Afterword

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It's a wrap!

About 20 months ago, in autumn 2018, I started writing the first chapters of The Midnight Storm while I was still working on the A Blaze In The Dark rewrite. Roughly ten chapters in, I realised this not only led to confusion with readers thinking ABITD was finished and already starting TMS (and getting spoiled) but was also a hassle to write and slowed down the rewrite of the first book. So I shelved TMS for a couple of months and properly restarted it in March 2019. 

Fifty-seven chapters, a prologue, two interlude chapters, and an epilogue later, The Midnight Storm is finished. Hooray!

Stats for the data geeks:

195.487 words (which is 13.256 words shorter than ABITD, even though TMS has 8 more chapters and an extra interlude)

13 chapters from Seb's POV

16 chapters from Fox's POV

15 chapters from Alex's POV

13 chapters from Nick's POV

Big thank you to everyone reading this story. "I couldn't do it without you" is often said, but it rings very true. The comments, PMs, and message board questions/pokes help to crawl back behind my computer to write instead of lazying around.

So, what's next?

The third instalment of the A New Dawn series will get the name 'A New Dawn Rises' and introduces a time jump of five years. Our favourite characters will be between the ages of 16 and 18, which are appropriate ages for them to start becoming rulers, don't you think?

The current plan is to write some chapters offline so I can stick to a more regular updating schedule, starting somewhere in autumn 2020. I can already reveal that the prologue will be from Grandmaster's Hawk POV and the first chapter will be from Alex's POV.

If you haven't already read the (longlisted) novella, The Witch's Hour, I recommend you to check it out. While it's a standalone introducing a new POV character, it bridges the events of the TMS epilogue to the first chapters of A New Dawn Rises.

Then a final question for you to ponder about, who will end up on the obsidian throne? Seb, Fox, another character, or will I surprise you all by keeping Half-Ear there? Guess away!


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