Sanctifier is HERE
The Shattered City is complete!
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: YES, Sanctifier is here! It’s out now! Go and buy it, tell your friends, read and review, share and make posts, etc., etc!
» Get your copy of Sanctifier now! «
Okay NOW I can get personal.
Sanctifier was, as I keep saying, a labor of love. But I don’t mean the easy kind of love, an adoration that feels natural and comes with deep trust and mutual respect. No, I mean the horrible toxic love you felt with your first boyfriend, the kind of love that kept you hanging around his house late at night hoping he’d give you three minutes of attention while raiding in World of Warcraft. (Yes I am also a recovered WoW addict, no we will not be discussing that piece of Meg Lore right now.)
Listen. This isn’t at all to say that I hate Sanctifier, or that I think you’ll fall into a vaguely toxic one-sided relationship with it (unless…?). This is all to say that I’m a perfectionist to the highest degree. I impose a lot of pressure on myself to get things “right” even when “right” doesn’t exist. Writing a sequel brought all of that out of me in the worst way. It triggered so many of my neuroses. What if I didn’t do Ru justice? What if readers wanted something different than what I wrote, and they hated me for it? What if, what if, what if??
All I wanted to do was tell Ru’s story in the way I’d planned it, but I got hung up on weird non-issues, and ended up writing a whole 70k word draft that was Bad (I mean it sucked ass), and so I rewrote the entire book. With new plot beats, a new setting, and a new vibe. The only thing that didn’t change at all was the climax and final resolution.
(Fun fact: Fen used to live in a floating castle! The entire plot took place there! All the action was in the palace in Mirith, while Ru was stuck in a castle reading books! It made no sense!)
Anyway, once the draft was fixed, I had to edit it. And let me tell you… my poor editor worked her ass off helping me to get it in shape. She should probably invoice me for therapy as well as editing, because there was a lot of talking me down from high ledges throughout the duration of the process. I’ve never had a harder time editing a book.
So if you’re wondering, “Hey Meg, will you ever be writing a series again?” the answer is a resounding and emphatic FUCK NO. Unless I change my mind. :)
If you’ve read this far — I hope you know that I do love Sanctifier. I love it a tremendous amount. Ru and Fen and the whole crew mean the world to me. My love for them is the reason this book was so difficult to write. Because I needed to do them justice, character-wise, while also trying to weave this bizarre story of magic, redemption, literal gods, cults, and birthday parties for flying squirrels (get excited).
The Shattered City Duology is "the story of my heart.” So much of myself went into it. My love of the 18th century, music, the concept of magic as advanced science, fate, faith, alternate timelines (barely explored but it’s there), complex villains, sexy thousand-year-old men falling for women in their 20s… it’s all there. I hope it hits.
Let me end this by saying that I couldn’t have done any of this without your support.
As readers and lovers of Destroyer, you gave me the motivation I needed to finish Sanctifier. I honestly did consider canceling its release more than once. I know! That’s how neurotic and tortured I am! But it all turned out okay. Because you had patience, and gave me grace when I needed it, and stood by these characters and this world that I built for you.
Thank you.
I hope you like Sanctifier.
Meg x