I've been sick, so I haven't been able to write for several weeks. The next book in this series was supposed to be finishing up now, so when I published this book, today, I'd have the next one ready to go in another 2 weeks.
But I was sick.
I thought about holding off and not releasing this until next month, when the next book will be ready, but I decided not to. So the next book will be a while, sorry, but life happens.
I hope you enjoy it:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09D43MTCY
In case you didn't know it, MSE is having a birthday sale on his ebooks and audiobooks!
Check it out! MSE is a great guy, and a great writer:
For those of you who have been waiting for the next Audiobook in the Dan's Inferno series, it is now up on BookFunnel.
You can buy it either by clicking this link: Buy Dan's Inferno Book III
Or by going to my 'store' when I have links to all of my audiobooks at: http://www.vanstry.net/stryvant/AudioBooks.html
There are also links on my author's page.
Please note that the Valens Legacy and Valens Heritage will be on Audible, as I have those rights under contract to Podium Press. But anything that I do, going forward, will not be put up on Audible.
This is the 'Bridge Book' between the old and the new series, technically, but I called it Valens Legacy 18 because while it's several years later, it's mostly the same people. We're just starting to see how the world is changing.
'Mihalis' will be the first book of Valens Heritage, the next series.
Here's the link: Everyday, Including Holidays
Cover pic:
So, now that a bunch of you have read it and yes, provided some valuable feedback, I thought I'd mention a few things about the story.
First, it was written before any of the Portals of Infinity books were written. By several years. The idea came from part of a graphic novel I saw, that was still in it's infancy, when helping a friend bind magazines (he ran a small press). There was a story (that I suspect never got finished) about two characters who'd grown up as friends and were now at odds (though one of them was completely clueless and didn't know it).
I found the idea interesting, though I had a different take on it. I also had no idea where that story was going to go (and never found out, I sincerely doubt it went more than another few pages past what I saw - a lot of artists in small press never finish their stories). So it got written, and re-written a few times, then I decided to publish it back in 2015. I had another story in the same world (I think it's at about 30K words?) that I was going to finish and follow up with.
But Lost Souls completely bombed. So I shelved that other (unrelated) story in the same world and more or less gave up on it. Maybe I'll put it up on my patreon / subscribestar one of these days, we'll see. I may still have some of the notes on the world / story floating around, but back then I kept a lot of plot ideas in my head, so I don't remember what the resolution was on the second story. Or a fair deal of what was to take place in the second part of the book.
As for why I wrote it? Well I wanted to 'diversify' I wanted to have a broader appeal, and back then I was thinking of being a more 'mainstream' kind of fantasy author. This is why when I wrote Shadow and then Valens, I created a pen name. Part of what killed Lost Souls was that it wasn't what people wanted to see from me back then (I got several emails about that). Though now looking back at the cover, yeah, it was too romancey. I'm gonna throw something simpler on it — that or I may just pull the book completely from the shelf and unpublish it.
One of the things I was told the most about it, back then, was that people didn't like a hero who was so loyal, that he followed orders from his leaders and never disobeyed them. That he'd ride off to exile, even though he knew it was just politics and that he was being 'thrown under the bus' for political gain.
The thing is, that's life in the military. You can be 'thrown away for political gain' and you're expect to suck it up and accept it. It's called 'falling on your sword' and it's a part of life in those worlds and this hero was so loyal, that when he got blindsided, he never saw it coming and didn't know how to react. The thought that people had lied and were engaged in far more nefarious plots never occurred to him. His enemies played off of his loyalty and so he accepted his banishment at face value.
Now he's coming back, older and wiser, and a lot more knowledgeable about corruption, greed, backstabbing, conspiracies, and other such things. Now his loyalty is flavored with not just doing his duty, but doing it in ways that don't leave him holding the bag. Not just blindly running off and doing as he's ordered in the heroic and self-sacrificing way. He's not just a pawn on the chessboard. Sure, he'll take out the 'king' and win the game, but he's not going to play by anyone's rules but his own. Because the truth is, he's playing for himself now.
So that was the story I was trying to tell. How well I did *shrugs* you can be the judge on that. For my first real fantasy novel that I wrote, I guess I didn't do too badly, and I've learned a lot since then. Like I said, it was written before I wrote the first POI books, I think I wrote it in 2003? But in either case, it's done now, and I doubt I'll ever revisit that story again.
So, just a little background, in case anyone was interested. Thanks again to all of you who read it and gave me feedback, I did learn a few things.
In the search for answers I'm putting one of my books up for free from tomorrow for five days. This is probably my worst selling book ever and someone told me yesterday that the story was good, they just felt the cover was giving people the wrong idea? So take a look (if you want) and feel free to tell me: Does it suck? Or does it need a better cover? Or is it something else?
Just caught a 3-day ban on facebook for advocating for self-defense against violent mobs.
Yeah, I'm a bad man...
Here's the link: Portals of Infinity: Vis Major
And the cover (seeing as blogger doesn't seem to like Amazon links)
It's up to Five books ($10,000) now, which means you'll get the current versions of 3, 4, & 5.
The new versions of 6, 7, 8 & 9.
And the re-recorded / re-produced version of Book 5!
And for the low low price of $30, you can have them all!
More info here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnvanstry/portals-of-infinity-audiobooks
Hey everyone! Well the Portals of Infinity Kickstarter is down to 8 days, as it ends on May 9th. At this time books 6, 7, 8, and 9, have been funded! Which is great. The next goals of this kickstarter - where the funds will go next as it continues to grow - are the re-recording of books 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, in order to have them all with the same Voice Artist (Jessica Threet).
Now for those of you who haven't pledged yet, I would like to point out that for a mere $30 you will get Seven, count 'em Seven, audiobooks. You'll get books 3 , 4, and 5 with the current Voice Artist (Dusty) and then you'll get book 6, 7, 8 and 9 as they each come out. If any of the first five are funded to be re-recorded by this kickstarter, you will get each of those as they come out as well.
That's a lot of swag for thirty dollars, right?
I also want to take the time to thank everyone who has already pledged money to this kickstarter. This is my first one that I've ever done, so yes, maybe I undercharged, but the response has been overwhelming and I'm very excited by just how well it has gone. I've been told that in the last week I will see another surge in donations, and I hope that's true, as I would love to be able to have all of the books in this series done with a single Voice Artist, instead of three.
So once again, you have Eight (8) days left to get in on this deal and get at least Seven (7) audiobooks for the low low price of $30 (US).
Thanks all of you!
-John
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnvanstry/portals-of-infinity-audiobooks
I really do agree with this. They used to do such wonderful things, but they don't anymore.
As the saying goes: Shut Up and Sing. You're an entertainer, do your f**in job. This is why I try very hard to not inject politics in my books, for all that I may say political things on social media.
Because it is my job to entertain you and I struggle to try and do my best. Castigating people about their politics, their beliefs, anything at all, isn't entertaining. So I do my best to avoid that.
