When people ask me where this story began, I wish I could give them a clean, polished origin. A date. A lightning bolt. A moment of clarity.

But the truth is… Moons and Shadows came together the way tides shape the shore: in pieces, in layers, in movement that’s hard to track until you finally step back and realize—

You built something.

And it’s real.

Some stories arrive gently.

This one hit me like a brick wall. In the throat. Off the side of a cliff.

There are characters you write. And then there are characters who rewrite you. When I first set out on this journey, I expected Moons and Shadows to change me—just maybe not in the ways it did.