Night of the Blood Moon
Information
The city of Cypheria is a realm of mystery, from the unexplained curfews imposed on blood moon nights twice a year to the people who've gone missing without a trace. Surviving here comes with a simple rule: Don’t pry into secrets that you don't need to know. But for some, the truth might just be what stands between them and freedom.
When the paths of four very different individuals collide in the city trapping them in the same perilous circumstances, they find that everything runs a lot deeper than they could've imagined. In Cypheria, ignorance isn’t just bliss — it's survival. But once the veil is lifted, there's no turning back, and the only way forward is to navigate a world that threatens to consume them.
Tags
- Main Genres(s): dystopian, mystery, fantasy, action
- Sub-Genres(s): multiple pov, romance, sci-fi
- Warnings: mild violence, implied sexual content, alcoholism
- Project Status: ongoing
Formats
Night of the Blood Moon is one of my main works, thus I plan to have it available as an eBook, paperback and hardcover. However, the hardcover will be a special edition of sorts — something I want for myself — with a dust jacket and the cover inside having a slightly different aesthetic. Part of the reason is that I was torn between cover ideas. As Amazon KDP does not provide the printing options I want (including foil lettering), it will not be available there, but I may have it on my Ko-Fi shop. This goes for the interlude story as well (more information below). The books will all be released as eBooks and only converted to paperback once the whole series is done.
Interlude Story
As I was planning the lore of my novel's universe, I realised that it would be hard to cover the past events that led to the state that the world was in without a huge flashback. However, it would be quite disruptive to the main story, so when I decided to split the book into three parts, I decided to make this backstory — featuring a new cast of characters — its own separate novel. More information can be found on this page. Do note that while the interlude serves as a standalone story, I would recommend at least reading the first two parts of the main novel first, not only for context but also to avoid spoilers! Otherwise, I do think it's a lot less heavy in terms of the potentially sensitive topics it covers, so I'd recommend it even if you don't read the main novel.
Art and Design
Title Card
The title card of the story, originally designed for a scroll-format webcomic, was made on Canva and later edited on Clip Studio Paint. It captures the title of the story and features an iconic symbol in the story: the blood moon. It has both a light and dark version, designed for different coloured backgrounds, and I chose to display the former on this site. In the dark version, the black text is replaced with silver to ensure readability.
Concept Art
Night of the Blood Moon is set in a story universe that has been in development for years, since 2022 when I first had the idea. The characters designs have gone through multiple revisions and the original designs of the main cast were very different from their final ones. These are some of the later designs of two of the main characters in the story, which were drawn while I was studying anatomy from a reference book. The designs have remained largely unchanged since then.
Webcomic
[WIP]
Background
While this won't be the first project I made public, it is incontestably the one that I deem the most important to me. Not only are the characters ones I've had for years, it's a project that I have a lot planned for. Originally started as an idea for a scroll-format webcomic, it later branched out to a series of three novels (plus an extra interlude). A bit of a fun fact: The characters are the same ones in my first novel because this was the universe they first belonged to and the other story was meant as a side project. Therefore, their personalities might seem a little bit different as I've continued working on them even after publishing the book.
The very first plan of the story was very different. It wasn't focused on fantasy as much and it was meant to be told from just one character's point of view. However, as I continued to expand the universe, it became clear that having only one characters's perspective would make it a lot harder to tell the stories of the others. With this being planned as a webcomic rather than a written novel, it also felt more appropriate to have the point of view alternate between the main characters. Many of their stories have changed drastically, especially that of a certain side character whose entirely personality and backstory changed, which I'd say made her a lot more important in the story than she was before.
Despite my original plan, however, I have decided to release this as a book first and foremost, with the webcomic only featuring some scenes that I want to draw. This is mainly in the interest of time — I have never wanted to be a full-time artist and creating the full webcomic would take up far too much time. I do have ambitious plans for the novel, though, and the first part is past the halfway mark and is scheduled to be done within the next year!