The Emperor's Concubine

Author's Note

Thank you so so much to everyone who's read and supported 'The Emperor's Concubine'!

I can't bring to words how touching it is that so many readers have saved, voted, read, and commented on my story. To put it into better words, this story is and will be my baby for years. Seeing others supporting my 'child' gives me that motherly, proud feeling (which might be a bit strange but I love it that much).
I began writing this story back in 2017. It was a very long time ago yes, but in 2017 I remember writing it for fun. That's all my writing would be, I liked writing for fun just so I could read stories I would enjoy reading. Reading other stories I never finished was because I didn't like how some details were left out or brushed over too quickly—thus began The Emperor's Concubine. Afterall, what better way to read, than to write a story I know I'd love.
I wrote, planned, and eventually I realized I wanted more from it. It made me happy writing for myself, but I wanted to share this story because, what if there could be others who'd enjoy it too?

TEC is graphic and has sensitive topics, but I wrote it as a way of comfort.
Almost everyone goes through something traumatic, and I wanted this to be a comfort story for it. The traumatic things the FL goes through—though is A LOT and it's SUPER dramatic—I wanted to create a story to show the healing journey and the growth someone has from it.
In shows and books, it depicts the hardship, but it doesn't show the progress of growing, but that's what I wanted. I wanted to see the slow journey of growing and healing, and write about characters finding the day that their trauma doesn't affect their day-to-day lives (When I first wrote this story, I was in a place where it seemed impossible to forget my negative experiences—but it felt abundantly easier to find strength to grow, when characters I created could!)
It isn't that serious though, I don't expect my story to 'save people', because at the end of the day, it's only a fantasy romance anyways and the purpose was for entertainment.


I'm so thankful for everyone who's supported my story!
There are still a lot of things I need to improve, I don't believe I wrote a 'masterpiece', but I know for certain that I wrote something with 100% of my effort and I'm extremely proud of that.


Little details!
I loved astronomy growing up—to the point that I knew what constellations were in the sky (I can remember the constellations, but struggle to remember what I did yesterday... lol is all I can say to that, I'm in disbelief.)
-Emperor Cabel is named after the star Capella, and our protagonist Luna is named after the moon! I know Star Capella isn't a sun, but since I just consider all stars as suns, I named him after a star to signify he's named after a 'sun'. Celestia means heavenly, and I wanted to tie it with her background of being a descendant. Her new name, Luna, is because I wanted to create a connection that Luna and Cabel are opposites of each other, but meant for each other.

Luna's someone vibrant and bright, someone that radiates joy and happiness to others and always had that vibrancy even after her experiences—so in my mind she seemed like the sun.
Cabel's someone who doesn't show much emotions, I wanted him to be someone who's indifferent, silent, and cold. But because he's the emperor, he of course radiates an air of power and awe—so in my mind he seemed like the moon.
I deliberately gave them names that are opposite of who they are to emphasize the contrast of how well they compliment each other.
It's a silly detail but I was so excited when I first found the names, that I want to share my over analysis of it.

'The Emperor's Concubine' may be ending, but not quite yet!
The Emperor's Concubine will have another book called 'The Emperor's Empress', and will be solely side stories!
Ending the main story at the wedding seemed to be the perfect place. However if there were/are readers who enjoy The Emperor's Concubine, I wanted to be able to write about 'what happens after'. The other project I'm hoping to work on, I find it necessary to have side stories written for it too.

TEC is currently in the slow process of being turned into a webtoon! (And for a webtoon to be perfect, side stories are A MUST in my opinion)
However because I'm drawing it myself it's going to be a VERY slow process until I can release it (Clip studio paint is so difficult to use so it's taking me a while to get used to it!)
I'm announcing it just because I want to manifest it in a way, but the reality is that it might not happen sadly, but that's okay! (Between working a full-time job, taking classes, and finding time for other things in life, it's difficult to dedicate time to practice art and learning about the work that goes into developing a comic!)

The side stories will have multiple different stories, and focus on separate characters and not only on the protagonists! The side stories will also tie together little details I wrote in the main story. They aren't major details, but they're relevant to the characters backstories and I found it best to reveal them in the side stories!

Anyways;
This is the end for The Emperor's Concubine!
Thank you so SO much for reading it, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Please follow me if you'd like to know when I publish the side stories, and whenever I publish other stories I've written!
Thank you so much for your love and support, I can't thank you enough <3

Thank you, THANK YOU!
-With SO much love, Jihyun. C. Lee <3