DARKDAWN 2019
Hello droogs,
Some of you have noticed some confusion about the release date for DARKDAWN in the last couple of weeks – Amazon says one thing, Goodreads says another, and so on.
Folks have asked me about this on twitter. I did notice, I promise. And apologies I haven’t made an announcement sooner, but I was tied up on the LIFEL1K3 release schedule and tour. Now that my post-apocalyptic baby is out in the world, I can turn attentions back to my more murderous child.
So, the bad news: The release date for DARKDAWN has been pushed to September 2019. Which, I know, is more than a year away. And I know a lot of you were really fucking looking forward to getting it this year and yes, this sucks. So, allow me to explain.
Writing the Nevernight Chronicles has been a slightly different experience to writing my other series, in the sense that I’ve been writing the next book after the previous book has hit shelves. I usually do my homework wayyyyy ahead of time – I handed in the second LIFEL1K3 book months ago, for example. We handed in GEMINA well before ILLUMINAE was published, same with OBSIDIO and GEMINA. But I was still writing GODSGRAVE when NEVERNIGHT came out. DARKDAWN was only about 17,000 words long when GODSGRAVE hit shelves (the final book will be about 180k). This has been cool, in the sense that some reactions from readers have influenced certain parts of the story, and made the book and Mia better. The tricky part of this kind of schedule is that after a book is written, there’s still a whole bunch of work that gets done behind the scenes before it’s published – editing, proofing, designing, marketing, shipping and so on.
So, my plan was to deliver the first draft of DARKDAWN to my publishers in April 2018. Those of you who follow me on instagram know I went to Venice for a month in February and smashed about 90,000 words. It was an amazing experience. Wandering those streets and walking alongside those canals and breathing that air, I discovered the book DARKDAWN would become. I’ll owe the people and city Venice a debt forever.
Thing is, DD is gonna be a 180-190k book. So at the end of Feb when I got back from Italy, I still had around 70-80k words to write. And I had a three week OBSIDIO tour in March (thanks to everyone who came out to see us, you were amazing!).
But yeah, April delivery? Not happening.
I wrote my editors and told them DD wouldn’t be ready til May. And even then, I’d be rushing it. And this is the real thing, the most important thing in all this – truth is, I didn’t want to rush this book.
I’ve never got reactions on any other series like the reactions I get to NEVERNIGHT. People like the ILLUMINAE books. They sold a lot of copies. That weird little bookthing paid for a shitload of bourbon. But the people who like NEVERNIGHT don’t just like it. They love it.
LOOOOOOOVE IT.
They get tattoos of it. They make amazing, brilliant art for it. They write me letters telling me that Mia has got them through divorces, devastating emotional trauma, assault, financial collapse, infidelity, deaths in the family, fucking CANCER. I get letters from teens telling me that Mia helped them recognize their own sexuality, that they’d never seen themselves in a book before they saw her. These books are IMPORTANT to a lot of people, in ways that even now I’m still coming to grips with. And it’s amazing and it’s humbling. And I’ll be eternally grateful for the way you folks have loved my stabby bitch of a daughter.
But here’s the thing – no matter how much you love NEVERNIGHT and GODSGRAVE, DARKDAWN is the book you’ll remember most. The note this series goes out on is the one that’s going to stick with you. And given what this series means to people, what this character means to people, I didn’t want to rush this final book and fuck it up.
As I write this, I still have about 20,000 words to write on DARKDAWN. Realistically, it’ll be mid June before I’m done. It’ll be the book you deserve by then. And handing over the book in mid June for a November release is just too hard for my publishers. There’s still months of work to do after you hand in your first draft. Realistically, it’d be December before we could publish it, even if we ruuuuuushed. And nobody publishes in December unless you’re publishing a christmas book.
Mia is a lot of things, gentlefriends. But she sure as fuck ain’t christmassy.
So, no problem Jay, you say. Just publish DARKDAWN in January. It’s only 3 months later than you promised.
Problem there is, I have another book coming out in March – the first in my new series with Amie, the book formerly known as THE ANDROMEDA CYCLE (the name has changed, more about that next month). And then I have the second LIFEL1K3 book coming out in May. Point is, dropping three books in five months is fucking insanity. The sales of one will cannibalize another, the schedule would be fruitloops. I’d literally get no writing done for the first half of 2019, and writing is my drug. My therapy. It’s what I do to stay sane. Five months of constant touring and promo would drive me batshit crazy.
So, Fall release it is. Spring in Oz. September, to be precise. This is an absolute deadline. I swear it on the Black Mother – Darkdawn will be in your hands in September 2019. This is not a Winds of Winter scenario, I’ll be finished writing it in June. And please note I am not knocking Lord GRRM in any way – mad props to George, I love that guy. I’m just pointing out this isn’t writing/content delay. It’s schedules for other books that are spannering the works, not the writing part. The writing part is great.
I know this sucks. I know how disappointed some of you will be. But the book will be better for it. If I’d rushed it, if I’d pushed before it was ready, it wouldn’t be the book it’s going to be. The ending came to me a few days ago. It’s the ending I’ve been looking for the last six months. The other endings I’d thought of were good. But this one is RIGHT. I know it in my bones, the way you know you’re in love. The book is writing itself now. It’s like fucking magic. Everything is falling into place and I’m loving every moment of these final chapters. I’m sitting here typing this blog post and cannot wait to dive back into what I’m writing (Chapter 35, you’ll know what I mean when you get there). God, I can’t wait for you to read this thing, seriously.
But you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer than you hoped.
So, I’m sorry. It’s a bummer. We’ll figure out something cool to make up for the delay. In the meantime, if you must MUST read more of my stuff, you have LIFEL1K3 on shelves this week if you’re in America (July in the UK). And you have have my new series with Amie (new title reveal very soon) coming out in March 2019, and LIFEL1K3 2 in May to tide you over.
And then, in September, daylight dies.
It’ll be worth the wait, I promise.
Cheers droogies. And thanks for understanding 🙂
Of course it’ll be worth the wait, it’s one of the few things in life that I don’t doubt ?❤
If I can wait for Doors of Stonee for 7 years with no publication date in sight, I can wait one extra year for Darkdawn. Your readers love you, Jay. But most importantly we love Mia and we need you to take your time and do her and this story justice. Thank you for always being upfront and honest with us. ♥️
I’d much rather wait however long it takes to get the book you intend it to be, rather than the book you hammered out to meet a deadline. Such fine soul crushing as you habitually deliver simply cannot be rushed. ? It’s worth waiting for.
As much as I want the book in my hands, like, yesterday, I really appreciate you knowing your limits and wanting to give us the best book possible. Thank you for the post ?⚔️?
As a reader, I’m willing to wait for a book to be it’s best. Gah, publishing schedules, though. It’d be kinda awesome if Darkdawn was simultaneously released with Lifelike 2, because that would be wicked awesome, as well as only one book tour. Or December, because hey, the gift of itself would be great! Alas that neither can happen. But cool stuff! Like short stories or novellas? The main thing about being sad for no 2018 release is that we won’t spend any time in the world, with these characters. And I’ll take them any way I can get them!
Also, this is not meant to be negative, but mostly shaking my fists at the skies at the whims of fate 🙂
I read this post to my husband. My husband said “if I don’t have Darkdawn in my hand by October 1st, he’s going to hear me whisper in his ear ‘Hear me Niah. Hear me Mother…”
Here’s just obsessed with Mia and Mr Kindly. He also likes to quote “sweet boy” references even if they don’t fit into the conversation.
No really. No worries. Write the story that needs to be written to do Mia justice. Besides, my husband has a lot of inertia. He’ll never make it to Australia. Now if you’re in the Midwest of the United States after October 1st… All bets are off. Goodnight gentlefriend.
I just checked on Amazon to see what date in November this would be released. I saw September and was thrilled, my brain chose not the process the year. I then Googled to see if there had been any news, what with the release being so imminent, and read this.
I was moved to create an account just to comment.
I have to say though, I love this story. Love it, I ignored it for ages because reviewers kept calling it dark and brutal and I was so done with Grimdark one trick ponies. It is dark and brutal but it is so much more. I love the way it’s told and the character journey. I love how the endings are both immensely satisfying but also leave you desperate to know what happens next.
It’s good stuff and I don’t mind waiting a bit longer for Mia.
Reblogged this on forthenovellovers and commented:
Jay I love you and even if I have to wait a decade between your books I would still buy them.
Jay I love you and even if I have to wait a decade between your books I would still buy them.
100% worth the wait! I love that you are enjoying the writing process so much and that it is turning out to be all that you hoped it would be. Plus September 2019 is my 26th birthday so hopefully I will be older, wiser and strong enough to handle this finale. hahha one can only hope I wont be destroyed!
Take your time, Mr K. You’re a sweetheart for wanting to explain.
That’s completely understandable and honestly I’m even more excited for this book now that you’ve laid out everything going on around it. We’re so lucky to get three new books next year though and I’m glad they’re spread out with enough time to read, die and revive for the next!
No need to explain. These Droogs would wait years.
Good luck with that incredible work load!
I forgive you?… grudgingly but i do. You can make it up by promising that Philly will be a stop NN tour ??
Thing the first, I’m sure all of us (or almost all of us) understand the need to delay and will wait excitedly for its arrival.
And thing the second, I have to say it’s been amazing watching/reading about your success. When I first started reading this blog, you were still working your (not-so-amazing) job, trying to get Stormdancer to get picked up. I remember reading about your struggles, reading about the process, your advice about writing, and all that lovely stuff. Knowing how well you’ve done and how it wasn’t instant success is awesome, as it gives us (other writers who still have not-so-amazing day jobs) hope and courage to keep going.
Guess I could have just written “thanks” 😛
Aw <3. Thank you. And keep writing! If I can do it, you sure can 🙂
Take your sweet time and make it everything it deserves to be. It’s your baby, you know best 😉
As for the schedule stuff, it’s totally understandable, you’re not a performing monkey – it has to be manageable for you as a human being.
With all these positive and reassuring posts I gotta say: dude ,what the hell!
I stumbled across nevernight and I devoured it like nothing else before. Found the audiobook, but wasn´t satisfied. Read all of Lotus Wars in like 5 days. Waited…. got Godsgrave, called in sick and was finished in one session. Got the audiobook as well… And these audiobooks are on repeat every night I go to sleep for several months now.
So if I have to wait for 15months for DARKDAWN you´d better make sure the audiobooks will be available on the second day.
FFS! I can undersand your reasoning with makeing it the best you can do,.. but the interference with publishing your other books(which I´m gonna read anyways) is killing me.
Dude… have mercy and at leat give us some extracts.
I’m looking forward to it, Jay. I respect your dedication to your craft and to your readers. I wish many authors would take a page from your book, man. This is what it takes to produce work of quality. I love it! Sep ’19 is gonna ROCK!
[…] basically all I have to say about that. Long live King Kristoff. (Also, huge fucking sad face that Darkdawn release date got pushed back, but I do want it to be the story that Mia deserves, so I’m controlling my […]
I think I’d rather wait for you to be completely certain on the ending and on how exactly the loose ends all come together – and it also gives me time to reread the series over again ? I know that this book will be the end of me. Honestly even reading this got me so excited because of the references to nevernight, so come September 2019 I will be so so excited and probably in tears. I CAN’T WAIT!!!
Wellllll that explains why my hold at the library went away. lol First in line for LIFEL1K3 though!! Wahoooo!
Just read about this last week while rereading Nevernight and now Godsgrave. Yeah, honestly, it stung a bit. But hey, I’ll live. We’ll live. Good luck, enjoy your life. We’ll be waiting.
Okay, I’ll go to his front door and show him what I say is one of only 3 bottles of a really, super, tasty type of bourbon in the world, and pretend to negotiate a preview copy of DD for it.
Meanwhile, when i give the signal (I “accidentally” drop the supposedly priceless bottle, breaking it), someone else will sneak in through the back door (or an air vent, if we’re sticking to the classics) and grab a copy of the book, and sneak back out while I’m loudly apologizing, fretting, and trying hard not to laugh.
Well need a backup plan for unexpected obstacles, such as if I drop the bottle on a welcome mat and it doesn’t break. I might give up the game if I first drop the bottle and it then appears if it looks like I’m trying to step on the bottle, accidentally. And repeatedly 🙂
So, if the first infallible diversion doesn’t work, team member #3 will be walking by with an incredibly hot Russell Terrier, and this young lady will have instructions to run inside, find Jay’s RT, Samwise, and say “Hey there, big boy — what days say… how’s about you take me for a walk?”. Granted, it’ll likely just sound like barking, but she’ll know what to say, trained by the doggie Hall of Masks as she was.
This’ll work, no question!
So, I guess, well, as long as Jay doesn’t read this soon, and he had a copy of the book right next to a window (or air vent), we’ll be golden.
Who’s with me?
🙂
— If anyone’s conscience troubles them over stealing, no worries. Well all leave the purchase price of the book… Or, to be simple, I could just leave one check for the three of us.
I thought it was sept of this year and i immediately went to barnes n nobles and they said they didnt have it and I got confused and sad
I’m really looking forward to when B&N finally has their supercalifragilisticexpialidocious edition available for pre-order. Been a huge fan since Stormdancer (read a sample online & immediately fell in love). Much love from Alaska
Late to this party but – I’m reading Nevernight right now and I absolutely adore it. The way you speak about writing is exactly the way I feel, and I’m so glad you’re taking your time. I was going to put “I can’t wait” but I totally can, because I’ve got Godsgrave to keep me company 🙂
PS: Illuminae was also fucking awesome, I would get that tattooed on me
I’m super psyched for whenever Darkdawn comes out. I’ll force myself to wait, but the song Darkside by Alan Walker seriously gives me Mia vibes. Feels like it was literally written for her!!
I discovered Nevernight awhile ago… as an audiobook. And I probably listened to it at least 30 times since then… and then I found GodsGrave. And I loved that just as much as Nevernight. I’ll be honest I loved the audiobooks. Alot of people I know say the book makes absolutely no sense… but to me… it all makes perfect sense. I love how it is written. It just sounds perfect to me. And I’ve been hunting down the soft cover book for months now and I’ve never been able to find one..
Mia is a character… in my opinion… that everyone can relate to in some way… she goes through so much and even through the worst of it… she prevails even when she herself cannot see an easy way out. I think you are a literary genius for your works and I personally intend to read more as soon as I can. You are an amazing author and I sincerely hope that someday I can be at least half as good a writer as you are.
I apologize for rambling on. I just feel very strongly about books and your books are among my favorites.
Thank you for all your hard work and time sir.
I just finished the Nevernight and Godsgrave audio books. They were absolutely fantastic and I could not put them “down”\away 🙂 . In fact, they were so good that I was compelled to check on the status of book #3 (which I wasn’t hopeful for – recently I noticed a lot of authors are quick/timely on the first couple books and then fall off the wagon; but maybe that are the series I have been listening to) and reading this blog post is like a breath of fresh air! I appreciate the transparency and sheer power of the above described book creation machine (lol)! Looking forward to September!
I bought Nevernight on a trip to Edmonton. If figured it would just be something small to keep me sane while dealing with my sister’s bachelorette party… I was so wrong.
I am in love with the series and can’t stop reading it. I have both NN and GG and they have been read multiple times. I can’t believe where you left off the ending of Godsgrave though it nearly made me scream aloud.
Take the time you need Jay, it will be worth it in the end. I can’t wait to see where you take Darkdawn and Mia for your big crescendo.
I just fell in love with Mia and her shadows. Counting days…
So I just bought the first two of those trilogy 5 days ago and I’m already finished.
These are phenomenal. I literally couldn’t put the things down. When I was at work sitting at my desk, I would have the books in my lap and I’d read. If someone walked by, I would look up at my computer screen super quick as to not get caught!
I’m so excited for the third- I wish I had stretched them out a bit longer.
I get entrapped in a good story.
Actually only picked up Nevernight 2 days ago but upon finishing it, dove right into Godsgrave. Was on a roll to get my Mia fix but imagine my surprise when the 3rd book was yet to be published. Guess I’ll have to go into hibernation till September ?