Naturally, my mind was drawn more to “western” myth and culture, than when I was dreaming up Moontide. And I was back living in New Zealand at the time I was asked to formulate my ideas, away from more exotic influences. Moontide was mostly about culture clash.īut I didn’t want to just write another Moontide: I wanted Sunsurge to have its own distinctive “feel”. The geo-political struggle of east and west were very much at the forefront of my mind. When it was conceived I was living in India, where I spent a total of four years and was completely blown away by the environment, the people, the history and the very real conflicts.
The Moontide Quartet drew on eastern culture and myth from our world, telling as it did a story set in a mostly desert environment. A “Sunsurge” is the opposite, occurring six years after each Moontide, in which the seas are at their highest, accompanied by severe rainfall, very changeable weather and the bridge completely immersed. In Urte, a “Moontide” is a twelve-yearly geographic event where the unruly seas around the two known continents drop, allowing the Leviathan Bridge to be traversed. I had a few, and condensed them into two main ideas, which we talked through, chose one and tweaked it significantly.
#Corinius moontide quartet series
The new series had its genesis almost four years ago, when Jo Fletcher, my publisher, editor and personal Empress, asked if I had any sequel plans to Moontide. While I’m pretty excited by that, I’m actually so deeply immersed in Books 2 and 3 that I’ve not had time to even raise a glass to Empress and her launch. It’s set in the same world of Urte, and the first book, Empress of the Fall, came out on 9 th March – yesterday as I write this. All books in my first epic fantasy series, The Moontide Quartet, have now been released, and I’m at work on the sequel series, The Sunsurge Quartet.