The manuscript for Lord Sunday, the final book in the seven-part The Keys to the Kingdom series, by Garth Nix, has been delivered to the publisher (Scholastic Press). Nix recently updated his website to reflect this.

There is no final publication date as of yet, though it “right now looks likely to be early-ish in 2010.” The editing process is just beginning, and will likely take some time, and after which there will of course be other things to be done before the book goes to print.

Nix says that he hopes “that the first two chapters or so will be put up online in the next few months, to ease a little of the pain of the cliffhanger at the end of SUPERIOR SATURDAY.”

Hopefully the author will be able to start work on his next book in the Sabriel series in the near future, now that The Keys to the Kingdom is almost out of the way.

Update: The release date has been announced. It’s March 4th, 2010 for the U.S., but the Australians should already have it, as their date is listed as February.