Valens Legacy Series

Current Books Available:
First Arc
Book 1: Black Friday
Book 2: Perfect Strangers
Book 3: Over Our Heads
Book 4: Head Down
Book 5: When It Falls
Book 6: Stand On It
Second Arc
Book 7: Vegas Rules
Book 8: Desperate Measures
Book 9: Secret Treaties
Book 10: It Ain't Easy
Book 11: Red Skies
Third Arc
Book 12: Demon Days
Book 13: Simple Things
Book 14: Trying Times
Book 15: Firestarter
Book 16: Times Like These
Book 17: No Regrets (This wraps up the third arc)
What the future holds
Book 18: Everyday, Including Holidays (This sets up the world for the next series)

You can find the Cast of Characters here.

There is now a follow on series that mainly follows some of Sean's children: Valens Heritage

(Note: As you can now see, Book 6 was the end of the first story arc. Books 7 thru 11 are the second story arc, originally I thought it would go to 12, best laid plans, right? Books 12 thru 17 are the third story arc and the end of the overall story. Book 18 is to show what the world has become and set up for follow on stories.)

About:
Series:
The series came about one (slightly) drunken night when I was really just kind of pissed at myself. I'd just finished a story that all of these people had promised they'd read, when I completed it, and well, they didn't. It wasn't that I didn't want to write the story, I did, but like a lot of writers out there, I'm prone to occasional bouts of depression, and the beginning of that year I'd gotten hit with a rather bad one. So having this happen just really didn't sit well with me as I'm coming out of a particularly bad funk. One that had completely killed the book I was trying to write back in January (Which I finally wrote a year later, POI #8 - The Seven Worlds). That depression had also really killed my productivity. I write pretty quickly by most people's standards. When I'm in the groove, writing something I like, I can put down eight to ten thousand words a day (14K is my record), which is pretty substantial by most people's standards. Writing a book in a month really isn't that hard for me.

So, I'm sitting there (it's August, 2017) and I'm just pissed at myself for several different reasons and I just kind of said 'fuck this! I'm gonna write something fun!' Nothing deep, nothing with any intent more than to just have a good time - for all of us (me and you). So I went into my office, got out the dry erase marker, and I started writing down elements I wanted in the story, ideas, plots, goals, motives, character ideas, I was at it for hours.

When I was done I had six books plotted out. I didn't have the name of any of the books, or even the name of the series. I had another six loosely plotted out for the second arc, and the final six just had the overall plot, for the final arc as a group the individual books themselves hadn't yet been plotted.

I started to write it the next day. Nine long days later I had finished Black Friday. It's called Black Friday because that song was playing when I started writing, and in a lot of ways, it fit.

Story (First Arc):
Sean is just your typical college gaming nerd who's been screwed over almost his entire life, almost like someone is out to get him. Well, okay, he may not be completely typical, not everyone has had as many forces arrayed against them their whole life, but we've all been there, right? We've all found ourselves at one point or other in our life where we are definitely on the wrong side of something we didn't even know existed until we found we weren't where we wanted to be.

All Sean wants to do is get that piece of paper, a decent job, and to have the things he's never had. He's kept his head down, stayed out of trouble, worked his ass off, kept his eye on the prize, and only gets to cut loose on game night (or online games) where he can let it all out and maybe be the person who he's always wanted to be.

And suddenly he finds he's just been thrown in the deep end of a power play that's been going on for centuries, between races and forces he never even dreamed existed. Oh, and he's on the side that's been losing for the last who knows how many hundreds of years.

There's a lot going on that Sean doesn't know about, or understand, but fortunately for him, he's making friends and learning fast what he needs to make it through to the next day. He's learning some very unhappy truths about his past, as well as the world around him, but he's riding that bear now, and there isn't any getting off if you don't want to get eaten by it.

As the story continues, we'll all learn more about Sean's world, both the one from his past, and the one he now finds himself in, as he learns it. We'll also discover that there's a lot more going on in the world than even his allies or enemies realize, that there are things that they aren't even aware of.

Beyond the first six:
Books 1 thru 6, as I've said above, are all plotted out and cover the first story arc. There's actually quite a bit more to this story. When I finish book six (which will not end on a cliffhanger, it will wrap up the initial premise and plot) if interest in the world and the adventures of Sean are still going strong, I'll write the next major story arc. Yes, I could easily be writing more stories about Sean this time next year (Oct 2018 - Edit: it's March 2019 as I review this and I'm working on #14 now), and you know what? I'm okay with that. If the interest isn't there, I'll either write a sequel to Shadow, or I'll sit down and write a hardcore LitRPG story, but not until I write the book I've promised William Arand (otherwise I'm sure he'll get even, somehow - Edit: yes, I wrote it: Take Two is the title).

The second six:
Okay, it's now April 2018 as I write this paragraph and Book #7 - Vegas Rules came out a few days ago. This marks the beginning of the second arc, which interestingly enough, starts in May of 2018. Gonna have to make a note of when real life catches up with the story.

Anyway, the second arc has now begun, and while most of it has been planned out, I learned after writing the first six that the numbers can change on you. At one point it looked like the first arc was only going to be five books, until about halfway through number five I realized that there was a whole bunch of stuff I needed to cover that had been missed in the original plot outline, so suddenly it was back to six books. So yes, Arc two might by five books, or it might be seven. There's a lot going on this time around.

The Second Arc: (If you haven't read the first arc, you might want to skip this part) Now that Sean has been successful in Reno, he's got promises to keep, and an awareness that the world doesn't end at the Reno City Limits sign. And the First isn't about to let him forget that, not that Sean is the kind who easily would.

He's got some more growing to do, and thankfully he's got the girls there to help him, because he desperately still needs their help to get by. But we're going to start seeing more of the world, and learn more about what's been going on in it, and we're going to meet new people. And maybe not even kill them! ;-) But all in all, Sean has a future and a destiny, and he has to fulfill that, while protecting his home. During this arc we start to learn that there are bigger things on the horizon - things that none of his enemies realize exist. We also see Sean rise to his potential and start to become who he was always meant to be.

The Third Arc:
Okay, it's March of 2019 as I'm writing this. (Oh, and spoilers!) The third arc got launched in December with book 12. I'd kind of wanted it to be book 13, because of that whole 'lucky 13 thing' (for me, 13 is something of a lucky number btw). At the end of the second arc we found out the real reason that the lycans needed to be freed and why Sean was tasked to do it. Now in the third arc the war, the real war, begins.

We start to learn about how these wars have gone in the past, and how much differently it's going now, and even a bit of why. We see at first that Sean, via his help from the lions, is prosecuting the opening stages of the war the same way that they always did it in the past. But this is modern times, and people are looking to start applying modern solutions. Also something on the other side has changed and doing things the way they've always done it before just isn't going to cut it anymore.

The big push will come when the main gateway opens, and that's when the real war begins, because the dem... (sorry Cali!) Djevels, mean to stay. In the first half of the arc Sean and the others will learn more about their opponents and start to try to use that knowledge to win the war and perhaps go beyond that. There will be many surprises and many changes in the world around us and Sean will discover the secret of the Lions. Things that only the First Pride know and have never shared.

Beyond the Third Arc:

(Added Jan 2020)
As of this time, the series has been completed, seventeen books instead of the 18 I originally was planning. That was due to overlap between the 2nd and 3rd arcs that really couldn't be helped. I also didn't want to drag the series out solely for the point of writing more books, when the story wasn't there. As for what comes next? I'm thinking about a follow on series, we'll all just have to see what the future holds.

(Added August 2022)
Book 18 was written... Last year? I forget. The purpose of Book 18 was to give some closure to events, it takes place about a year after the war has ended and our side has won. We now get to see the beginning of the next phase: The cleanup. Which is going to take a very very long time. Which leads us into the next series (which apparently a lot of folks wanted and told me so) Valens Heritage.

Criticisms:
Honestly, I haven't gotten a lot on this series. Well, not yet at least! I've been doing everything I can to cut down on typos, but when you send the story out to six different people (several of whom are professional editors who have generously agreed to donate their time in return for getting to read the story before the rest of you!) and they all find a different set of typos, with very little overlap, you wonder just how many are still getting through.

Typos are weird. I can understand that I can't find the ones that I make; otherwise I wouldn't have made them. But I'm still amazed at how many other people just don't see. I have invested in some new and expensive tools to try and help cut down on the number, but my biggest problem is that most editors just can't keep up with my schedule. (Note: those tools didn't help - at all).

But I do try to address questions or issues that are brought up. Sometimes I do overlook something, mistakes happen. But sometimes it's the characters overlooking something, or there is just no way to reasonably bring something up in the story, until perhaps a later time. For example, Sean's Silver Shield will destroy any silver on him, when it's triggered into expanding. Sean's cellphone got ruined in book 3, and I'm writing book 4 and he still hasn't discovered it yet, (there's a fair bit of silver in a cellphone). Or maybe he has when he was off Camera, and just hasn't mentioned it to us yet? *sigh*

Extras:
I'm hoping to do something along this line. Ideally I'd like to release a series of short stories about each of Sean's wives. I have the plots for half of them written out. I just need to find the time to get them done. Anybody got a time machine they can loan me? I need more time. Edit: This process has begun. There are currently 3 small anthologies out, each containing a story from one of the girls. There will most likely be another entry or two to this series.

Music:
Yes, I listen to a lot of it. I even play it. A lot of the titles in this series come from songs (and no, Perfect Strangers did NOT come from that television show - it's a Deep Purple tune with some deep meanings). Some of the chapter titles even come from songs, because I felt it captured the mood at the time. No, I won't put up a play list, because honestly? I can't remember half the time what was playing while I was writing. Usually it's in the background. I do have a couple of 'channels' on Pandora I've created that I usually listen to while working. If people ask, I'll share those.

Maps:
Go look it up on google! :-)
I do know a few secrets about the area, cause I've been going to Reno for years, and I have friends who know it intimately. Unfortunately I wasn't able to use the secret room in the old post office building, just couldn't work it into the story.

Is Sean a 'Mary-Sue'?
No. And honestly? I laugh when I hear that. I write these books for the readers, not for me, so how can they be Mary-Sue's? To be a Mary-Sue, by definition, you must be writing for yourself, not others. And as I've said before, I write for you guys, you are the greatest, and giving you something to enjoy really makes my day. (Of course getting royalties makes my day too! Cause the bank only takes cash, same for my grocer).

If you have any other questions, by all means drop me an email: stryvant at gmail dot com