Update on Cassan Astor Part 5: Dragon Storm

It’s been a longer-than-normal time since I’ve written an update here on this site. And there’s a lot to tell!

I’ve been hard at work on part five of the Cassan Astor series – the FINAL part, I should mention. It’s called Cassan Astor and the Dragon Storm and it’s LONG. The manuscript is currently 397 pages and 110,148 words, making this partial-manuscript longer than some completed Cassan Astor books, and it’s only about half-way done!

That means, when this book is finished, there is a good chance it will be close to double the length of the rest of the books in the series. I wouldn’t be surprised if it eclipses 700 pages. For context, the longest book I have ever written, Iris, is 650 pages. That would mean, on this present course, Cassan Astor and the Dragon Storm could end up being the longest book I have ever written.

We’ll see.

Because the book is so long, I’m dividing it into three sections, each a few hundred pages long with a time jump in between each section. Cassan Astor and the Dragon Storm: Part One I’m thinking of naming the Jackelope’s Last Prance. I think section two will be called the Sovereign With No Crown and part three could be the Furious Wrath of Brynnereog the White. But all these title names could change and I could make a last-minute switcheroo.

But because I’m dividing this book into thirds, that also helps me section it out as far as workflow is concerned.

I’ve just completed Part One: The Jackelope’s Last Prance and, as I have two more sections to write, I am using this as a time to slow down, review my manuscript, get caught up, and reset. What do I mean by that? Well, right now, I’ve just reread and reedited everything I’ve written as part of the Jackelope’s Last Prance section and now, instead of going full-steam ahead on section two, I want to take a break to reread the entire Cassan Astor series up to now. My thinking is that I want to make double-sure that I am entirely caught up on the story, lore, and characters so that nothing is overlooked or unaddressed as I finish out the series. Once I have reread books 1-4 and then the first part of Dragon Storm again, only then will I proceed with finishing the last two sections of Dragon Storm.

All this points to a likelihood of an early 2025 release.

As this will [likely] be the longest book I’ve ever written, I am debating releasing this in a hardcover format. So far, I’ve only ever released physical books in paperback, but a hardcover could be nice for a book of this size and length. I’ll have to do more research on what that means logistically and as far as artwork though before I pull the trigger on any decision there.

On the note of artwork, I do not yet have any art for this book, but I would like to collaborate with my long-time artist Justin Davis. Justin has done the art for all four books in the series so far and he understands what I want when I ask for his artwork. We work well together. But as of now, nothing formal has been decided. I haven’t reached out to him yet. We’ll see what happens.

As far as the future of my writing beyond Cassan Astor and the Dragon Storm, well…

Look… who knows what’s going to happen in the future after this book? Not me. But I have some ideas.

Just like I couldn’t let the Color of Water and Sky go after finishing what was meant to be the final book in that series, Hive (I went on to release a short story collection of stories set in the same world), I still have ideas for what the future of the Cassan Astor series could look like in a post-Dragon Storm world.

My leading idea right now is to spin-off the series and call it Prince Cassan. If I choose to go this route, the Prince Cassan spin-off would pick up where the Cassan Astor series finishes, but it would have a very different tone to it. It would be much more light-hearted, happy, romantic, and majestic. Think more fairy tale than the dark, somber world of the Cassan Astor series. Additionally, it would be new-reader friendly, so the whole point would be to get people who want to start this series from Prince Cassan and not have to read any of the Cassan Astor books first.

That’s one idea.

Another idea I have, if I want to stay in this world and with these characters, is to do a different kind of spin-off set decades after the Cassan Astor series in a different continent entirely. This content would be more based off of medieval Asian culture rather than medieval European/North African culture. But it would involve an older, aged Cassan (and/or maybe one of his friends) living in this new continent and interacting with this Asian-inspired culture.

Anyway, I’m getting way ahead of myself here. Another likelihood is that I drop the Cassan Astor characters entirely. Who knows? Not me.

All I do know is that right now, work continues on Cassan Astor and the Dragon Storm. I’m going to start rereading all the other Cassan Astor books now. And you can expect Dragon Storm sometime in early 2025.

Thanks for reading!