the Author
September
5
12 Comments

Harvest Moon

Posted in Cast, Elantra, Luna.

Devon, in the previous post, asked Where, in your eyes, does Cast in Moon­light fit into the grand scheme of things?

It seemed like the right time to answer.

Harvest Moon is a collec­tion of three stories, one by Mercedes Lacky set in her 500 King­doms universe, one by new author Cameron Haley which is, I believe, a prequel to the just released Mob Rules, and one by me.  The publi­ca­tion date is, in theory, the first of October, 2010.

My contri­bu­tion is “Cast in Moon­light”, a novella of 39,000 words.

Cast in Moon­light fits in at the begin­ning, sort of.  Kaylin is thir­teen years old when she first meets the Hawk­lord, and the story starts just after that first meeting and continues from there, as Kaylin meets the Hawks:  Marcus, Teela, Tain, Clint and the Hawk­lord himself, with one surprise appear­ance by a Dragon whom Kaylin doesn’t recog­nize as a Dragon because she’s not familiar with them.

It features her very first case as a not-quite-old-enough-to-be-Hawk.

There is, however, no Night­shade and no Severn.  Sorry…

12 Responses to Harvest Moon

  1. Aaron says:
    September 5, 2010 at 8:13 am

    Please stop apol­o­gizing. I think it’s wonderful that you give char­ac­ters just as much screen time as they need and not a whit more. Other­wise, there wouldn’t be anything deli­cious to gossip over, nor 7000+ posts in the Yahoo discus­sion forum.

    I hope you have the oppor­tu­nity to relax this Fall and holiday season.

  2. Aaron says:
    September 5, 2010 at 8:17 am

    Sorry to double-post but:

    If 39k words is all it takes to reveal Kaylin’s history, then perhaps you’ve been a bit lenient with Jewel, eh?

    Which is the more diffi­cult char­acter for you to write (at the moment and all things consid­ered), Kaylin or Jewel?

  3. Sandra says:
    September 5, 2010 at 8:42 am

    I think its great you wrote about Kaylin when she was 13+. When I was reading the other six books I really wanted to know more about how she learned how to be a hawk. How the first meeting with Marcus went and what the Hawk­lord did after Kaylin went to him.

    So thank you very much. I can not wait to read the story.

    Greet­ings from The Netherlands

  4. Michael says:
    September 5, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    Thanks for the heads up. I’m really looking forward to reading this.

  5. Estara says:
    September 5, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    Oh lovely!! We get more young Kaylin and first meet­ings, brilliant!

  6. Wendy Good says:
    September 8, 2010 at 5:03 pm

    This is a post from a long-term fan who simply can’t wait for the next Elantra story. I re-read the whole series after reading Cast in Chaos (and then read Cast in Chaos again to keep the successes­sion (sp?) complete), and loved every minute. I have things in my past that are hard to deal with because I didn’t want them to happen to me, as well as things I have done that I am not proud of. Spending time with Kaylin helps me focus on, as Severn said, “the choices you make when you aren’t afraid or in pain”. I also have a 6 month old son who keeps me in the now. When I look at his dear, precious self, I feel, like Kaylin, that I will do what­ever I have to do to give him the child­hood I never had. Safety, love, bound­aries and wings — all these things are parts of the home that I am daily learning how to build for my son. Thank you for the fun, the strug­gles, and the joy. Oh, and the steady diet of sarcasm.

  7. Genna Warner says:
    September 9, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    Just pre-ordered this for the Kindle.

    I would not expect Night­shade or Severn to appear in this story but I have a ques­tion. Has there been any thought given to writing a short or novel about Severn’s back ground or will that be covered when the book on the Wolflord is written?

  8. Michelle Sagara says:
    September 13, 2010 at 4:59 am

    @Genna: Some of that infor­ma­tion will be covered in the book about the Wolves, and in theory, that should be soon (the book after Cast in Ruin).

  9. Hilda says:
    September 29, 2010 at 11:57 pm

    I received Cast in Moon­light yesterday and finished it. I won’t spoil for others but wonder if, in future books, we will see “green eyes” again. He is so evil. Kaylin will have an enemy for life. it is an incred­ible good intro­duc­tion of Kaylin to the Hawks. I love Teela there, she disap­pears some times.
    Michelle, I have read and reread your Elantra series; I have the other series but can’t get into them yet because Kaylin et al keep raising ques­tions in my mind, and I keep going back and back to them. I wonder if you welcome ques­tions about possible futures. I’m the kind of reader that write and rewrite alter­na­tive futures in my mind. For example, I know that Kaylin will never have a future with Night­shade, which I want, while he is a “crime Lord”. I also know he is a very rich man. Andellen wonders how Tiamaris is going to pay for all the repairs. So, he knows it’s an expen­sive propo­si­tion for Night­shade. Thus, Nighshade must show that he has his hands on some very pros­perous legit­i­mate busi­nesses. I think the Hawk­lord knows he has legit­i­mate busi­nesses when he made Kaylin go to the fief for her protec­tion. Is Night­shade the one who provided money to Marrin’s orphans after the baby leon­tine went to her; after all, the bunch of chil­dren were from Nightshade?
    Here is one of my ques­tions with a few branches. Elantra has a huge harbor with huge ships. (1) Does Night­shade owns some of them and has an import/export side; or does he own mines or busi­nesses in Elantra; he is always busy. (2) Where these ships go? Without trying to make you draw maps, which are not needed: are the other worlds outside the reach of these ships; do they exists in other times; (3) this world has only the groups of diverse people we have seen so far, no one different travels into Elantra in this world, except the newcomers who look like Barranis, so who are the people they do busi­ness with?; the newcomers could not reach Elantra in ships, so they could have come from other times not worlds, they are almost Barrani.

    If Kaylin helps Night­shade to reach the heart of the Castle, I hope you make this Avatar or genie a very inter­esting char­acter, a funny one. He should be able to teach Night­shade a thing or two on how to handle women; either he wants to be Kaylin’s grand­fa­ther or he wants to be her lover. I go for lover (or rather Consort, she will never be his Erenne, she rejects it all the time it’s mentioned, but seems to accept Consort). She needs to ask Night­shade whether he is going to kill her, now that he invited her to his castle heart; he forgot he threat­ened her.
    Kaylin can’t continue thinkig that he is a real bad char­acter with a black heart. Even though he seems always to be teaching or correcting her, he is always helping/saving her, and is very tender and gentle.
    The detailed use of magic in Moon­light and Kaylin’s reac­tion to it is excel­lent; I hope to see Night­shade doing lots of magic next; he seems to be a very strong, knowl­edge­able and skill­full mage, better than any other.
    Thank you for these wonderful books; they fill my days with happiness.

  10. Michelle Jager says:
    October 4, 2010 at 5:08 am

    I just picked up Cast in Moon­light a few days ago and get to start it today. Thanks so much for publishing these bril­liant stories. You’re an amazing writer!

  11. Elizabeth says:
    October 6, 2010 at 1:53 am

    I really enjoyed the short story Cast in Moon­light. Now re-reading it for the third time.

  12. natasha says:
    October 11, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    what is Cast in Ruin about

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