Gallery: The Shadow Groom

RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2026

click all images for a closer look

This book was hella fun to write, and one of the reasons why was that it's a retelling of a really weird fairy tale that doesn't have a resolution. Usually, with traditional fairy tales, there's a proper end to the hero's journey, whether or not it's self-discovery or the triumph over something and then the reward immediately following. But no -- not in this case.

One of the things I love about "The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was" (jeebus, that's a doozy of a title) is the fact that the main character -- I won't even call him a hero -- is as dumb as a brick. He sees the world on a more literal / superficial level and can't grasp either nuance or any deeper significance of an event. 

Victorian ghost photo (how very domestic!)

On the one hand, it makes him stupidly reckless and lands him in really funny situations that he STILL doesn't understand. In almost all cases, he doesn't understand why he ends up pissing other people off. On the other hand, it makes him stupidly reckless and survives every trial through sheer cluelessness.

Yes, he triumphs in the end, but he STILL never achieves his goal of learning what fear is. What his wife does to him at the conclusion of the story doesn't even help him because it's the WRONG definition of shudder he finally understands. I mean, you can't make this shit up.

One might argue that he's just impossibly innocent of the world (we never really know how old he is, but I'm guessing he's at least eighteen). But the further into the story you go, the more you see how much of a stretch that can be. For me, I think he's just impossibly stupid.

my inspiration for Cragspire (image from Pinterest)

In re-imagining the fairy tale, I recycled just a few elements used in the original, which includes an old castle, a test, and ghosts. But for Errol and Edvin, those are all meant to scare them into opting out of marriage at such a young age. In order for me to make full use of the whole stupid-boy-does-stupid-things deal the original story gleefully doles out, I made the two young enough to be both understandably naive about the world and also doing stupid things because of their naivete. Unlike the hero of the fairy tale, Errol and Edvin are more nuanced.

There are no demons or hidden treasures in the gatehouse, but there are ghosts, most of which are merely echoes. Only one of them is an intelligent haunting and actually looks after the boys and becomes a stand-in for a parental figure. 

The gatehouse is inspired completely by the Castle Monzie gatehouse (image is at the lower left of the moodboard). There are, obviously, tweaks to the structure's design and the land surrounding it, but that gatehouse is my primary visual guide. 

the idealism of young love (art by Ales at Pinterest)

This book also features my first lesbian couple as mothers, and the ladies (who're both bluestockings) hail from Spain and Russia but have moved to England with their children, all of whom are adopted. Their tendency to have their accents gradually come out as they get angry is a nudge-wink at myself. I was born and raised in Asia, and while I've long absorbed American English having lived in California for well over thirty years, my accent comes out when I get angry. It especially gets crazy when I'm so furious that I yammer on and on, and I barely recognize my voice. 

For both Susana and Lara, their children drive them crazy enough that they end up speaking in their native tongues, and everyone gets grounded (regardless of age, by the way). 

And picking up the theme of wacky family dynamics I first explored in The Twilight Lover, both of Errol and Edvin's families are bizarre and funny in their own ways. The Bricksworth family is affluent and have too much money to know what to do with it, and so they all pursue hobbies and work others would consider frivolous or whimsical. The Loyola-Norikova family is middle-class but successful in their own right -- largely because their mothers are strict disciplinarians but who're very generous in their encouragement and, in Edvin's case, coddling. 

bluestocking (art from Pinterest)

This book does have a resolution compared to the fairy tale it was inspired by. It's also a pretty quiet one that will leave readers wondering about a variety of "what if" scenarios, so in that sense, the slight open-endedness of the boys' happy-ever-after is still a hat tip to the fairy tale's lack of a satisfying ending. The open-endedness is equal parts realistic and fanciful, which encapsulates our two young lovers pretty well.

And speaking of perfect encapsulation, this song is, I think, best conveys the soaring heights of young love.

The Shadow Groom is available in e-book format for $2.99 and in print for $9.00 USD. You can also get it from my Payhip site at a 60% discount as my thanks for your support (the book page will be posted on July 1).