Shadowbook

Well, I finished my novel Shadowbook today! I originally wrote this book when I was twelve, and I've been working on the rewrite for a year. I am very, very pleased with the way it came out.
Shadowbook is a gothic Cinderella story, based on the Jungian Shadow Complex. It is about a foster girl called Nyx. Exploring her own dark side gives her solace from her life, but it does not actually change anything. The tables turn when she meets Astor, a mysterious, handsome, debonair Shadow boy who falls in love with her and promises her a new life. But Shadows feed off people's souls, and Astor has a taste for the souls of young women. Can she trust him?

Writing Shadowbook has been quite an experience. I have explored and integrated with my own dark side (represented by Astor). I've enjoyed learning about psychology and writing a gothic novel. One of the most interesting things about Shadowbook is how it includes both modern concepts and ancient fairy tale concepts. I've analyzed Shadowbook's fairy tale themes, psychological themes, gothic themes,  and also how it relates to other books.

I'm very happy with it :D Now to celebrate by playing dark, gloomy music!

A Shadow Lullaby

(Featured in my novel Shadowbook, which you can read here)

Light has come, but still you keep
The Night in your folds, dark and deep
To protect you as you sleep. 
She holds you tight
Until twilight
When owls rise in silent flight.
Awaiting you is a moonlit field
A starlit grove, secrets concealed
Waiting still to be revealed.
Dream sweetly in Night’s warm embrace
Reposed in a hidden place
Til you see the moon’s shining face.
In the darkness, safe from harm
Night holds you in Her arms,
Night holds you in Her arms.

My Shadow

Sometimes I try to sleep

As the light fades,

Trying to see the shapes in the dark

Not fearing the creature that lurks behind me

I know who he is, I know his name,

That is a rare case.

The world tells me he is ugly. 

So ugly, I should lock him

Behind a door, with all the dark

So that no one could look upon his terrible face

But if I do, then he will be terrible.

Humanity has forever

Tried to conquer his kind,

To control them and get rid of them

But if you lock them up and ignore them, 

They will force their way out and take over you,

And then their terrible faces will show through you and your personality. 

The world thinks that they 

Will do this anyway

If you leave them out to frolick

That they are innately evil

When they really are just angry at being locked up and disrespected. 

We are told that we should fear them.

But I do not fear him. 

I opened the locked door to his lair.

Dared to look upon his face, and shake his hand.

I cannot see him,

Even if it was light,

I could not see him.

I can see him in my mind’s eye, though

And he is beautiful.

Beautiful!

Ethereally, terrifying beautiful, 

I may be told that this is a disguise,

To entice me, to hide his horrible true face

But I know who he is. 

And he is not ugly.

My anger,

My wildness,

Recklessness,

Sensuality,

Arrogance! 

I love him. 

I am not afraid.

And as I sit here

Listening to the night air, trying to hear

A voice, of a being 

That the world fears

More than they should

He wraps his dark wings around me

And genuinely, gratefully, loves me back. 

I sleep.

Jungian Shadow Complex summed up by a poem.