Sunrise's sunset: retrospective on the launch and lifecycle of releasing a novel · 11:32am Oct 9th, 2021
Well. This is about Sunrise, again. Here we are, a couple months post-unveiling of that all-important first chapter and a week-and-change after the epilogue and the status tag changing to "complete."
I mean, behind the scenes it really took like five years, but still, here we are. 
In many ways, there's not actually a lot to say about the process. All my goals were met: the story made it onto Equestria Daily. It hit the new story feature box on launch day. It hit the update feature box on most subsequent chapter posts. And... I don't know. I'm left with this weird feeling about those kinds of metrics, to be honest. Those were satisfying to see, at the times when they happened, but I don't really want to talk too much about them, because they're not what I think about when I think back now on launching Sunrise.
What satisfies me, looking back at it, is knowing that I was writing a story that said something.
It said a lot of things: it said, for one, that the novel I wrote before it wasn't just a lucky one-off, and I can replicate that achievement again.
Also, I'm gonna be straight with you here:
Sunrise is a product of the Trump administration. The things it says are about that.
"Oh no," I sense so many of you lamenting now. "Here we go with the making it political."
I guess I could defend the decision to turn into that direction by citing the rationale that everything is political, but... nah.
That's really not necessary, given what the story is about.
It's about power.
It's about the use and misuse of power.
It's about authoritarianism, and fascism, and the traumas that they leave people individually and collectively scarred with, and how those become self-perpetuating and destructively consuming.
This story is about things that are inherently, inextricably political.
I wrote this story because it seemed critically important to write about such things, at a time when I was watching my country teeter at the edge of inviting them in, blithely unaware of the uncontrollable monster it seemed ready to create. Feeling the importance of this is what made me keep driving onward with the project, even when it was taking so much longer than I'd expected.
Still, to have lasting power and stand the tests of time that decide what's great and what's not, a great story should be something more universal than just an on-the-nose specific allusion to one particular thing. Also, in a way, letting the threat of Trump's shadow consume the story into being about nothing else would have been letting that threat win. To be free of this subservience to the narcissism that is inherent to being a self-important authoritarian, Sunrise needed to be a story that could still be read, still be entertaining, and still hold a significant message had history gone a different direction instead. Greatness in a story is about speaking to aspects of experience both timely and timeless. With that in mind, I knew Sunrise was going to necessarily be political, and that was fine, as long as it could also transcend just being topically political and also become something philosophical and exploratory.
What philosophy it reaches for exploring and expressing, I leave for you to decide, because that's the important part. That's the part where I shouldn't meddle with the whole death-of-the-author thing and try to tell you what it's "really about." So. You know. That's up to you. And that's all I have to say about that.
With all this in mind: looking back at the comments from readers as the story went along, what pleases me most about them is that none of them are about current/very recent US political figure(s). For the most part, they're about more; they're about the bigger ideas, and not about one little person. I'm glad to see that, because it tells me that I succeeded at writing engagingly about the parts that matter and not unduly emphasizing the ones that, in time, won't so much.
Something I don't see a lot of comments on, however, which I was worried I might: loose ends. The story certainly has them. Storm Grey, for example, is one. Addressing this subject is really sort of a transition point where I think it makes sense to move on from talking about the comments to talking about the "what's next?" for the story. As Celestia said, Storm Grey certainly has her own story in her own right, and... well, I don't know. Maybe that could be next? Honestly, though, I'm not leaning that way, because Celestia also said that it might be told someday, but not now. I'm inclined to agree for the time being. It's a sequel (prequel) hook, to be sure, but biting that hook too soon is not the next step I think would be a good fit for me right now.
I'm thinking more along the lines of a printed book. I've never done one before, but this story is just about the right length for a print novel, and the reception's been great in the online format. So, why not? At the very least, it's something I've never done before, so I suppose I'd learn a lot (maybe more than I bargain for, to hear other authors who've printed books tell it) from going through the process. Also, it'd be cool to have something in my own name in print so people can hunt me down and make me autograph them at conventions. I'll do it, too. I'll totally M. A. Larson it up, if there's enough interest to make printing worthwhile. Just let me know. Besides, I've already got the cover art for the story that I think would look pretty bitchin' to see as the cover on an actual book, so there's that.
What else? Not much, really. I think the note I want to end on here is to try to express how important this story was to me. Celestia is an extremely important character to me, in a bunch of different ways. For many people, succeeding in writing and finishing an entire novel and seeing it published (in any format) would be a dream, and it's been a great pleasure and a great thrill to be able to have this chance to actually live this dream. I'm not going to say it was easy, but I AM going to say that it was emphatically worth it - five years and all.
It's been one hell of a ride.
Thanks for going on it with me.
Looking forward to the next one. Until then. 
☀
FWIW, I'm very happy and relieved to see a story that took a considerable amount of thought and labor receive an almost universally positive response. I'd say that the political content was focused on the concept of the perennial tendency to overreach, rather than any instance in particular. This is the correct approach if one wants to avoid one's story becoming dated at some point.
The characterization was excellent. C&L made mistakes, exhibited self-doubt, and experienced the temptation to become what they were fighting. The OCs had equally believable traits, and everypony was dynamic.
I'll add that given what was at stake and the tone, the story is on the verge of being grimdark in the original sense (the same sense in which the 2017 movie was grimdark). Imminent war, constant struggle to defeat a threat, breaking from what is familiar and comfortable, assuming grave responsibility: all of these themes lend a heaviness to the emotional content, very much in line with the concept that political conflict is inevitable.
If printing it would give you satisfaction, I say go for it.
Sometimes an entrenched power structure becomes so concentrated on maintaining its power that it becomes self-destructive in a way that it has a good chance of destroying the people it claims to protect. World War II (and to a lesser extent the Great War) showed that with the Axis powers. Pol Pot in a more modern sense provides another example, and North Korea... Well, you can't describe that kind of mess in a few sentences. You did a good job on showing the Unicorn Kingdom's descent into power for power's sake, and the necessity of breaking that government power structure in order to save the governed.
I've purposely ignored this story since I made a promise to myself to do the following:
A. Only publish new works when I am finished with them.
B. Only read new works when they're finished, too.
I'll get to this eventually, but I am very glad that you met your goals and are proud of your tale. Also, your blog here was quite inspiring to read.
I'll be honest with you, I went groan mode the moment I read the word "Trump", so you were pretty much on the point with that one. Regardless, yeah, luckily I didn't feel your story was too much >current year, the underlying themes are expressed tastefully, and make sense within the context of the story.
Also, when I read the synopsis and then the first chapter, I mislead myself a bit, because I thought this story will be more adventure and "Sisters Origins" in the fantasy sense, and less political drama, but it's really my fault jumping to assumptions based on my own desires. With that said, I carried on with the story, because what I read was compelling anyway, even if not entirely what I expected. I liked your Celestia and Luna characterization, and I'd gladly read more about them in the future, if you decided to use them again in a fic of yours. You could guess by now I like these two as well, especially Celestia. I'm aiming to write about them too, although that's irrelevant now.
Oh and carry on this work ethic, it's really satisfying to see more completed stories on the site.
Cheers, mate.
I'm glad you're so satisfied with it; congratulations (again, I think) on finishing, and thank you for writing (story and blog post both). :)
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Removing this comment because it's the kind of political fight-picking I specifically didn't want here and I'm not going to have the comment section taken over by inevitable arguing and acrimony about it.
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That is acceptable, I get like this when I hear the words, "I wrote this because of Trump", or some derivative like this as it relates to modern politics.