Anatomy Of An Idea: For As Many Dawns

We interrupt your (generally) regularly scheduled blog post to bring up a new publication of mine and talk a little bit about the inspiration.  You can read it here:

For As Many Dawns

(I do recommend you read the story before this post, if you do intend to read both, as here be potential spoilers.)

The kernel of this story comes from an old fairy tale or fable known as "The Buried Moon."  There's a bit of mythological this-is-why-it-is to "The Buried Moon:"  it starts with the conceit that when the sky is dark (new moon), the moon has come down to wander the earth.  In this particular fable, though, her progress through the dark forest is interrupted by all manner of evils, normally driven away by her light ... but when she trips over a tree root, the creatures swarm her and bury her in the swamp.  The fable has a happy ending:  eventually, a local village manages to free her.  You can read a version here.

It was the idea of this anthropomorphized moon, and the power of her light, that carried into "For As Many Dawns."  What happens to the moon's children after she leaves the heavens?  I wanted that feel of old tales, of legends, to seep into the story.  And how could a legendary problem have anything but a legendary solution?