Behind the Shadows

Every story has another story hiding behind it.

The Beginning… Four Days and a Snowstorm

Before there was a Shadows Universe, there was a snowstorm, a laptop, and an idea that apparently refused to wait.

The first draft of Reflections About Love was written in only four days while I was stuck inside during a snowstorm. The original draft was approximately 25,000 words. I spent the months that followed expanding it, developing the stories, and turning those four frantic days of writing and shoveling into my first published book!

At the time, I had no idea I was beginning something much bigger.

From Behind the Camera to the Cover

The original covers of my first three books were truly a family production. My daughter took the photographs used to create those covers and the female model appearing on them? That was me!

There was no professional cover shoot, publishing team, or carefully developed author brand. We were simply figuring it out as we went- one photograph, on book, and one slightly questionable idea at a time. Those covers have since been redesigned, but the originals will always represent where Serenity Lewis began.

Rare Shadows

Some books become rare intentionally. Mine did it by accident.

Only a handful of physical copies featuring my original cover designs exist. They belong primarily to me, my daughters, and a few friends who were there during the earliest years of my writing.

As my books received their redesigned covers, those first copies have become unexpected little artifacts from the beginning of Serenity Lewis- before there was a unified brand, before there was a Shadows Universe, and long before I knew where any of this was going.

The Accidental Universe

The Girl in the Shadows was never supposed to begin a series.

There was no elaborate master plan connecting books, characters, themes, and future stories. I wrote one story. Then another shadow appeared. And another.

Eventually, I realized these books weren’t simply sharing a word in their titles. They were exploring many of the same things- relationships people hide, identities people judge, love that doesn’t always follow society’s rules, trauma, sexuality, autonomy, and the complicated parts of ourselves we don’t always show the world.

Somewhere along the way, separate stories became something larger.

The Shadows Universe itself was hiding in the shadows before I knew it existed.

An Unlikely Author

There’s another strange detail behind my books:

I have dysgraphia.

I also struggle with reading comprehension, which means I’m not someone who spends every free moment curled up with a novel. Most of my reading happens because I need to read something rather than because reading is naturally easy for me.

And somehow, I became an author.

The Book that Disappeared into the Shadows

In 2026, The Girl in the Shadows temporarily disappeared from Kindle after being suppressed during an Amazon content review.

Considering that I write about controversial subjects, complicated relationships, sexuality, trauma, and the parts of human behavior people don’t always like discussing, it certainly made for an interesting moment in my publishing history.

I challenged the decision and asked Amazon to reconsider since the book had already been published for three years and it sold more copies than any of my other titles.

After further review, Amazon reinstated the book and apologized for the inconvenience caused by what they described as a temporary suppression.

The experience also gave me a reason to return to the book that was originally published in 2023 and look through the eyes of the writer I have become several years later. That ultimately led to another decision. The Girl in the Shadows deserved a revised paperback edition.

Sometimes disappearing into the shadows gives you an opportunity to come back stronger.