Love of a Samurai began with a simple question: What happens when two people from completely different worlds discover that love can cross every boundary placed between them?

I wanted to write a story that felt like stepping through a doorway into another time. Edo-period Japan gave me the perfect world to explore honor, loyalty, duty, sacrifice, and the quiet strength of a love that refuses to be defined by circumstance.

Helena and Ujio’s story is about more than romance. It is about two people learning to see beyond what they were taught to expect from one another, and discovering that sometimes the greatest courage isn't found on a battlefield. Sometimes it is found in allowing yourself to love, to trust, and to be changed by another person.

At its heart, Love of a Samurai is a story about finding home in the person you never expected to become your home.

And perhaps that is why stories matter. We enter them looking for an escape, and sometimes we leave carrying a little piece of them with us.