Kana Cold: Case of the Shinigami: A Paranormal Thriller Short Story

A young girl is haunted by a Death God. Her only hope is a rum-drinking, bar-fighting paranormal investigator with a bad attitude...

After dropping out of Harvard, Kana Cold started a business as a paranormal investigator. Most of her cases were hoaxes, much to Kana’s disappointment, until one case involving a little girl and her powerful demon - a Death God - opened the door to the real Paranormal Underground...changing Kana’s life forever.

Kana Cold: Case of the Shinigami is the prequel novella to the urban fantasy series about an Asian heroine who uncovers ancient mysteries, deals with personal and professional drama, and struggles to find her place in a world that fights against her every step of the way.

A word from the author.

Q: What makes the Kana Cold series so special?

A: I love weird stories, it's why I have a Facebook group called The Wonderfully Weird. Urban fantasy is full of so many great stories and characters, but I wanted to write something that went beyond wizards, zombies, and vampires or Greek and Roman mythology. There are thousands of strange myths, old and new, that haven't been explored that can be made into great stories. The Reaping of the Black Grimoires is based on the very real grimoires written by former Popes and are rumored to be locked away in the Vatican Archives. There are African and Scandinavian mythologies I want to dig into as well. And of course, since Kana is of Japanese heritage, the treasure trove of Japanese legends and Eastern philosophy will be explored in a narrative form.

Kana's heritage is also important. We've heard so much about how underrepresented Asians are in Western pop culture, even when the stories are based on popular Asian properties (Death Note, Ghost in the Shell to name a few). I decided to flip it: Kana's in a world where her contemporaries look and act like the typical heroes of the stories - buxom blondes and suave, muscular leading men - and she struggles with measuring herself against these people despite how good she is. That's a theme throughout the series.

Q: What are the main influences for this series?

A: There are quite a few:

• The Dresden Files is certainly an influence
• The globe-trotting and treasure hunting of Indiana Jones
• The attitude and spunk of Jessica Jones
• Clive Barker's scary-yet-beautiful way of creating worlds and monsters
• Creepypastas and lesser-known urban legends that are beyond bizarre
• Shayne Silvers and his Nate Temple Series