Koen’s release is amost here!

This is my last post before Koen: Quills from the Raven’s Nest releases on October 1. It’s hard to describe what this moment feels like, standing on this edge. Terror, exhilaration, sadness, joy, relief—it’s all there, tangled together. Will this book succeed or fail? I have a lot riding on it. It’s my first traditionally published novel, and if it does well, it could open doors to new opportunities. If not, it’s back to the drawing board (again). I’m hopeful. So much so, I am 30k words into the immediate sequel, Sylvanus: Swords and Sons. But more than Koen’s standalone success, I hope it serves as a bridge into the larger universe I’ve been building for years, funneling readers deeper into Lucardia and the stories already waiting in the shadows.

Writing Koen itself came smoothly enough. It took roughly six months, which is normal for me. I had the benefit of a larger world already drawn and a future already mapped, so I knew where I was going. But when the words were finished, the real struggle began—querying, rejections, rewrites, contract negotiations, and the whole new reality of traditional publishing. It’s one thing to build a story in solitude. It’s another to hand it over and build trust, to relinquish control of the art you’ve lived with for so long. That was the most challenging part —and I’m still working on it. Luckily, Grendel Press has been very understanding.

The heart of this book was always Koen’s transformation. The tale begins with him as the emperor’s favored son and ends a moment before he becomes the realm’s greatest enemy. It’s a tragedy, and writing it meant asking: how do we get from the golden son to the villain remembered in Erik’s time? That tension drives the story. Koen is questing for a son and heir he will never know, for the realm’s future, and for a way to make a father proud. And yet when Erik eventually discovers who his father is in Dawn of the Lightbearer, he is devastated—disgusted, even ashamed. Koen is branded with every worst word the empire’s propaganda machine can muster, and the weight of that stigma is hard to erase even with the truth.

Balancing this story with the rest of the series was its own battle. There were spoilers to guard, especially in later books where Erik learns more about his parents. I had to step away from the Absolution of the Morning Star after Destiny of the Daystar just to keep the secrets intact, throwing myself into The Novice of Thanatos, Duke Rhime of the Spire, Jezelle: Thief of Oaks (querying), and now Sylvanus: Swords and Sons (writing). Those projects scratched the Lucardian itch, but my mind always circled back to the tragedy at the heart of Koen and how it would tie back into the end of the AMS series.

Koen became about more than one man’s downfall. The true influence of the Nyth Cigfran threads through it, as do seeds of plots that will bear fruit in Absolution of the Morning Star. I wanted longtime readers to find their “ah ha” moments, familiar faces (though younger), and Easter eggs, but I also wanted the story to work as an entry point for those meeting Lucardia for the first time. As for me, the journey of writing Koen was also about craft. It forced me to let go of bad habits, to labor over every line, not once but four or five times. I rewrote and reworked until it humbled me. At the time, I hated every moment of it. Now, looking back, I loved every moment. Writers will understand the contradiction. The finished product was worth the pain.

That’s what makes this moment so charged. Koen: Quills from the Raven’s Nest is both a tragedy and a triumph. It’s the culmination of years of work and the opening of a new door. Soon it will no longer belong to me, but to you, the readers. And I can only hope that what you find in its pages feels as alive as it did in the long, uncertain process of bringing it into the world.

Cheers!

If you read this before October 1, it’s not too late to join my Lucardian Vanguard and get the book for free in exchange for a review: https://booksirens.com/book/JWL1Y77/ESLY6BD

Book trailer: https://youtu.be/byAJNlHAaJ8

Quills from the Raven’s Nest song: https://youtu.be/-8GeZN4Nf9M

Some of the process: https://scottatirrell.com/coming-soon-5/

More about my Lucardian world: https://scottatirrell.com/the-lucardian-world/

My author interview with Grendel Press: https://grendelpress.com/blog/getting-to-know-scott-austin-tirrell

Other books from Grendel Press: https://grendelpress.com/books (supporting them helps support me)

All my blog posts about Koen: https://scottatirrell.com/category/koen/