--- MOON PEOPLE SAGA / SISTERS OF SYR SPOILERS AHEAD! ---
This is an update that's been long overdue on the next novel in the Moon People saga. It's finally time to talk about The Dawn King, the last chapter I currently have planned for the series, bringing the stories of Adel, Netya, Caspian, Jarek, and many more to a close.
I started the Moon People saga several years ago as an attempt at something more serious than the erotic shorts and serials I'd been writing beforehand, and I never expected to have so much passion for the characters that I'd end up writing six whole books about them. Working on The Dawn King has been an intense and at times emotionally draining experience for me, but I want to give it my all and make sure the final instalment in the series is one of the best. At present the manuscript sits at just over 130,000 words, which is already more than Sun Huntress and Sisters of Syr, and almost twice the length of Daughter of the Night. By the time it's done this one is likely to rival The Alpha's Concubine and Daughter of the Moon in length. I always considered the three shorter books in the series to be side stories that were too big to squeeze into longer novels, exploring the characters of Adel, Kiren, and Vaya while also setting up some story elements for later on. The Dawn King is very much a return to the sprawling kind of narrative seen in the first two books, bringing to a close the arcs of all the characters who will live happily ever after -- and the ones who will not.
The story itself focuses primarily on Adel and Jarek, two young lovers who were torn apart by circumstance more than fifteen years ago. Both have built new lives for themselves among new people, but the memory of their long-lost romance still lingers. Despite the distance between them, their lives are about to collide again as the Moon and Sun People meet in an irrevocable clash that will test their loyalties and present both of them with a terrible choice.
We step into the lands of the Dawn King, the great ruler of the Sun People in the east who seeks to unite the disparate tribes in his lands and drag their developing neolithic culture into a feudal age of metal. Along with Adel and Jarek, Netya, Kiren, Caspian, Fern, and Kale all have their own parts to play, with the sun wolves being forced to confront their past lives and question whether it was right to ever leave so much behind them. A tale of love and separation, duty and selflessness, loss and reunion, The Dawn King brings our characters to dark and dire new places, throwing them into conflicts that will shape the future of both the sun and moon.
I'm reluctant to give away too many specifics about the plot at this point, as events move fast and develop quickly throughout the novel, but I might drop some more hints closer to release. Those who have been waiting patiently for a conclusion to Adel and Jarek's story will have it, for good or ill, and many of the loose threads set up during the last two novels will be resolved.
At present I'm unsure when The Dawn King is going to release, but my progress on the novel has been faster than I expected for such a hefty word count. My hope is to have the first draft finished by Xmas, with the bulk of the editing taking place early in the new year. Barring any drastic complications, I expect the novel to arrive easily within the first few months of 2019.
