Death is only the beginning for Mae as she faces an ancient goddess of light and a self-made demon of the dark in a battle to save her father and her soul.
Welcome to DARK AS DAWN | BRIGHT AS NIGHT
Table of Contents
Episode 1: A World Full of Weeping Deep in a Pacific Northwest rainforest, where Tennyson Ellis goes to make peace with his demons, he finds himself pursued by a presence he can’t easily explain away.
Coming June 7 | Coming June Episode 2: Soul and Shade
Coming June 14 | Episode 3: A Fireside Chat
Coming June 21 | Episode 4: Visitations
Coming June 28 | Episode 5: Devil Dogs
Coming July 5 | Episode 6: Lade of the Dusk
Coming July 12 | Episode 7: Sanctuary
Coming July 19 | Episode 8: Waterwild
Coming July 26 | Episode 9: The Taking
Coming August 2 | Episode 10: Origins
Coming August 9 | Episode 11: Warriors
Coming August 16 | Episode 12: Bruises
Coming August 23 | Episode 13: What is Broken Can Be Mended
Coming August 30 | Episode 14: Machinations and Relevations
Coming September 6 | Episode 15: She-Wolf
Coming September 13 | Episode 16: Monster of Her Own Making
Coming September 20 | Episode 17: Reign
What is DARK AS DAWN | BRIGHT AS NIGHT about?
Hesper Wright is in the business of making ghosts. Her clients are looking to cheat death, but their afterlife as one of Hesper’s shades is servitude at best, oblivion at worst. She always follows the rules, though, even if she did make them up herself: no negotiating, no substitutions, and no children. Those simple caveats have never failed, and after centuries of work, her power has grown.
But when a desperate mother begs Hesper to give her teenage daughter, Mae, a chance at life after death, Hesper is tempted. The girl is special, a scion of an ancient force. With Mae under her control, Hesper could act on the desire for vengeance that’s fueled her shademaking from the beginning.
Mae’s father, Ten, won’t make it easy, though. He’s forged an alliance with Hesper’s sworn enemy, Blythe, a former goddess from the Dawn anxious to atone for the mistake that got her cast out of that realm’s golden halls. Ten sees it as a rescue mission that recalls his days in the military, but he’s about to find out that this battle between light and dark has no heroes, only rivals with their own hidden agendas.
Mae’s fate, then, rests in her own hands. To keep Ten safe and save her soul, she’ll need to step into her newfound power and realize that death is only the beginning.
What are DD|BN’s genres and themes?
Dark fantasy, atmospheric horror, family saga, epic adventure, coming of age, romantic tragedy.
Any trigger warnings?
Sexual content, suicide, strong language, human sacrifice, death of children, neglect.
Glossary
Quintessence: The five animating elements of a person. These can be broken down into:
Bounds: name, blood, passion. These tie you to the earthly realm. The Dusk can take them. And the Dawn can give them.
Diessence: soul, shade. These persist after death.
Dawn: A harsh golden realm of gods and goddesses that feast on the diessences of humans.
Dusk: A night realm built from the shades taken by Hesper Wright.
Fractures: The soul half of a diessence after the Wright has harvested the shade.
Canker: The doglike creatures that guard Hesper Wright’s property.
Warden: A lowly servant of the Dawn responsible for gathering human diessences and delivering them to mornrills.
Mornrill: Waterways that act as gateways to the Dawn.
Waterwild: The origin of the mornrills.
Keeper: A guardian of the mornrill. Responsible for crossing diessences from the earthly realm to the Dawn.
Snag: An especially volatile diessence that tends to “haunt” the places that had meaning for them in life.
Slipping: A ghost’s ability to slide into another’s body.
The Sluagh (pronounced slew-awh): An ancient band of fae, revered and feared in their time.
The Gray: What Mae calls emissaries of the Sluagh.
Riona: Queen of the Sluagh
Yay! This book deserves to be read by all your new subscribers who haven't encountered it before. I loved it.
Have you revisited/revised any of it? And if you are planning on having it published, have you spoken to your agent about whether it's still ok to repost it here on Substack?
I adore that cover artwork, by the way!