SUNS WILL RISE, the third in the System Divine Triology by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell

I’ve always been delighted to feature Jessica Brody, whether it’s her fiction, or her nonfiction. The third book in her System Divine trilogy (co-written with Joanne Rendell), SUNS WILL RISE, just debuted on August 3, 2021:

AN HEIR. A RENEGADE
A CONVICT. A CYBORG
A DÉFECTEUR

FIVE REBELS. ONE REVOLUTION.

It’s been three months since the Patriarche was beheaded, leaving behind no heir. From the outside, Laterre seems to be flourishing. General Bonnefaçon has cleaned up the streets, fed the hungry, and restored peace while the next leader is decided upon. But dangerous rifts threaten to shatter the planet from within.

The Red Scar is killing anyone with a legitimate claim to the Regime, while the Vangarde and their freed leader are preparing to overthrow it.

Then, it’s revealed that the Patriarche had a child in secret. A missing heir…

Alouette is the general’s prisoner, interrogated on the whereabouts of his renegade grandson. Marcellus is desperately searching for her, knowing she’s the key to the Vangarde’s plan, but unaware that he’s being hunted by a determined new cyborg. Meanwhile Chatine grows restless, living with a rebel group she doesn’t fit into. Until an old friend solicits her help to save his Défecteur community from a mysterious, new threat. A threat that will tie them all together.

When the general makes an explosive play for power, allegiances will shift, rebels will become leaders, barricades will rise, and the tinderbox of Laterre will finally ignite, launching a revolution five hundred years in the making.

In our last interview, you said that one of the biggest challenges you face in your creative process is “letting go of what I envisioned the story to be and letting the story be what it needs to be.” In which of your books has it been most difficult for you to do this?

I definitely experience this with every book but some are harder than others. Some books are just more stubborn, I suppose! Between Burning Worlds, the second in the System Divine trilogy, was definitely one of those books. We rewrote the story so many times, particularly the first half, until we discovered what it was “supposed” to be. The book is 669 pages long but I think if you added up all of the false starts and “wrong” ways, the page-count would be well over 1000!

Wow! In SUNS WILL RISE, the follow-up to Between Burning Worlds, the stakes are even higher. In writing a series, how can you make sure that everything culminates in a believable way, and/or doesn’t ignite prematurely?

With series, I think it’s all about expanding the world and going deeper into each character. In System Divine, with each book we went wider into our world, exploring new towns, new factions of society, new backstories for existing characters (or new characters.) So it’s more about deepening the work you set up in Book 1 than anything else. And I think that automatically leads to higher stakes and more intrigue, especially if those deeper explorations can tie back or affect or conflict with your existing storylines and characters in interesting ways!

Wonderful–and it makes me even more excited about SUNS WILL RISE. You also offer online writing courses. What has been the most rewarding part of giving back to the writing community in this way?

Oh gosh, I can’t even begin to describe how rewarding this has been! When I hear a fellow writer say they came up with an exciting new idea from my brainstorming course, or busted through a challenge from my writer’s block course or finished a first draft of a novel in 6 weeks (when it normally takes them a whole year!) from my Fast Drafting course, it’s the most amazing feeling in the world. You can learn more about my courses at: www.writingmastery.com