Destiny of the Daystar awakens!

After nine months away, I’ve jumped back into writing Destiny of the Daystar, book 4 of my Absolution of the Morning Star series (AMS). I paused on January 12 at 22,059 words to rewrite Koen, the prequel to the series that Grendel Press will publish in 2025, and then to work on a project the muse forced me to write, Novice of Thanatos, for which I’ve begun to send out queries for representation—here we go again!

It feels good to get back into Erikson Gray’s story. AMS is the core storyline of my Lucardian world. It is where the history and lore reside, and Erikson’s fate either results from or will lead to all the story arcs I plan for this universe.

After being away from Destiny of the Daystar for so long, I was wary that I would have difficulty getting back into the flow. Luckily, after a few days, I eased right back in like it was a hot bath. I reread and reworked what I had and then pushed forward with the tale, happy to see that I had a lot to say after it stewed for so long in the back of my mind. I am currently at 31,334 words after 8 days of writing, or 1160 a day, which is above my average (some were 2000+ days).

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have taken on such an ambitious project of writing a six-book series. It is hard to stay patient and dedicated, but being more than three books in, I can’t stop now. The AMS saga will continue to be self-published, so I envision this book ready for you in a few months- maybe by the New Year if I can continue at my current rate. Like the other parts of the series, Destiny of the Daystar will be about 150k words- I hope. A big part of the tale will be Erikson visiting each of the Northling tribes that comprise the Circle of Eight to convince them to join his fledgling endeavor of taking the crystal throne. He has visited one and will soon move on to the second, so I still have a lot of story to cover in 120k words.

I will continue to pause momentarily between books in the AMS series to work on other projects. If Koen does well, it will likely be a duology with the second book, Sylvanus. It will primarily deal with the rebellion between these brothers and their father before Erikson was born. I’ve already pitched this to Grendel Press, and there is some interest (depending on how Koen does). They hold the right to first refusal. Then, I have the two books to follow The Novice of Thanatos, that I will absolutely write- The Monk of Thanatos and The Confessor of Thanatos, to round out the trilogy. That encompasses three of the twenty-six ideas set in Lucardia or the surrounding realms I have brewing in this pot of a head.

It’s a lot, I know. At just about 43 years old, I should have enough time, but only if I exercise and eat well- speaking of which, time to enjoy a beautiful fall day with my wife and some Salmon for dinner before a long night of writing.

Cheers!