Preface

One of the questions I’m often asked about this series is, What’s real, and what isn’t?

The answer is: a little of both.

Chosen Bride is a work of fantasy, but the culture at its heart is very real.

I grew up hearing stories about spirits, soul-calling ceremonies, shamans who journey between worlds, protection bracelets tied around wrists, and souls that could become frightened or lost. These beliefs are part of a living Hmong spiritual tradition that has been carried across generations and continents.

Hmong shamanism is not fantasy.

The story you are about to read, however, is.

Throughout this novel, I have drawn inspiration from Hmong beliefs, oral traditions, ceremonies, and spiritual practices while creating my own mythology around them. Some elements will be familiar to Hmong readers. Others—particularly the characters, supernatural conflicts, prophecies, curses, and interpretations of historical or spiritual figures—have been imagined entirely for this series.

Shamanic traditions also vary between families and lineages. There is no single experience that represents every Hmong shaman or household, and the practices depicted in this novel should not be understood as a guide to Hmong spirituality.

For readers encountering Hmong culture for the first time, you do not need to understand everything before beginning.

Mossy doesn’t either.

You will learn alongside her.

At its heart, Chosen Bride begins with an eighteen-year-old girl who believes she already knows what she wants from life. College. Independence. A future of her own choosing.

Then a young shaman walks into her home and tells her that fate has chosen something else.

What follows belongs to the world of fiction.

But the questions Mossy faces—how much we owe our families, how tradition shapes us, whether destiny can coexist with choice, and what it means to claim an identity we once resisted—are very real.

For generations, Hmong stories have lived through the voices of our elders and the memories of our families. This is simply one more story, told in a different way.

Thank you for entering this world with me.