Melle and the quest for justice

I got caught up in travels and family stuff, so this is nearly a month late--but that's not too late to check the story out!

So, while I was traveling to Michigan, the fifth and final novella of the Moth Plateau series came out!

This is the story of Melle, who played a small role in novella 2 as a guide for the two bounty hunters tracking down Rahel. She's a very talkative and precocious guide in that novella, so it was fun to realize I could revisit her and make her the central character of this last story, set a couple years later. As soon as I'd settled on that, I started referring to this story as "True Grit but make it weird."

Melle is not Mattie from that novel (and I am not Portis, though I find him very entertaining), but she is meant as an homage, in some ways, to young Mattie. Melle has a powerful sense of right and wrong and no patience with the Shorpin Corporation that forced her family from their home.

She narrates her own story and refuses to let go of the narrative. Which I was happy to allow, because her voice is so fun. I hope you'll check it out!

Melle wants justice for her family, and she will not stop until someone in the Shorpin Corporation meets her demands.

The Moth Plateau is beginning to heal from the collapse of the swarms, and some of the people are allowed to return. But fifteen-year-old Melle finds her family home destroyed and the beetles that had been their dream of fortune stolen. Accompanied by the former cattle agent Druskan, in his over-the-top cowboy gear and with three moth hawks to clear a path, she heads for the Upper Plateau.

She finds bike-riding messengers and a priestess, soldiers and miners and beetles, but answers? Answers are broken, just like everything else on the Moth Plateau.

She fears it will break her long before she gets the recompense she demands.

Could you start the series here, read it on its own? Yes, I think you could. This one actually ended up with the most beta readers, most of whom hadn't read any of the earlier novellas, and they enjoyed it and followed the story just fine. There will be nuances and easter eggs that fans of the full series will catch, but you would still be able to jump in here (and then probably want to go back and see what led to this point!).

But I would suggest reading the whole series through (of course I would...).

Get the novella from Amazon or any of these other stores.