Other editions of book Samurai Shadow Princess

An action packed tale set in old Japan. Ari, the kitchen girl, is sent on a secret mission with a princess and a grumpy old martial arts master. But what is the secret behind the princess’s identity, andwhat is the secret of Ari’s own background? And what is it that lurks in the trees on Mt. Kurama?A word form the Author:Partly this book was written because of the lack of exciting fiction for children that features strong female characters. Usually the girls in stories are secondary characters who don’t do the exciting stuff, and are more passive than the boys.I have two daughters, so this book was intended to address that. I wanted to write a tale that had girls who took an active role in solving the conflict, girls that would not take ‘no’ for an answer. I wanted a female hero who was not bookish, not dependant on boys, and most definitely a person who takes an active role in controlling her own destiny. In the book, Ari is a girl who is outspoken, courageous, and works hard to gain skills to improve her lot and overcome the many obstacles in her path.It was the Christmas holidays, and we were on holiday with the extended family. Now, one thing about my extended family is that they tend to go to bed early, and I’m a night owl. So I was sitting up at night, and thinking about how a story would fit together, and I started writing. By the time Christmas morning came around I had a printout of the first chapter wrapped up under the tree, with my daughters' names on it.My main background as a writer is as a screenwriter, and a teacher of screenwriting, so it was a fantastic experience to be able to write what characters were thinking. Also it was great that once I had written a scene - that was it! I didn’t need to even think about finding actors, locations, and money to shoot it.One consequence of my screenwriting background though is that the story has come out as very action packed. The goal of screenwriting is to invent situations where the action tells the story, since you can’t include people’s internal monologues. All in all I don’t think this is a bad thing - I like a tale that moves along quickly.