Hey everyone!
Today’s the day – the third book of the Chronicles of the Sentinels trilogy, Champions, is out! Before I get into what this means to me as a writer, up front I wanted to be sure you all knew how to find it. Click the respective link below to be taken to your online bookstore of choice!
Kindle/Amazon Print
Powell’s
IndieBound
Barnes & Noble
My First Completed Series
Not only does this conclude the Chronicles of the Sentinels trilogy, but it represents a major milestone in my writing career – my first completed series! It’s been a long, long time coming, too.
It feels somewhat strange to have reached this point now, 7 years after my first book was published (and that was the first Sword of Dragons novel.) Has it taken me too long?
In reality, the answer to that question is ‘no.’ Stories take however long they take, and the Sword of Dragons is a much larger, more complex story. I originally intended it to be upwards of 10 books, though since then I’ve pared it down to make for tighter story telling and character development. Nevertheless, there’s still a lot of ground to cover in that saga.
Funny enough, while Sentinels is my first completed series, development started allllll the way back in June 2014, when I first came up with the idea of an urban fantasy story centered in Denver, but whose mythology/back story dealt not with Ancient Egypt or Mayans, which are super-common tropes, but Ancient Babylon, a relatively untouched (as far as I know) mythology in urban fantasy.
I was super excited about the idea, and decided that it would be my experiment to prove to myself that I could make it as a writer – I treated working on it like a 2nd job, and worked on it at least a couple of hours every single day. I developed, wrote, and edited (first round of edits) the first novel in three months!
After a combination of critiques from a critique group I was part of with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and a detailed rejection from an agent (the common critiques were “very interesting story idea, but the character is boring and the writing needs work.”)
I set it aside, and put it on the back burner, and started reading more urban fantasy (starting with the famous Dresden Files.)
Years later, I had an idea of how to better write the story and the characters. I experimented with the first couple chapters, and received considerable praise from a couple of beta readers. Then COVID-19 became a pandemic, and while the world shut down and my own job was put on a relative freeze (I still had to go to work, but all I could do was maintain, I wasn’t allowed to change anything,) I set out to write the trilogy back-to-back.
And today, you finally get to see the final results of that :) What’s more, I always intended Sentinels to be more inclusive and diverse. I was uncertain about writing a Japanese-American character since I’m a white guy, but I also felt like there was already enough white heroes out there. I also wanted to include more LGBT (for many reasons, some personal, some not,) and while it was only hinted at in Legacy and Retribution, I’m really excited about the character introduced in Champions. Especially after seeing Beck’s connection with them.
Seriously, to my fellow writers, we need more representation in fiction. Your non-white, non-male, and LGBT+ readers out there will appreciate it.
Parting Thoughts
This has been an….interesting journey. The reception Sentinels received from the outset was not as enthusiastic as the beta readers’ reactions, to be sure. But especially after reading/hearing thoughts and opinions from some of those who haven’t enjoyed the trilogy, and based on what my beta readers continue to insist, I strongly believe that this is a result of failing to reach the target audience.
I believe in this story and the characters, and there is a growing group of people who likewise believe in it and love it. It wasn’t the Earth-shattering hit I had hoped it to be, but as time has gone on, I’ve found that it isn’t the abysmal failure I thought it was a year ago. The greatest struggle now will be effective marketing – how do I get readers whom this story was written for to find it and read it?
Well, that has always been, and will probably forever be my struggle. I am not good with marketing. But I won’t give up. I won’t stop trying.
Will I ever write more stories in this Universe? Maybe. I love the characters and there are more stories for them. I won’t say which characters are ripe for more development, because I don’t want to spoil what happens in Champions, but there’s definitely room for more stories.
And to be honest, the more enthusiastic responses and reviews I get for Sentinels, the more likely I am to pick it back up.
But until then, I still have the Sword of Dragons saga to finish, and at least a YA Sci-Fi to work on.
This is the end of one chapter of my writing career. But there are many more to come. So turn the page, and join me for the next chapter. Starting much sooner than you might think ;)
Thanks for reading, everyone!
-Jon Wasik
A Writer at Heart 