Friday, September 10, 2021

Just an update and all that, but tomorrow is 9/11

 

Next week, in Wednesday I start my vacation, we'll be leaving for the Reno Air Races, in you guessed it, Reno. We come back Monday. I don't know how much, if any, work I'll get done then. Part of it depends on how much the Races suck this year (after last year's cancellation a LOT of the big names aren't coming this year - guess they figured it'd be cancelled again). Also, we're losing our box seat as there is now only FOUR of us in it this year and the minimum is TEN. The box has been 'shrinking' ever since the crash (over a decade ago now), but last year's cancellation put the nails in the coffin. I'm pretty much expecting to see the lowest turn out in the history of the races, as a lot of people probably have figured that if they canceled an OUTDOOR event over crap like that, they ain't spending their time and money on it anymore.

Also air travel has gotten to be incredibly difficult, and for some of us, wearing a mask is physically disabling. Because we can't breath. And when you already have permanent lung damage, shit like that isn't much fun. So a part of me is expecting this to be the last year of the races. Regardless this will be the last year of the box. I'm just the latest 'caretaker' of it (the guy that coordinates the tickets). The last guy retired from that about 4 years ago. But the 'heritage' of this box goes back over 40 years. It was founded by the rec.aviation newsgroup (remember newsgroups?) of which a few friends of mine were members. Which is how we got an invite, when space opened up, almost 20 years ago.

I'm still editing Summer's End for Baen. I work on that evenings and weekends, but the last few days I've been doing electrical work outside until it's too dark to see (we've added an outbuilding). I also need to do a short story for 'Tales Around the Supper Table part 2'. The first book was a big hit, so we all decided to do a second one and I volunteered to do the 'scut work', namely the physical assembly, formatting, layout, that kind of thing. Jim, who is in charge of the anthology hates dealing with that stuff. Me? I'm used to it, so it's no big deal - even if everyone's submission comes in a different format, with different fonts, layouts, etc.

I'm at the halfway point on Sean now. If it wasn't for my 'once a year and I missed it last year vacation', Sean would be going out by the end of the month. Now, I'm not so sure. We'll just have to see. As half the people I used to see won't be at the races this year, I may end up with a lot more spare time on my hands than I usually do.

One Last Thing: Tomorrow is 9/11. Now I was lucky in that I didn't lose anybody who was a friend or family member. I have pictures from friends who were there that day and who watched everything that happened. My brother is (or should I say, 'was' as he's now retired) NYFD. He new every single firefighter that died that day. Some of them very closely. The Fire Chief he'd worked for in the past, and the Chaplin was also a friend. His station was at that time, the fireboat station, which is a short walk from the towers. The Station that got completely wiped out was one he was often 'loaned' to, as my brother was by then a pump operator, and whenever theirs were out, he'd be sent over there, as the fireboat he worked on normally ran with two.

Another friend of mine worked in the towers, but he refused to be there anytime around the date of the previous attack (also on 9/11) so he was home. Another friend of mine was responsible for the fire systems in the building (his company was, but that building was his responsibility) and on the tenth of every September, he had to survey the entire site. So he'd been all over those towers the day before (he's the one that sent me the pictures, some of which I 'wasn't supposed to have'.)

I also did a little work in those towers myself. A company I worked for back in the late 80's put some specialized storage systems in one of the offices there (used for securing and filing legal documents). I don't know if that law firm was still there come 2001 however. I did watch those towers get built, and I'd been in them many times, I'd even been up on the roofs of them. My friend who sent me the pictures watched the first tower go down, and as he was in another skyscraper, he could see right through them (this was typical, because of the central core / open floor plan design - if the light was right, you could see into and even through the building) and he told me he watched the floors buckle from the fire load. The whole thing gave him PTSD because he saw a lot of people die that day.

So, tomorrow, take a few minutes to remember what happened, all those folks who died, some of whom were just average slobs like the rest of us, working for a living, and some of whom were the brave people who gave their lives trying to save others. And don't forget who did it, either. Never forget that.

Have a good weekend, everyone, and if I don't post much after Wednesday, now you know why.

-John

Thursday, August 19, 2021

New Book

 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



Friday, August 06, 2021

Michael-Scott Earle is having a Birthday Sale!

 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:


Michael-Scott Earle's Birthday Sale!

Thursday, August 05, 2021

Dan's Inferno, Book III - Heritage AudioBook is now out!

 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.


Tuesday, July 27, 2021

 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:




Friday, June 18, 2021

Free Book This Weekend

 

FREE this weekend (Sat and Sunday) on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075GVYSTS
(Black Friday)

Monday, June 07, 2021

A Little Something About Lost Souls

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.

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Free Book

 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?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01489KXRS 

Banned from Facebook - Again...

 Just caught a 3-day ban on facebook for advocating for self-defense against violent mobs.

Yeah, I'm a bad man...

Sunday, May 09, 2021

Just TWO hours left on the Portals of Infinity Audiobook Kickstarter!

 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

Saturday, May 01, 2021

The Portals of Infinity AudioBook Kickstarter

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