Well, this is it, you guys.

Stars Above: A Lunar Chronicles Collection comes out today, and while it’s still not 100% the end of the story (see last week’s announcement re: Iko-based graphic novels, coming soon!), I’m still feeling a little sentimental over the release of this collection. Because while the graphic novels continue some threads of the story set up in the books, this collection, with its wedding epilogue and happily ever afters, does feel like The End of the story that first started in a New Beijing marketplace with a mechanic, a prince, and a broken android.

So I just wanted to take a minute today to say Thank You.

You guys – you readers and Lunartics, fans and booksellers, librarians, artists and friends – have made the last five years of my life so unspeakably incredible. Though I think every writer dreams of things like bestseller lists and movie adaptations, I never in a million years could have imagined what it would be like to have a community of readers come together around my story, my characters, my world, and embrace it as fully as you guys have. Your costumes have made me smile. Your fanart has made me giddy. You have told me your personal stories of being strengthened and empowered by these characters and at times you have brought me to actual tears.

I spent my whole life wanting to be published, to see my name on the cover of a book and know that I had created that. But when you’re still learning the craft of writing and chipping away at your first (or second or third or fiftieth) manuscript, it’s impossible to imagine how this story you’re creating might one day go out into the world and take on a life of its own. How it can impact the lives of others. How it can bring people together. How it can spark feelings of joy or confidence or even a desire to change the world around us.

I didn’t expect that when I started writing these books, and it still blows my mind to see what the story has grown into. It’s grown so far beyond my own imagination – and that’s because of you. Because you guys embraced it and shared it and turned it into something that is so much bigger and more epic than a manuscript on my laptop, or a book held in your hand. You guys brought the story to life in a way I couldn’t have done on my own, and that means the absolute world to me.

I hope with all my heart that these books are merely the start of a very long writing career. This is all I want to do for the rest of my life and I hope to never lose that drive and passion for telling stories. But I also know that, whatever happens in the future, nothing will ever compare to my first published series and this amazing experience I’ve had with The Lunar Chronicles and my Lunartics.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy the finale.

With all my love,

Marissa