​It's summer in Junicka Valley, and life is getting strange. Two lonely brothers meet a girl with rainbow eyes. A man without meaning drifts through the chaos of his mind. A baseball star, abandoned to her rage, becomes friends with the impossible. An artist loses her soul, and along with it all that she holds dear. A detective, returning to the town he swore he'd never see again, investigates a murder that's just the beginning of what's to come.
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Junicka Valley: Book One begins the story of a town drenched in the sunshine of a strange and deadly summer. It's the first book in a series of three, written by Sam Kennedy.
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Read an excerpt here!
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Buy Junicka Valley: Book One on the JVS Shop!
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Junicka Valley A publication History
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To write a history of a book that hasn't even been finished yet seems just a bit ridiculous. But nevertheless, Junicka Valley and I go way back, so it must be done.
I started writing the story back in 2015, and over the course of five or six years I had nearly finished it. Unedited, it came in at around 800 pages. Instead of publishing a behemoth book by an unknown author, I decided to split the novel into three volumes and release them over the course of a few years. My intent was to slowly build a crowd, but back then I wasn't very good at being slow. I edited the first book far too quickly, then released it with little to no marketing. (Plus little to no confidence!) It goes without saying that it flopped, and I abandoned the rest of the story so I could focus on game design.
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In 2025 I finally found the gumption to return that strange and eerie tale to finish it once and for all. It will still be released in three volumes, with a planned omnibus coming out once all is said and done. The first book is getting a a clean edit and being published February 2026, with the following two books releasing thereafter.
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Junicka Valley is an amazing story, and I'm excited to share it with everyone!
-Sam Kennedy
