Jay’s Personal Note
I keep coming back to a scene I almost cut from Awakening. Early draft, Evan standing at the edge of the Hallowmere with the Veil thinning in front of him, and he says nothing for almost a full page. My editor at the time wanted dialogue there, wanted him to process the moment out loud for the reader. I fought for the silence instead, because that’s who Evan is to me. He doesn’t narrate his fear. He just keeps walking toward it. That page survived every revision, and it’s still the moment I point to when someone asks what the trilogy is really about. Not the Nythrall, not the prophecy. Just a man who didn’t ask for any of this, deciding to go anyway.
From the Blog
- Beyond Vampires: Why Original Monster Mythology Is Redefining Dark Fantasy — Why the Nythrall were built to break every rule vampire fiction taught readers to expect. Read More
- Dark Fantasy Creatures That Aren’t Vampires: Inside the Mythology of the Nythrall — A closer look at what “moon-bound” actually means, and why it changes everything about how the Nythrall are fought. Read More
- Writing from the Inside Out: How Emotional Truth Fuels Dark Fantasy Storytelling — On writing all three books before publishing any of them, and why the emotional truth had to come first. Read More
- BookTok’s Villain Era: Why Dark Fantasy Readers Can’t Stop Thinking About the Antagonist — Why readers are more obsessed with Father Kalen Draemir’s conviction than any hero’s victory. Read More
- What the Blood Moon Does to the Nythrall — The mechanics behind the cycle that governs every rising, every retreat, and every countdown in the trilogy. Read More
Spotlight: Evan Hartwell
Evan Hartwell was never meant to understand the Veil. He was meant to guard a border he’d been told was empty, in a garrison that existed to watch nothing happen, until the night nothing happened for the last time. What sets Evan apart from the warriors who came before him in this world isn’t strength. It’s the particular stubbornness of a man who keeps choosing to act before he has all the information, because waiting for certainty has never once saved anyone in the Hallowmere.
His arc across the trilogy is built on a quiet refusal to become what the prophecy expects of him. Lira Thornfield reads him the old texts. Auren Draevan shows him the tracks and the warning signs written into the land itself. Father Kalen Draemir offers him a doctrine that would make everything simpler, if only Evan would accept that the Nythrall are pure evil and the Veil is pure good. Evan takes none of it whole. He carries all three influences and still insists on forming his own answer, usually in the middle of a crisis, usually too late to be safe about it.
What I love most about writing him is that his emerald eyes were never a cosmetic detail. They mark him as something the old Veil architects anticipated, whether he wanted the inheritance or not. By Blood Moon, Evan is no longer the man who stood silent at the edge of the Hallowmere. He’s the one other people go silent for. That transformation, earned page by page rather than granted by fate, is the backbone of everything else in this universe.
Lore Corner
Recovered fragment, Hallowmere garrison log, author unknown, ink faded near the final entry.
“…third watch reports movement past the marker stones, though nothing crossed. The moon was not full. It should not have mattered. And yet the dogs would not settle, and the youngest guard swears the shadow beneath the north gate breathed. We have not written this in the official record. Some things the Veil keeps are not meant to be counted…”
Continue the Journey
Beyond the Veil, the Blood Moon is always rising toward something. Step past the threshold and read the complete Moon’s Curse trilogy at londynpublishing.com.
Londyn Publishing
Where fierce imagination meets loyalty, love, and a touch of the supernatural.
