Guest post written by Cassandra Hamm in honour of Lani Forbes
“Never give up.” So was Lani Forbes’ mantra until the day she lost her battle with stage IV cancer.
Award-winning author Lani Forbes had just given birth to her third child when she received her diagnosis: a rare, aggressive neuroendocrine cancer that could be delayed but not cured.
Yet, as Lani often said, she was aggressive too. She embraced the zebra-striped symbol of her disease and tried every treatment she could. Despite her exhaustion, she still found the energy to pour into her husband, her three children, and the rest of her community.
I was a part of that community.
Lani and I first became friends in 2020 through Instagram. I initially contacted her with excited ravings about her debut novel The Seventh Sun, but I stayed for the person behind the screen. Kind, passionate, and as vibrant as her stories, Lani possessed the rare ability to make people feel seen and loved.
Seven months before her death, Lani traveled to the Realm Makers Conference where I was finally able to hug her. Our brief time together brimmed with laughter. I remember the resounding cheers filling the banquet hall when The Seventh Sun won three Realm Awards. Incomprehensible joy shone from her tear-stained face as she thanked God for all his blessings. Her pain never destroyed her faith. Light exuded from her and filled the spaces she inhabited.
In January 2022, Lani announced that the cancer had gone to her brain, and on February 3rd, 2022, only eight months after her diagnosis, she breathed her last.
Her loss shook the author community and shifted my world. Though most of us hadn’t spent much time with her in person, she left a hole in our souls. She was a spark, giving hope to all around her, burning bright unto the very end.
A Legacy of Words
Lani may have only been thirty-four when she passed, but she was a prolific writer. The Age of the Seventh Sun trilogy is full of blood magic, swoony romance, and epic stakes. Her gritty fantasy western Face the Night, written during chemotherapy, just released on August 15th, 2023. On a related note, after her passing, her community came together to create a charity anthology called The Sun Still Rises to honor her.
Here’s more about each book. Beware—there are spoilers ahead for The Jade Bones and The Obsidian Butterfly!
There’s only one way to break through to sunrise—by turning to face the night.
Catriona Macgregor hasn’t stopped running since the night her parents died. Her divine gift that allows her to see immediate glimpses of the future has kept her alive, but now her past is catching up to her. If she doesn’t stand up to Baron Caldwell, the man who ordered her parents’ deaths, all her sacrifices will be in vain.
Lani too experienced a glimpse of the future in her cancer diagnosis. Her heart bleeds on the page in this action-packed, emotional read.
Mesoamerican mythology meets The Bachelor in this tale of a brave young woman who must defy tradition to follow her convictions.
The sun is dying, and the next apocalypse is near.
Thrust into the position of emperor, Ahkin struggles to keep the sun rising and setting each day with his failing blood magic. But before he can ascend the throne, he must marry. Water manipulator Mayana has never been able to perform the important religious custom of animal sacrifice. When she is chosen as one of six possible brides, she must hide her heretical beliefs in order to win Ahkin’s heart—because the girls who aren’t chosen will become human sacrifices.
Mayana and Ahkin survived their fall into the underworld. Now they must escape Xibalba before the end of the calendar year to prevent the oncoming apocalypse.
Betrayed and confused, Mayana and Ahkin travel through the layers of the underworld, facing both physical and mental dangers that test their fragile love. In the world above, Mayana’s friend Yemania falls for an enemy of the empire she has sworn to serve. But the empress made a dangerous alliance that might bring her people to ruin.
Mayana and Ahkin survived their fall into the underworld. Now they must escape Xibalba before the end of the calendar year to prevent the oncoming apocalypse.
Betrayed and confused, Mayana and Ahkin travel through the layers of the underworld, facing both physical and mental dangers that test their fragile love. In the world above, Mayana’s friend Yemania falls for an enemy of the empire she has sworn to serve. But the empress made a dangerous alliance that might bring her people to ruin.
Lani’s spirit shines on in The Sun Still Rises, a young adult fantasy anthology that celebrates the light found in dark places. All profits from the anthology go to her family. As editor-in-chief, I witnessed the outpouring of love as people offered their services and donated their time to remember her legacy. Even after her death, Lani brought people together, particularly in the relationships formed between the anthology authors.
Lani Forbes was a truly remarkable woman whose faith and fire inspired everyone she came into contact with, particularly those of us who had the privilege of calling her “friend.” She blazed brightly in the darkest of circumstances and never gave up hope, even when all seemed lost. Although her story has ended, her legacy will continue on in her books, her children, and the many lives she impacted.
