From Fear of Shadows to The Shadow Watcher

So here's my first published work: The Shadow Watcher. It's based on my love of Japan, a country I've always wanted to visit. I still haven't made it there yet, but I hope to one day. I'm really interested in Japanese history, particularly the Edo period and earlier eras that now feel so distant from our modern world. I wanted to explore that ancient time, and that's where The Shadow Watcher came to be.

To explain the story briefly, without spoilers, because who actually likes spoilers? The Shadow Watcher is set in Kuroyama, a remote mountain village in Japan. A seventeen-year-old girl named Yuki is the last of her line, the final Shadow Watcher, and the last keeper of a covenant seven generations old. For centuries, her family has stood as a barrier between humanity and the shadows.

The shadows came from a very personal place: my own fear of darkness. I'm really scared of the dark, and as a child, I'd see things, a coat on a chair that looked like a figure standing there. Maybe you've never had that experience, but that's where my inspiration came from: the fear of what lurks in shadow.

In the story, these shadows exist as entities separate from our realm. Remember, this is set in a period when belief systems centered around religion and shamanism from the ancient practices. Maybe "shamanism" isn't quite the right word, but these old traditions are central to the world. Our protagonist, Yuki, is trying to uphold these ancient duties.

That's where I'll stop. If you have questions before diving into the book, I'm happy to answer them.

This book is quite short, I hesitate to even call it a novella. The ebook is approximately 78 pages, while the paperback runs around 125 pages. It's more of a novelette than a short story (short stories are usually 50 pages max). Think of it as an introduction to the larger story.

And that's The Shadow Watcher.

The Shadow Watcher