the KU or Paperback Versions, Valley of Fire, Book 1: Misplaced, is now live!

So please feel free to check it out!!

(Or please feel obligated to check it out! I don't care, just as long as you buy it ;-) )

You know you want to read it! 

If you have comments on the serialization of Misplaced, talk to the publisher

 If you have comments on the serialization of Misplaced, talk to the publisher - Not me.

This is how this publisher (Raconteur Press) has decided they wish to proceed - for now at least. 

Talk to them. Not me. If you like it, let them know, same for if you don't.

This is not something I have any control over. I am not the publisher.

Thank you.